Subject: History

Topic: India and the First

World War
Standard: VII

Cambridge VII 2021 India and the First World War of 22

1
3 2
 UNIT 3

Learning Objectives
To examine and analyse the evidence
about the behaviour of Indian soldiers on
the battlefield

Cambridge VII 2021 India and the First World War 3 of 22

 Starter: WHAT are these posters trying to do? How?

Cambridge VII 2021 India and the First World War 4 of 22

 Starter: WHAT are these posters trying to do? How?

Cambridge VII 2021 India and the First World War 5 of 22

 This Soldier is Defending India
This Indian recruitment poster
was produced with a blank
strip at the bottom, so that
each region could add text in
their own language. This made
the poster very flexible, as it
could be adapted to meet the
needs of the area it was being
used in.

Recruitment posters were less

common in India, where the
recruitment campaign was conducted
differently. India was still a largely
rural society at this time and poster
campaigns were more associated with
urban areas.

Cambridge VII 2021 India and the First World War 6 of 22

What motivated men to fight in a war thousands of miles
from home, in a cause that did not seem to be their own?
To bring honour Overseas pay & The pay was a modest
to their clan or promotion would 11 rupees a month,
caste, by bring more money, but the additional
fighting bravely especially to men who income would have
on the had served for many been useful to a poor
battlefield. years. MONEY peasant family.
Some MOTIVATION
communities
RELIGION
DUTY

liked to imagine Religion was central to the way

Several Hindu soldiers
themselves as in which Indian soldiers tried
said that being killed in
warriors. to make sense of the war.
battle, in the service of
Duty to the King A postcard with a portrait of the the King, would end
-Emperor George V, King was given to all Indian troops the cycle of death and
mentioned in their as a New Year's present in reincarnation, and
letters more often January 1917, and the men seem would send the soldier
than anyone else. to have appreciated this. directly to paradise.
7
Victims or Scared or Heroes?

This information source can be interpreted in a range of different ways.

Is it..
A) These Indian soldiers have not had enough experience with their new
SMLE rifles and have been injured as a result?
B) These soldiers have fought in close-order battles with the Germans where
they have grabbed German bayonets with their bare hands?
C) These soldiers have deliberately injured their left hands knowing it would
mean they would be withdrawn from the fighting?
HISTORIANS DISAGREE

Cambridge VII 2021 India and the First World War 8 of 22

Victims or Scared or Heroes? If is it A: then the Indian soldiers would be VICTIMS of the
British to desire to keep them using old equipment –
reducing the threat of a repeat of 1857.
If it is B: then this HEROIC last-resort in hand-to-hand
fighting would fit with the fearsome reputation that the
Indian soldiers had.
If it is C: then Indian troops were guilty of cowardice
(understandable) in the face of the enemy.
FACT
1000 of the 20,000 Indian
soldiers had left-hand
wounds in the first few
months of the war.
50% of them received
other wounds at the same
time.

HISTORIANS DISAGREE

Cambridge VII 2021 India and the First World War 9 of 22

Victims or Scared or Heroes?
Of Arsala Khan of the 57th Wilde’s Rifles, General
Willcocks said .The occasion discovers the man, and he
was there. Leading a counter-attack with the bayonet he
gained sufficient time to pull his men together, and them
although vastly outnumbered, skillfully withdrew them
to Messines.’

Of the 57th Wilde’s Rifles, Hindu Rajputs, one section

had been immovable, firing rapidly from under a
hedge-line while lying on their stomachs until all
were killed or wounded but for one, an Indian officer
named Kapur Singh; he was seen committing suicide
with his last cartridge.

HISTORIANS DISAGREE

Cambridge VII 2021 India and the First World War 10 of 22

 HISTORIANS DISAGREE
Victims or Scared or Heroes?
On the back of the postcard
‘The Great European War; Comrades in arms; "Tommy" adjusts
the bandage; the wounds in the left hands of our gallant Indian
soldiers are largely due to the fearless manner in which they
grasp the bayonets of their opponents’.

PEOPLE AT THE TIME DISAGREED

HERBERT ASQUITH, PRIME MINISTER

There have been quite a number of cases lately of
privates being tried and sentenced for mutilating
their left hands, so as to make them incapable of
firing a rifle. I knew this happened with the Indians;
that it should spread to British soldiers shows what a
shattering thing the trenches must be.’
Cambridge VII 2021 India and the First World War 11 of 22
Victims or Scared or Heroes? PEOPLE AT THE TIME DISAGREED

HERBERT ASQUITH, PRIME MINISTER

There have been quite a number of cases lately of
privates being tried and sentenced for mutilating
their left hands, so as to make them incapable of
firing a rifle. I knew this happened with the Indians;
that it should spread to British soldiers shows what a
shattering thing the trenches must be.’

Cambridge VII 2021 India and the First World War 12 of 22

 Draw the table in your notebook and complete it with the correct meanings for
each word.

Group name for the armies that left India to different

expeditionary force parts of the world. They were named A – G. A went to
Europe in 1914.
Indian name for an ordinary unpromoted soldier, also
sepoy used as a generic name for any Indian soldier
Initially small ditches scraped in the ground, developed
trenches into defendable, deep, well-protected fortifications
The area of ground between the two frontlines – an area
no man’s land so deadly that ‘no man’ should be there ... Avoid!
No-one is able to make progress or change anything, the
stalemate two sides are in deadlock
Heavy-military ranged weapons built to launch munitions
Cambridge 2021
artillery far beyond the range & power of infantry firearms. 13 of 23
The Freedom Fight: US Civil Rights

Cambridge VII 2021 India and the First World War 13 of 22

 Army censors checked all mail sent from soldiers at the Front – the same
was true for the Indian troops. The correspondence would be read and
‘interesting’ bits translated and put in a report for the Army commander.
Cambridge VII 2021 India and the First World War 14 of 22
 Think
What aspects of Western
Front warfare would
have been the most
disturbing for the Indian Discuss
troops?
How prepared would the
Commanding Officers of
the Indian troops be for
warfare on the Western
Front in 1914 - 15?

Plenary
15
4 16
 Starter: What’s happened so far?

https://wordwall.net/play/2715/107/758

Cambridge VII 2021 India and the First World War 17 of 22

 UNIT 4

Learning Objectives
To understand the extent of the bravery of
Indian troops fighting in Europe

An introduction to Khudadad Khan, VC

VID3_CAIE_VI_Hums_IndiaFWW
https://youtu.be/5H1plIUgZNY

Your task is to produce a newspaper front-page story

about Khudadad Khan.

Cambridge VII 2021 India and the First World War 18 of 22

His Majesty the KING-EMPEROR has been
graciously pleased to approve of the grant
of the Victoria Cross to 4050, Sepoy
Khudadad, 129th Duke of Connaught's
Own Baluchis of the Indian Army for
conspicuous bravery whilst serving with
the Indian Army Corps, British
Expeditionary Force:
On 31st October, 1914,at Hollebeke,
Belgium, the British Officer in charge of the
detachment having been wounded, and the
other gun put out of action by a shell,
Sepoy Khudadad, though himself wounded,
remained working his gun until all the
other 5 men of the gun detachment had
been killed.
— London Gazette, 7 December 1914
Cambridge VII 2021 India and the First World War 19 of 22

HEADLINE GOING ACROSS THE PAGE
Your task is to
produce a newspaper
front-page story
about Khudadad
Khan.
Use the information
on AS1 and whatever
you can learn from
this presentation
Cambridge VII 2021 India and the First World War
NEWSPAPER TITLE
IMAGE Sub-Heading With more detail
IMAGE Detailed article: what
IMAGE happened, where, when and
IMAGE with what outcome Detailed
IMAGE article: what happened,
IMAGE where, when and with what
IMAGE outcome Detailed article:
IMAGE what happened, where, when
Image Description and with what outcome
Detailed article: what
Info Article to backup
Info Article to backup
happened, where, when and
Info Article to backup with what outcome Detailed
Info Article to backup article: what happened,
Info Article to backup
where, when and with what
Info Article to backup
Info Article to backup outcome Detailed article:
Info Article to backup what happened, where, when
Info Article to backup and with what outcome
20 of 22
 NEWSPAPER TITLE

HEADLINE GOING ACROSS THE PAGE

IMAGE Sub-Heading With more detail
IMAGE Detailed article: what
IMAGE happened, where, when and
IMAGE with what outcome - Detailed
IMAGE article: what happened,
IMAGE where, when and with what
IMAGE outcome - Detailed article:
IMAGE what happened, where, when
Image Description and with what outcome -
Detailed article: what
Info Article to backup
Info Article to backup
happened, where, when and
Info Article to backup with what outcome - Detailed
Info Article to backup article: what happened,
Info Article to backup
where, when and with what
Info Article to backup
Info Article to backup outcome - Detailed article:
Info Article to backup what happened, where, when
Info Article to backup and with what outcome

Cambridge VII 2021 India and the First World War 21 of 22

Cambridge VII 2021 India and the First World War 22 of 32
 ndia in the First World War Plenary: Write a UNIT 4
Review

Brain Damage meets Vibronics feat. Parvez - Sufferation

(Official music video)
VID4_CAIE_VII_Hums_IndiaFWW https://youtu.be/f3_ihmaMu2s

Watch this music video and then write a review of it – talk

about its message, how it tells the story and the impact it
makes on you as the listener
Cambridge VII 2021 India and the First World War 23 of 22
END
24