A Mumbaikar is documenting the stories of Indian soldiers, who served on the Western Front in World War I, via letters on Instagram
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You will recall the glories of your race, you will have the honour of showing in Europe that the sons of India have lost none of their ancient martial instincts…History will record the doings of India's sons and your children will proudly tell of the deed of their fathers," King George V of Great Britain wrote in a letter sent to the first batch of Indian soldiers sailing to Marseilles, France, during World War I.
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Following the outbreak in August 1914, the German Army opened the Western Front by invading Luxembourg and Belgium, then gaining military control of important industrial regions in France. The tide of the advance was dramatically turned with the Battle of the Marne. Soon, Indian soldiers were called in, arriving "in the nick of time".
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"I was one of those kids that spent time during computer class secretly reading about world war history on Microsoft Encarta. War has stories of courage, horror, inhumanity, belief, loss and wins—all of which capture the idea of humanity pushed to the extreme," says Tristan Fernandes, who launched a page titled, Letters of War, on Instagram, in March this year.
His project documents letters written by and to the Indian soldiers, who served on the Western Front. While over a million of them served in the war, 90,000 were killed in battle. "Now, only their letters remain. I was inspired after reading For King and Another Country by Shrabani Basu. It captured the untold story of so many Indian soldiers who served in 1915. These are not just letters, they are testimonies from another time—who knows whether they survived the war or not—all that remains is their writing," Fernandes, 28, adds. That they were away from home, fighting a war for another country's freedom, when their own nation didn't enjoy it, fascinates him. Hailing from sundry communities including the Sikhs, Gurkhas and Muslims, some did it for the honour of their family or village, others for better pay. The sources Fernandes dipped into, including Indian Voices of The Great War by David Omissi, The National Archives in London and The British Library's online archives, revealed that Indian soldiers fought at Ypres, Neuve Chapelle, the Somme and Passchendaele. Altogether, some 1.5 million of them were deployed in all theatres of World War I.
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While the pandemic made him briefly question whether he should continue with the documentation, he says he was inspired to carry on when a friend reminded him that just like the soldiers were average men caught in the rides of history, they too are part of a moment in time that will have a bearing on the future.
Fernandes, who works at digital agency Spacebar as associate director, plans to broaden the scope of the project by documenting stories from other wars. "I want to rewind the clock further, perhaps to the Napoleonic Wars," he says.
Tristan Fernandes
What: Letters of War
Where: @lettersofwar, Instagram
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