It was during a read of a student history book that Steven Purewal decided enough was enough.
The textbook talked about the heroic efforts in Europe by the Canadian militia during the Great War but failed to mention any component about its Allied partners in India.
The Indian Army, after all, contributed more than one million troops to the overseas theatres — of which 75,000 men were killed between 1914 and ‘18.
In fact, the commander-in-chief of the Indian Army said the British wouldn’t have been able to win both the first and second world wars had it not been for the Indian campaign.
But yet there was nothing about the South Asian military strength in the B.C. curriculum.
Now, during the 100th anniversary remembrance of WWI, Purewal is trying to educate the public and, next week, will be speaking in Coquitlam about the war story missing from Eurocentric history books.
Purewal, the curator and managing director of Indus Media Foundation Canada, will talk at the Coquitlam Public Library (City Centre branch, 1169 Pinetree Way) on Thursday, Sept. 21 — World Peace Day — from 7 to 8:30 p.m.
His lecture is part of Coquitlam Heritage’s speaker series titled A Man’s World.
“What we’ve overlooked in our history books is to detriment of many groups in the war,” Purewal said. “India was called the jewel in the Crown and it had at its disposal the largest army.”
When Britain declared war on Germany, in August 1914, after it attacked France through Belgium and thus threatening Belgium’s ports, the U.K didn’t have much of an army, Purewal said. As a result, it rallied the countries in the Commonwealth to come to its aid: Canada sent over 424,000 soldiers but most needed to be trained.
India was ready, though, and was one of the first on the ground despite facing racial and cultural discrimination.
Purewal cites the poem In Flanders Field, written by Canadian physician Lt.-Col. John McCrae in May 1915 during the Second Battle of Ypres in the Flanders region of Belgium.
There, the 1st Canadian Division is credited for defeating the Germans on European soil — a first for a colonial force — but Purewal points out the Indian Army had been in Flanders for five months before the Canadians arrived. Indeed, McCrae would have been medically treating the Punjabi soldiers when he arrived, Purewal noted.
Besides his lectures, Purewal is also helping B.C.’s education ministry overhaul its history curriculum for high school students, with SD36 teachers. The first version will be unveiled next month at the BCSSTA Conference in Vancouver.
• For tickets at $10/$5 to Missing Stories of WWI: Discovering the South Asian Soldiers and Their Significant Contributions with Steven Purewal on World Peace Day Sept. 21, visit coquitlamheritage.ca.
