A record of soldiers of United Punjab on the scene after a century

The records of World War I soldiers from United Punjab have been made available to the public for the first time through a website after a century, by historians of the UK-based UK Punjab Heritage Association (UKPHA).

Among the soldiers who participated in the First World War, 320,000 soldiers belonged to the United Punjab before the partition of the subcontinent, which was divided into two parts, Indian and Pakistani Punjab, at the time of the establishment of Pakistan.

This record www.punjabww1.com can be seen on, in which complete details of Punjabi soldiers are entered.

The records of the soldiers have also been obtained by the UK organization from the diaries in the library of the Lahore Museum, which have been preserved for 100 years in this historic heritage building till date, but earlier these records were not publicly available. was

According to the museum authorities, the records of Punjabi soldiers who participated in the First World War have been preserved through hand written diaries and the UK organization has also been provided the records by the museum management, which have now been made public.

The soldiers belonged to which districts of Punjab?

Launched on November 11 to commemorate World War I World End Day, the website uploaded information about the contribution of Punjabi soldiers.

The information consists of nearly 26,000 pages, including a list of more than three lakh individual names, including the war service and pensions of undivided Punjab recruits, as well as their family background, rank and regiment. Information about Unresearched for almost a century, these registers were compiled by the Punjab government in 1919 after the end of the war.

It also provides a detailed overview of the recruitment process in the British Indian Army a century ago and information about individual soldiers that provides insight into their professional, social and political backgrounds.

In some cases, they also detail the awards received by the soldiers and the distant war exercises, where they served and from which at least 15,000 soldiers did not return.

The reference and research library of Lahore Museum also has the records of the soldiers of the British Army who participated in the First World War, from which district how many soldiers were part of the British Army and to which religion and caste they belonged. All these details are preserved in these 100-year-old handwritten diaries.

The library also preserves the hand written diaries of the Colonel Commandants of the British Army. The records of the soldiers of 20 districts of East and West Punjab consist of 34 volumes. According to Bashir Ahmad Bhatti, senior librarian of the library, the most 97 hundred and four soldiers belonged to Ludhiana in this war, followed by 56 hundred and 27 soldiers from Lahore while 47 hundred and 16 soldiers belonged to Attock.

The library of the museum has three volumes of details of soldiers from Attock and Ludhiana. Apart from this, two volumes of records of soldiers of Hisar, Hashiarpur, Jhelum, Jalandhar, Kangra, Shahpur, Lahore, Gurgaon and Rohtak, while those of Amritsar, Ferozepur, Gujranwala, Gujarat, Sialkot, Multan, Karnal, Rawalpindi, and Gurdaspur. There are one skin each.

According to the writing of Major Retired Arshad Pervez of the Pakistani Army, who worked in this regard, the three soldiers who sacrificed their lives in the First World War from 1914 to 1918 were the first to be awarded Britain’s highest award, the Victoria Cross. Three of them belonged to present day Pakistan.

The first among them was Provincial Dar Khudadad Khan, who belonged to the Baloch Regiment. The others were Mir Bakht Khan of the Baloch Regiment and Shah Ahmad Khan of Gujar Khan, who took part in the war fought in France and Belgium. It was because of this record that the soldiers could get pension and the heirs of the dead could get compensation. 25, 25 acres of land were granted to the recipients of the Victoria Cross.

Why was the record of the soldiers made public now?

According to Amandeep Mudra, head of the UKPHA: ‘Punjab was an important recruiting ground for the Indian Army during the First World War, making its contribution as did Australia, but its importance in fighting the world war was highlighted earlier. It was not done, which is why the contribution of Punjabi soldiers went largely unrecognized and in most cases we did not even know their names.’

“Equally, we hope that descendants of servicemen can fill some of the gaps and help us build a richer picture of Punjab’s contributions,” he said in a statement. Their memoirs, family archives and memoirs are invaluable in telling the full story of the war and the individual participants.’

Gouradian, chairman of the association, said that he had first approached the Lahore Museum in 2014 regarding the files, which Indian military historians had said they knew existed but had not. They were not accessed.

He said: ‘Soldier records on the website are linked to their place of enlistment, enabling their descendants to search for soldiers by name, region, regiment or unit. Records can also be searched on the basis of village name, which allows users to trace their ancestors or others from their family location.’

Senior librarian Lahore Museum Bashir Ahmed Bhatti while talking to Independent Urdu said that the records of the soldiers who participated in the First World War from United Punjab in the Lahore Museum existed even before the division of the subcontinent, which was in the form of handwritten diaries and volumes. has been saved.

He said: ‘The UK organization contacted us to obtain these records and we provided them but they may have obtained the records from other sources.’

According to Bashir Bhatti: ‘This record is an invaluable treasure for students of military science. It included Muslims, Sikhs, Hindus, Christians and people of other religions and whatever records we have about them in our library, it was not separated even after the partition of Punjab into two parts.

Compensation dispute in India and Pakistan

Since United Punjab was a part of the subcontinent at the time of the First World War, Pakistan and India became two countries in 1947, so the national identity of the soldiers of Punjab who participated in the war was also divided into Indian and Pakistani.

In this way, both countries claimed to demand separate compensation for the services of soldiers belonging to their respective regions. India has been demanding from the United Nations for a long time that all the soldiers and officers who fought in this war belong to the United Nations. He was from Punjab, which was a part of India, so he should also get his compensation.

But when Pakistan submitted the records of the Lahore Museum to the United Nations, Pakistan was able to prove that the compensation and honors of the soldiers belonging to the districts which are part of Pakistan after partition should have been given to Pakistan.

There is no solution to this issue yet, but this dispute still exists in both countries.