Forgotten stories of Indian soldiers during World War I

July 9, 2014

World War I
New Delhi, Jul 9: Heartwarming stories, including romantic ones, about Indian soldiers who fought in the First World War as part of the British Army, culled from archives and personal testimonies, feature in a new documentary.

The upcoming feature-length film Mademoiselle France Pleure (Miss France is in Tears) attempts to piece together the lesser known fact about the 1.4 million Indian soldiers and civilian workers who came to France and Belgium to defend France’s freedom against invasion.

“The soldiers faced various hardships, casualties and diseases in the war. The feature-length documentary attempts to show their specific situations within the British Army and hospitals,” says Vijay Singh, an Indian filmmaker and novelist based in Paris.

Mr. Singh, who has shot critically acclaimed feature films such as Jaya Ganga and One Dollar Curry in the past was in New Delhi recently to announce the project and firm up plans to shoot in countries including India, France, Austria and Belgium.

“Everybody remembers India’s freedom struggle, but very few or in fact nobody would remember the contribution made by Indian soldiers during the World War I about the role played by Indian soldiers during the World War I,” says Mr. Singh.

The filmmaker attempts to show various tragicomic situations faced by the French and the British while feeding Indian soldiers according to their strict religious beliefs and the hospitality of French hostesses, which won the hearts of Indian soldiers during their convalescence in French barns.

With the initiative of the French government and embassy, Mr. Singh, says he has been successful in gathering testimonies from the archives and descendents, in France, India, Belgium and the UK of the brave soldiers out of which 10,000 did not even return home.

There are accounts of the soldiers who fell in love with French women during their stay in France and had children with them.

“In one such camp when the Indian soldiers were going to the battlefield, the French women carried placards which read — “Miss France in Tears”, says Mr. Singh explaining the title of his documentary.

Mr. Singh’s film also features a 71-year-old woman whose grandfather was an Indian. The woman’s narrative is among the numerous interviews, which make up the documentary.

A part of the feature film was shot in Chamba, Uttarakhand where the Gabbar Singh Negi Mela is still held every year on April 21 for the past 94 years with assistance from the Chatwal Regiment of the Indian Army.

The filmmaker has interviewed people who recount that the French were spellbound when they saw the Sikh soldiers combing their hair or tying their turbans and the spectacle of Indian soldiers having a bath in between two trains or even the khaki shorts they donned.

“What astonished the French was the huge cavalry and cattle that the Indian regiment had arrived with. Special costumes that were nothing but long leggings arranged for the Gorkhas made them look like minions,” Mr. Singh says.

The upcoming documentary is set to include a high profile ceremony of the Neuve Chapelle Battle Memorial (a memorial which has been set up to pay tribute to the Indian soldiers in France) in 2015.

“It would be a ceremony to commemorate 100 years of the World War I. The event would be marked by a parade and different events to commemorate the historic day (July 14) when World War 1 began” Singh says.

The soldiers wrote about their experiences in around 600 letters when they were in hospitals, records of which are maintained in the Haryana Academy of Art and Culture.

“Soldiers used to send one rupee from their monthly salary to the academy, which went towards education of students,” says the filmmaker.

Mr. Singh says he researched for the past three years for the film, which is set to be made in various languages and would be produced by France Television.

The glimpses of the footage which the director showed in the programme were a product of a three-year-long research.

The footage have been obtained from the French Production House, the British Production House, the Imperial War Museum and the British Library.

“Not many pictures have been available of the Indian soldiers except the ones from the hospitals where King George V had gone to visit them,” Mr. Singh says.

Mr. Singh has used rare film footage, photographs, portraits, Indian war songs, sound recordings, interviews with the descendants of the soldiers.

“This is a remarkable example of what India and France can do together. The history of both the countries is not known in detail and this documentary will promote the relationship between both the countries,” says an official from the French Embassy, where Singh showed some photographs from his upcoming film at an event recently.

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News Network
March 17,2024

bonds.jpg

New Delhi: The Election Commission on Sunday made public fresh data on electoral bonds, which it had submitted in sealed covers to the Supreme Court and was later asked to put it in public domain.

These details are believed to be pertaining to the period before April 12, 2019. Electoral bond details after this date was made public by the poll panel last week.

The BJP encashed electoral bonds totalling Rs 6,986.5 crore; maximum Rs 2,555 crore received in 2019-20, as per the EC data.

The Trinamool Congress received Rs 1,397 crore through electoral bonds, second largest recipient after BJP, as per the EC data.

On the other hand, the Congress redeemed a total of Rs 1,334.35 crore through electoral bonds.

DMK received Rs 656.5 crore through electoral bonds, including Rs 509 crore from lottery king Santiago Martin's Future Gaming.

BJD encashed electoral bonds worth Rs 944.5 crore, YSR Congress Rs 442.8 crore, TDP Rs 181.35 crore.

Political parties had filed data on electoral bonds in sealed cover as directed by the Supreme Court's interim order dated April 12, 2019, the poll panel said in a statement.

"Data so received from political parties was deposited in the Supreme Court without opening sealed covers. In pursuance of the Supreme Court's order dated March 15, 2024, the Registry of the Supreme Court has returned physical copies along with a digitized record of the same in a pen drive in sealed cover. The Election Commission of India has today uploaded the data received in the digitized form from the registry of the Supreme Court on electoral bonds on its website," EC said.

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News Network
March 22,2024

The Enforcement Directorate on Friday produced Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal before the Rouse Avenue court and sought a 10-day custody in the excise policy-linked money laundering case. "Kejriwal was the kingpin of the scam," the ED reportedly told the court after the AAP chief was produced before Special Judge Kaveri Baweja around 2 pm amid tight security. 

ASG S V Raju was appearing for the agency, while Senior Advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi is representing Kejriwal. 

Raju in his argument said Kejriwal was "directly involved in formulation of the (liquor) policy... he was involved in handling of proceeds of crime as well in the Goa election campaign."

"The expert committee was constituted but it was a sham committee. The policy was made in such a manner that it would enable the taking of bribes and recoupment of people who gave the bribes," the ED counsel said. 

Kejriwal was produced in the trial court shortly after he withdrew from the Supreme Court his plea against arrest by the Enforcement Directorate in the excise policy-linked money laundering case. Kejriwal's counsel said he would contest the remand proceedings before the trial court and then come back to the apex court with another petition.

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News Network
March 15,2024

SCSBI.jpg

New Delhi, Mar 13: The Supreme Court on Friday took exception to the State Bank of India (SBI) for not disclosing complete details of Electoral Bonds, including unique alfa numeric numbers, furnished to the Election Commission for uploading on the website.

A five-judge Constitution bench led by Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud issued notice to the SBI seeking its response on Monday after the court was informed that the issuing bank for the Electoral Bonds has not disclosed unique alfa numeric number of each bond.

"They have not disclosed the bond numbers. It has to be disclosed by the State Bank of India. All details have to be provided by the SBI," the bench, also comprising Justices Sanjiv Khanna, B R Gavai, J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra, noted.

Senior advocate Kapil Sibal said as per the Constitution bench judgment of February 15, 2024, all details were to be disclosed.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta submitted since the SBI was a party to the judgment, notice may be issued to it.

The court said the counsel for SBI should have been here.

"If you see the judgment, we have specified that bond numbers have to be provided," the bench said.

Advocate Prashant Bhushan appeared for the main petitioner Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR).

On an application by the EC, the bench said the details of Electoral Bonds furnished by the poll panel before the top court should be scanned and returned to it for the purpose of uploading on the website.

The Election Commission through advocate Amit Sharma filed a plea in the Supreme Court seeking a direction to release data on electoral bonds furnished to the top court in terms of previous orders of April 12, 2019 and November 2, 2023.

As per March 11, 2024 order, the Election Commission on Thursday uploaded the data on electoral bonds furnished to it by the SBI.

However, in an application, the poll panel said it had furnished to the Supreme Court a number of sealed envelopes, containing details on EBs encashed by the political parties, during the course of hearing in the matter.

It sought a direction for the return of those sealed envelopes to comply with the directions to upload it on the website as per order of March 11.

On Monday, the Supreme Court had told the SBI to furnish details of purchasers of Electoral Bonds and names of political parties redeemed those instruments by March 12 to the Election Commission, rejecting its plea for extension of time until June 30 for the purpose.

It had then directed the Election Commission to publish the information provided by the SBI on its website on March 15.

In its February 15, 2024 judgment, the SC had declared the Electoral Bonds scheme, introduced in 2018 for donation to political parties, as "unconstitutional" for being violative of the right to information.

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