• Home
  • About Drishtikone
  • Archives
Monday, January 25, 2021
Drishtikone
  • Login
  • Home
  • Support Drishtikone
  • Special Stories
  • Newsletter
  • About Us
  • Drishtikone Dailypaper
  • Categories
    • India
    • Spirituality
    • Business
    • United States of America
    • Creative
    • History
  • Archives
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Support Drishtikone
  • Special Stories
  • Newsletter
  • About Us
  • Drishtikone Dailypaper
  • Categories
    • India
    • Spirituality
    • Business
    • United States of America
    • Creative
    • History
  • Archives
No Result
View All Result
Drishtikone
No Result
View All Result
World War I – How British used Kid-Soldiers from India In their Battles

Indian Kid-Soldiers used in World War I by the British Army

World War I – How British used Kid-Soldiers from India In their Battles

June 25, 2020
in History, India
Reading Time: 3min read
0
93
SHARES
212
VIEWS
Share on FacebookShare on TwitterRedditWA

World War I was the first major global war in which the European powers were involved after they had annexed countries in Africa and Asia.  How that war was fought on the back of the soldiers from the colonized countries is indeed very interesting.  We will look at how the British used kid-soldiers from India to fight their wars in France against Germany.  But first, a context into the perfidy on India’s own and their collusion that led to thousands of deaths!

World War I - How British used Kid-Soldiers from India In their Battles #BritishWarCrimes #GandhiForViolence Click To Tweet

Gandhi and his hypocrisy

In a leaflet titled “Appeal for Enlistment”, issued before World War I, Gandhi wrote:

You may like these too

How Gandhi justified the Moplah Genocide of Hindus by Muslims

Noakhali Genocide – How Jinnah’s Direct Action Day led to a Mass Bloodbath of Hindus

CNBC’s Joe Kernen engages in Racial slurs on Squawk Box

What is Rashtra Dharma or Duty to Nation: Chanakya-speak

To bring about such a state of things we should have the ability to defend ourselves, that is, the ability to bear arms and to use them… If we want to learn the use of arms with the greatest possible dispatch, it is our duty to enlist ourselves in the army.

Gandhi wanted Indians to get military training so they could fight for freedom some day.

Home Rule without military power was useless, and this was the best opportunity to get it

Quite interesting for someone who is fabled to have given India its freedom via non-violence.  One is often struck if Gandhi was a schizophrenic or not for in 1931, Gandhi went on to say –

I would like to repeat to the world, times without number, that I will not purchase my country’s freedom at the cost of non-violence.

What a turn-around for someone who is known as the paragon of virtues.  What disturbs one about Gandhi the most is his complete, complicit and pathological carelessness when it came to caring for other’s lives – specially those who believed in his utterances and were ready to follow him and his commands.  All those who followed Gandhi’s logic and enrolled for the World War I and got killed, some even kids, were doing a meaningless deed specifically when the one who was extolling the need for military preparation did not mean even one word of what he said.  In the deepest parts of his spirit he had NO such intention ever!  He just pushed these innocent and believing idiots to their deaths.  For no gain at all!  That is the real face of a miserable man who pretended to be a leader but was a “butcher by proxy”!

1.1 million Indians served in the World War I along with the British and 74,187 died.  Almost 67,000 got wounded.  That is why the obvious question – if Gandhi did not wish to “purchase” India’s freedom “at the cost of non-violence, then did he push over 74,000 – many of them kids – to their deaths or a life of without limbs knowingly?

British used kid-soldiers in World War I

What one finds really disturbing is that even kids were used by the British to fight in World War I from India.  Kids as young as 10 years were used as canon fodder.  In a book titled “For King and Another Country: Indian Soldiers on the Western Front 1914-18”, Shrabani Basu shares how kids as young as 10 and 12 years were part of the cavalry units and were wounded as well.

They were paid a monthly salary of Rs 11.

In one dispatch to Lord Kitchener, secretary of state for war, Sir Walter Lawrence, a civil servant tasked with overseeing injured Indian troops, wrote: “It seems a great pity that children should have been allowed to come to Europe.”

Most of these youngsters fought in France against German troops.  One of the Gurkha kids, known as “brave little Gurkha” – named Pim (16 years old) got rewarded by Queen Mary while they recuperated at Dome Hospital.   Here are Bal Bahadur and Pim Bahadur (in the picture below) – both were injured by a shell which killed 6 and wounded 10 others on November 18.  Bal Bahadur lost his left arm and had his right thigh shattered, while Pim’s right leg was lost.

Kid-Soldiers of World War I
Bal Bahadur and Pim Bahadur recuperating in Dome Hospital in Brighton, England (Picture taken by H. D. Girdwood / courtesy British Library archives)

 

What one finds incredible is that in the official description of the picture, no mention has been made of the fact that they were kids!

Featured Image: Kids recuperating in Brighton, England with limbs gone (Picture taken by H. D. Girdwood / courtesy British Library archives)

Tags: British ArmyBritish Indian ArmyGandhi
drishtikone

drishtikone

The panache of a writer is proven by the creative pen he uses to transform the most mundane topic into a thrilling story. Drishtikone - the author, critic and analyst uses the power of his pen to create thought-provoking pieces from ordinary topics of discussion. He writes on myriad interesting themes. Read the articles to know more about his views and "drishtikone".

Related Posts

Soft Power and Bollywood
India

Bollywood and Indian Soft Power – How and why are they linked?

September 2, 2020
Chinese media influence and Subversion in India
China

Chinese media influence and Subversion of India

August 11, 2020
Is Democracy Dying
India

Is democracy dead?

July 26, 2020
Air bubble
India

Air bubble between India, Germany and France for plane travel

July 18, 2020
Drishtikone

© 2005-2020 Drishtikone.com

Navigate Site

  • Home
  • About Us
  • Terms of Use
  • Privacy Policy

Follow Us

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Support Drishtikone
  • Special Stories
  • Newsletter
  • About Us
  • Drishtikone Daily
  • Categories
    • India
    • Spirituality
    • Business
    • United States of America
    • Creative
    • History
  • Archives

© 2005-2020 Drishtikone.com

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Create New Account!

Fill the forms below to register

All fields are required. Log In

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In