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Sikh soldiers'
pics on show
WSN Network
LONDON: More than 83,000 Sikhs were killed and 100,000 served in
fields of conflict from the trenches of the Western Front to the
jungles of Burma in the Second World War. The soldiers received many
medals for gallantry, including several Victoria Crosses. Their
story will be told in an exhibition titled 'From Jawans to Generals
- Loyal Allies, Proud Britons', which runs from August 22 to
September 14.
The Sikh Heritage
Association of Warwick and Leamington is hosting the event with the
museum. Its chairman Bal Singh Rai said: "The images are
unbelievable. Quite a few Sikhs will never have seen some of the
pictures before.
"It opened my eyes
to a number of things. I didn't know that 12,000 Sikh soldiers
passed through Brighton hospitals in the two world wars." Mr Rai
said Sikh soldiers have had strong links with Warwickshire for more
than 150 years, starting with those who fought against the Third
Light Dragoons in the Anglo-Sikh wars, and moving on to Warwickshire
men fighting side by side with Indian troops in the two world wars.
He said the
association is now hoping to set up its own project to tell the
story of Warwickshire people who had fought against and alongside
the Sikh and Punjabi regiments.
"This will give
people a better understanding of our background and the unique
Anglo-Sikh relationship.
"The story needs to
be told. A true multi-cultural society is one that understands that
relationship and the sacrifices that have been made.
"We have only
started to uncover what is out there." Admission to the exhibition
is free. There will be a lecture to accompany the exhibition at
Warwickshire College's Trident Park building in Posiedon Way on
September 13 at 6pm. Admission to this lecture is also free of
charge and everyone is welcome.Call 412500 for more information.
The history
The exhibition starts with the Sikh forces who fought both against
and the British in the Anglo-Sikh wars in the 1840s, in which the
Third Light Dragoons, whose museum is at the Lord Leycester Hospital
nearby, were involved.
A decade later, Sikh
soldiers fought alongside British soldiers in the first Indian war
of independence and after this, Sikh regiments were prized for their
bravery and loyalty.
Jawan is a term
meaning youth, but it came to mean 'young soldier in its military
context. Although they made up only two per cent of the Indian
population, Sikhs accounted for 40 per cent of the British army in
India.
In the Indian
Mutiny, Sikh troops patrolled the north western border. They fought
on the Western Front, in Italy and in Iraq in the First World War,
and in Europe, India and Burma in the Second World War.
13 August, 2008
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