In London, the names of 33,000 Indian Army soldiers who died in World War I but were missing at a memorial in Iraq have finally been commemorated in digital form.
Iraq (then Mesopotamia) was the site of the British Empire’s largest operations outside Europe in the early 20th century.
The Commonwealth War Graves Commission, the charity whose mission is to commemorate all Commonwealth servicemen who died between the two world wars, has introduced new digital name boards for the Basra Cenotaph in Iraq to ensure that missing names are included.
The digital memorial, launched earlier this month, brings together the names of Indian soldiers with those of more than 46,000 Commonwealth service members for the first time.
Shrabani Basu, a member of the CWGC Global Advisory Group, said: “The Mesopotamian campaign was one of the toughest battles of the First World War and tens of thousands of Indian soldiers lost their lives; yet their names never appear on the Basra monument.”
Basu, author of “For the King and Another Country: Indian Soldiers on the Western Front, 1914-18,” said: “It’s great to see the new digital panels and finally see the names of 33,000 Indians being shown as they should have had ranks and regiments. Historical wrongs are being corrected. Their sacrifice will never be forgotten.”
Since Iraq is currently considered unsuitable for travel and operational work, major physical updates to the monument are difficult. The numerical option was chosen as an alternative until the site can be properly assessed and all names can be properly commemorated.
Dr George Hay, official historian of the CWGC, said: “The launch of these panels marks an important moment for the Commission and an important moment in commemoration of the Indian Army’s fallen during the Mesopotamian Campaign.”
“For the first time, these men’s names will be displayed in the way they should have been nearly a century ago, restoring the honor they deserve,” he said. “This brings us one step closer to completely reversing this historical inequality, while also helping people around the world understand these casualties and their stories.”
Historically, many of the Indian casualties of the First World War were commemorated by numbers or memorial books rather than by names.
This is one of several known commemorative inequalities that the CWGC says it is working to address. The Basra Memorial in Iraq was seen as a key example of this unequal commemoration and past inaction, which the charity set out to reverse.
CWGC said: “Digital memorials will never replace our physical memorials. Digital memorials are designed to complement physical memorials and allow us to raise awareness of our cemeteries and memorials around the world.”
“Digital tools such as these help more people discover and share the stories of the more than 1.7 million Commonwealth service personnel who lost their lives in the First and Second World Wars. They also provide connections when people are unable to visit in person,” it said.
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