London: Entrenched prejudices, preconceptions and pervasive racism of contemporary imperial attitudes meant that nearly 50,000 Indian soldiers who died fighting for the British Empire during the World War I were not commemorated the same way as other martyrs, finds a new review released on Thursday.
The Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC), which commemorates the 1.7 million Commonwealth servicemen and women who died during the two World Wars, had created a Special Committee in late-2019 to investigate potential gaps in the commemoration of those who died during and after the World War I.
It found that an estimated 45,000-54,000 casualties, predominantly Indian, East African, West African, Egyptian and Somali personnel, were commemorated unequally.
A further 116,000 casualties, potentially as many as 350,000, were not commemorated by name or possibly not commemorated at all.
“Underpinning all these decisions… were the entrenched prejudices, preconceptions and pervasive racism of contemporary imperial attitudes,” notes the ‘Review of Historical Inequalities in Commemoration’.
UK Defence Secretary Ben Wallace made a formal apology on behalf of the government in the House of Commons in relation to the findings.
“There can be no doubt prejudice played a part in some of the Commission’s decisions,” the minister told the members of parliament.
“On behalf of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission and the government both of the time and today, I want to apologise for the failures to live up to their founding principles all those years ago and express deep regret that it has taken so long to rectify the situation. Whilst we can’t change the past, we can make amends and take action,” he said.
“We are sorry for what happened and will act to right the wrongs of the past,” said Claire Horton, Director General of the CWGC.
“Our response today is simple: the events of a century ago were wrong then and are wrong now,” she said, adding that the Commission would now work on actioning the recommendations of the review.
During the World War I (1914-18), India, which at that time included Pakistan and Bangladesh under British colonial rule, sent the largest share of Commonwealth soldiers to the war effort at over 1.4 million.