To The Memory Of Brave Men: The Imperial War Graves Commission And India\u27s Missing Soldiers Of The First World War

This thesis examines the commemoration of Indian soldiers who died during the First World War by the Imperial War Graves Commission, Britain\u27s official government body overseeing all imperial commemoration efforts. For the soldiers of the Indian Army their war experience was split between the Western Front in Europe and Mesopotamia in modern-day Iraq. They were also far more ethnically, religiously, and lingually diverse than their British and Dominion counterparts. In order to examine how geography, religion, and the imperial relationship affected Britain\u27s commemoration of India\u27s war dead, this study uses the Commission\u27s own records to recreate how the IWGC created its policies regarding Indian soldiers. The result shows that while the Commission made nearly every effort to respect India\u27s war dead, the complexity of their backgrounds hampered these efforts and forced compromises to be made. The geography of the war also forced a clear definition between the memories of Indian soldiers who died in Europe and those who fell in Mesopotamia