On Armistice Day, a message of peace from a memorial in France to Indians killed during World War I

On a cool morning in October, exactly a month before Armistice Day, I wandered through Neuve Chapelle, struggling to find a memorial to the Indian soldiers who had played a pivotal role in an important World War I battle right here in this village in northern France.

Google maps had guided us to the middle of the village, but there was not a soul in sight who could give us directions. My mind wandered back to March 1915, when the village had been evacuated, with German snipers at vantage points.

Finally, the owner of a pub came to our rescue. “Memorial Indien de Neuve Chapelle – straight down the road,” he said.

Soon enough, the circular wall of the memorial surrounded by farmland came into view. “Their name liveth for evermore,” it declared as it honoured the 4,742 Indian soldiers and labourers who died on the Western Front in Europe but have no known graves.

It was in Neuve Chapelle that the Meerut and Lahore Divisions of the Indian Corps battled hard between March 10 and March 13, 1915, to attempt to breach German lines.

Of all the subcontinental soldiers and labourers who laid down their lives in Neuve Chapelle, one story tugged at my heartstrings just a wee...

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