NOT EVERY INDIVIDUAL MUSLIM IS UNFIT FOR LIFE IN A NON CALIPHATE NATION. BEFORE THE DIVISION OF INDIA AND PAKISTAN SEPOY KHUDADAD KAHAN WAS A HERO OF DEMOCRACY. SOME OF HIS DESCENDENTS LIVE IN ENGLAND
Photo credit: Imperial War Museum
While we have already carried articles about Muslims fighting on the side of the Germans in WWI and WWII we shouldn't neglect the fact than many also fought on the side of the allies. The First World War had 1.2 million participants from what is now India. Combatant units from what is now Pakistan , Bangladesh and counted in with the British/Indian Units. There was another 100,000 troops provided by Nepal, all fighting as part of the British Empire. The Indian Army included Muslims (over 400,000), Hindus and Sikhs. Almost 75,000 including 20,000 Gurkhas, didn't survive.
Recently military historians in Great Britain and India marked the 100th anniversary of the first Indian soldier to win the Victoria Cross. His name was Sepoy Kudadad Khan, a Muslim from the 129th Baluchis regiment. Khan was a 26 year old member of one of two machine gun crews which due to their firepower were heavily targeted by German forces at Ypres where the allies were trying to halt the German advance of the ports of the Channel coast. The 129th took an un-entrenched position at Hollebek on October 30, 1914. It was rainy, muddy and cold, conditions that the Indian troops were not used to. They were soon subjected to heavy bombardment as the germans launched a major offensive. Near the opening of the advance one machine gun was destroyed by an artillery shell hit. The surviving crew joined Khan's team which held their ground against the German onslaught. All of the men except the severely wounded Khan were killed at their posts. Khan continued firing as the Germans simply streamed past him leaving him in their rear. The severely wounded Khan was now behind enemy lines. He did not surrender but waited until nightfall and evaded the Germans until he regained his tattered unit.
Khan was awarded the Victoria Cross for his actions and fellow machine-gunners; Sepoys Lal Shah, Said Ahmed, Qasim and Afsar Khan were posthumously awarded the IDSM (Indian Distinguished Service Medal) and Ghulam Muhammad the IOM (Indian Order of Merit). In addition to France Indian subcontinent forces also fought fought in Africa, Mesopotamia, Palestine, Egypt, Gallipoli, China and Singapore. In all, there were 11 Victoria Crosses and more than ten thousand other honours awarded to participants from the sub-continent. Ironically Khan was later commissioned but died after the partition in Pakistan at the age of 83. Our point that we would like to make is simply this Indian forces come from a military / naval tradition that is thousands of years old but also includes plenty of action within the modern era of mechanized war. China, a thug state threatens India as do outside Muslim forces. But Indian forces even including Indian Muslims, as well as Hindu ,Sikhs, Gurka, and more rarely Christians have stood shoulder to shoulder to defend freedom. The record of Indian Forces is that they stand and fight, they don't run. They train hard and they fight hard and those surrounding nations and terrorists organizations contemplating some future "siege of India" are, as we say in Louisiana, barking up the wrong tree. Though non aligned at the moment, India will never have to stand alone in any such seige. Unlike the jackals that surround her, India is an ancient and intact civilization, a real democracy filled with admirable and industrious freedom loving people. The World will rally to India, not to the surrounding gangs of thugs. On the 100th anniversary of the actions of Sepoy Kudadad Khan, Sepoys Lal Shah, Said Ahmed, Qasim and Afsar Khan it is good to pause and remember that valor in combat is a very old but continuous Indian military tradition.
No comments:
Post a Comment