Sure, you historians out there might have your own qualms and arguments about the drafting of the Indian Army soldiers in World War I. But these are stories and moments that have been lost to time, and all we can do is speculate of what it would’ve been like.
So here are 12 rare photographs of the Indian Army from World War I that we thought you should definitely experience.
1. Indian soldiers training with bayonets.
2. A lady pins a flower on the tunic of an Indian soldier during march-past.
3. October, 1917: Indian reinforcements being transported to Kilwa in German East Africa.
4. March, 1917: Indian Expeditionary Force soldiers make their way through the western front.
5. Soldiers practice a gas mask drill. Grim!
6. A gymnastics performance by soldier on Sports Day in Salonika, 1916.
7. Two officers from an Indian mule company in Gallipoli at their post.
8. July, 1916: Soldiers wait in a queue for food at an improvised cookhouse at a camp near Querrieu, France.
9. Summer of 1918: Indian soldiers bathing in the River Auja in Palestine.
10. Indian Muslim soldiers conducting their daily prayers during the campaign in modern day Iraq.
11. March, 1917: Indian soldiers provide heavy security at this railway station in captured Baghdad.
12. August, 1915: Wounded Indian soldiers at the Royal Pavilion in Brighton, which served as a makeshift hospital.
Sourced from the Imperial War Museum series.
Glimpses of forgotten moments.
Masthead Source: bl.uk, Feature Image Source: iwm.org.uk