The story was there, waiting to be told, for more than a century. A chance invitation from a friend to visit the Neuve Chapell village was Paris-based Indian filmmaker Vijay Singh’s entry point to the story of the 1.4 lakh Indian soldiers who fought for the French in the First World War. In this village stands a memorial for the 3,000 Indian soldiers who perished in one gruesome night of war.
“After the visit, I discovered a book which had four lines on the relationship that these Indian men built with the French women there. During the war, they were occasionally sent on furlough in the barns. The only people to receive them on the farms were the French women, because the men had all gone to the battlefield. Some relationships developed between men and women and children were born. There was very strict taboo on these children, because they were considered illegitimate. I thought if I can find these descendants, then it will make a good film,” says Singh, in an interview to The Hindu.
The film Farewell my Indian Soldier , produced by Silhouette Films and Rajya Sabha Television, was screened in the city on Sunday evening, as part of a seven-city tour organised by the Alliance Francaise. He spent two years of his life trying to find out who these descendants are, through newspapers, friends and other sources. Six months later, Monique Soupart, whose grandfather was an unknown Indian soldier, reached out to him.
He pieced together the stories from material available in the British archives, including photographs, videos and letters written by the soldiers to their family back home. The film has fascinating images of the Indian soldiers arriving in colourful turbans and flamboyant uniforms, even as the French lined up on the boulevards to cheer them.
“The Indian government does not have any records of these soldiers. The British walked off with all Indian records when they left. It is one of the biggest scandals. Kohinoor is not the only heritage to be recovered from England. Indian history, the past of Indian human experience is also our heritage. I had to pay them through my nose to access the details and photographs of our Indian soldiers who died for these British and French,” he says.
The letters throw up quite a few surprises, especially how their impressions of France challenge and transform their own conservative beliefs.
“The letters are wonderful sociological analysis of French society, of how these soldiers learn the importance of the slogans of the French revolution – liberty, equality, fraternity, through the French woman. One soldier writes about the absence of class and caste divisions there. Another writes about the need to educate the daughters too, and not just the sons,” says Vijay.
The Indian troops were sent to the French borders as cannon fodder, to hold off the Germans, until the British reinforcements arrived.
“Still, they fought valiantly. The time which they gave allowed the British to send reinforcements. They were the first people to experience chemical warfare. If not for them, we might be speaking in German now,” he says.
Over the last two decades, Vijay has written and directed four acclaimed films. Including Jaya Ganga , Man and Elephant , One Dollar Curry and India By Song , and written five books.
