Forgotten faces of World War I

A photo exhibition of colonial troops in action in the war

A scene from an exhibition of photographs on World War I at the Alliance Francaise in Thiruvananthapuram on Sunday.- Photo : S. Mahinsha

“Memory, including historical memory, is selective.”

In all the wealth of literature that has come out on the First World War, scarce few are dedicated to the legions of troops whose homelands were far away. And yet, here they were, right at the frontlines of battle, fighting for their coloniser’s cause. The introductory panel on the ‘War and Colonies’ exhibition organised by the Alliance Francaise de Trivandrum underlines this selective amnesia played out by all major players of The Great War and seeks to fill the memory gap through a presentation of photographs on Asian and African troops.

The monochrome photographs are striking in their simplicity as the human element takes precedence over any typical motifs of warfare. Men of African, East and South Asian and Middle-Eastern origin are seen going about their normal routine – sharing a meal, warming themselves by the fire and labouring at construction sites. There is almost an absurd sense of normalcy in the images that make them even more startling to the viewer since they are also unmistakeably set against the backdrop of one of the bloodiest conflicts in world history.

There are photographs of turbaned Indian mounted troops riding alongside their French counterparts through the southern city of Marseilles and another photograph that shows them relieving Senegalese infantrymen from their duties at the frontline. By 1919, a statistic read, India had suffered 60,000 casualties.

Disease-ridden

The concept of trenches, so intrinsically linked to the First World War, finds its place in the photographs as well. Life inside these holes dug in the ground is accompanied by descriptors such as filthy and disease-ridden and here was a picture of two Irishmen sharing a hot beverage, huddled within the muddy walls of a trench.

They were smiling at the camera. There are other such seemingly calm portraits – for instance, one of ‘Annamese infantrymen’ (Vietnamese) beaming and waving at the camera in the midst of repairing roads in North-Eastern France.

There is also a panel showing Madagascan soldiers performing war dances, ‘to the tune of traditional music’ on the war’s Eastern Front in Greece.

The sheer scale of this conflict and depth of the term ‘World War’ is given a whole other dimension at this must-see exhibition that also includes maps and illustrations further detailing the role of indigenous troops. The exhibition is on till October 24 and is held in commemoration of the World War centenary with the support of the Goethe Zentrum and the Russian Cultural Centre here.