'If I die here, who will remember me?', Indian soldier in World War-I wrote

Evocative of their tragic emotions of dying in oblivion while fighting for the British forces in World War –I (1914-18), a wounded Indian soldier wrote back home from a hospital in Brighton town in England, "If I die here, who will remember me"? The letter dated January 18, 1915.

A hundred years later, his and the sacrifices of the 15 lakhs Indian soldiers who took part in the war, of which over 74,000 were martyred and an unaccounted number of them were left injured and maimed, is being honored in one of the grandest exhibition here at Delhi Cantonment's Manekshaw Centre by the Indian Army as part of the centenary commemoration of the war.

At display here is a set of old letters, replicas, busts and paintings of Victoria Cross (highest military decoration for Commonwealth country soldier) recipients. And in these and other displays here, the grandeur of the exhibition is slowly taken over by a dignified remembrance and somberness for the supreme sacrifices our soldiers made.

The replicas of underground bunkers, the trenches, the makeshift hospital beds are reminders of the difficult lives of the 15 lakhs Indian soldiers hurriedly gathered and sent to fight in France, Belgium, Mesopotamia, China and East Africa.

The Indian forces were almost equal in numbers to the combined forces contributed by Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa and nearly every sixth soldier fighting on behalf of the British Empire came from the Indian Subcontinent.

If Victoria Cross Indian winner from the war Rifleman Kulbir Thapa though himself wounded, brought to safety two of his comrades braving and surviving the raining shells while fighting in France on September 25, 1915, Rifleman Gabar Singh Negi was posthumously awarded the highest military award for his valor during the battle of Neuve Chapelle.

For many, the centenary commemoration may have been the first chance to know of the great role of Indian soldiers in the World War – I. However, for the descendants of Thapa and Negi and another Victoria Cross winner from the war Naik Darwan Singh Negi and hundreds of others, whom the army invited at the Manekshaw Centre, visits to the 'Corner of Remembrance' and the 'Sacrifice Hall' at the exhibition, one imagines, are a proud reminder of the stories of their forefathers' valor they would be listening over decades.

The commemoration, through its various displays also throws a great chance to know other lesser known details about the World War – I. Indian soldiers from the British Indian Corps, braved one of the history's first successful gas attack. Still to recover from the terrible Battle of Neuve-Chapelle , in April 2015, the Lahore division of the Indian corps braved the toxic gas attack by Germany by placing a handkerchief (or the pagri-dastaar) over the mouth with the piece of cloth soaked in urine. During the war, the Indian soldiers for the first time used – and were exposed to– .303 bore rifle, machine guns, tanks, hand grenades, land mines.

For few Indian soldiers, it was also the first chance to participate in air warfare as fighter pilots. Besides the great human force, India provided 100 million pounds for the war in 1914 and 20-30 million every year up to 1919.

Not only that, India's outstanding contribution also lied in 37 lakh tones of food supplies for the war and one lakh 70 thousand livestock (horses, mules and donkeys) that were used during the period.

It is also notable that the magnitude of Indian sacrifice, both in the form of life and property during the world war –I, brought in a sense of deprivation in India. This led to intensifying of sentiments for an independent India.

If India Gate at Delhi's Rajpath is a permanent memorial for Indian soldiers who died in world war – I, the centenary commemoration at the Manekshaw Centre, by bringing alive the stories of the war , the warfare and the valor of Indians, greatly reinforces the respect for martyrs.