Bookworm, intellectual, foodie, rashogolla lovers... these are just some of the clichés used to describe Bengalis. But, almost exactly 100 years to the day marking the end of World War I, it is perhaps time to remember Bengal’s contribution to the “Great War”.November 11, 2018 will mark 100 years of the end of the “War to end all wars”, although some historians feel it officially ended in 1919, after the Treaty of Versailles. Although never its own war, Bengal was keen to help the British, and had a significant part to play in it.Few people remember their names now, but Bengal had a hearty contribution to the war. From contributions as soldiers to paramedics and even doctors, a few Bengalis even received accolades for their role.Collective apathy has, however, consigned them to the pages of obscurity.In present-day Kolkata, several concrete installations remind us of those who fought valiantly in far-off lands like Mesopotamia, France, East Africa, Gallipoli and Palestine, among others. The memorials have been there for ages with tales of bravery by Bengalis inscribed on them, but few spare them more than a cursory glance.Some historians believe the source of the collective amnesia is the stigma associated with fighting for the British, who lorded over them for more than two centuries.But the fact is, while some Bengalis were left with no option but to fight for the British Army, others joined the force wilfully. “There are a few names quite noteworthy. Among them, the most famous is that of Kazi Nazrul Islam,” says historian Jyotirmoy Pal Chaudhuri.In terms of contribution, however, the poet’s role in the war was almost negligible for two reasons. “In 1917, Nazrul had joined the 49th Bengalee Regiment and was stationed at Karachi as part of a reserve force and was among the lower-rung personnel,” the historian added.However, it was after returning from the war — and his collective experiences about it — that his first novel Badhon Hara saw the light of day in 1927.In 1914, a committee called the Bengal Ambulance Corps (BAC) was set up to send paramedics to the war front. Set up on the money borne by the people of Bengal, BAC was sent to Mesopotamia where it served war-hit soldiers till May 1916. In this context, it is important to mention that a group of alumni from Oriental Seminary joined the BAC and served in Mesopotamia. All except one, Jatindra Nath Mukherjee, returned from the battle. A plaque on the walls of the schools salutes the braveheart who wilfully took part as a paramedic, along with 17 others.In the same year, Jogendra Nath Sen, who was then in England, joined the 15th West Yorkshire Regiment. In spite of being more learned than the others, being an Indian, he was given the post of a private. Sen is also considered to be the first Bengali to have died in World War I. Though few details are available about his life in India, save that he was born in Chandernagore, Sen was most loved in his regiment, nicknamed Jon.Apart from helping the British Army, Bengalis also helped the French Army. While England recruited around 1.5 million Indians, 90,000 of whom did not return, France too had brought within its folds men from their colonies in India. In times of need, France requested Chandernagore for help. It is around this time that 30 young men volunteered to fight for France. Of them, 26 were selected fit and were sent to Pondicherry for training and later sent to war. One from this troop was also given the Croix de Guerre for his exemplary contribution to the French Army.After 100 years, written evidence is also scarce. But, when it comes to Bengal’s contribution to the Great War, two memoirs — Abhi Le Baghdad by Sisir Sarbadhikary and Kalyan Pradeep on Dr Kalyan Mukherjee — are worth mentioning.While Abhi Le Baghdad is Sarbadhikary’s war diary, Kalyan Pradeep is a compilation of letters written by Mukherjee to his mother during the war.Both memoirs were published as books but are now out of print. Sarbadhikary in Abhi Le Baghdad writes how he saved the pages of the diary from being discovered by enemies. At times he tore the pages and kept in his boots or buried the diary somewhere. The details of the war in this account are hair-raising, probably one of the best firsthand accounts of the war.Though Kalyan Pradeep is not a firsthand account, the letters compiled in the book, along with a small background of the war, written by Mokkhoda Devi, Mukherjee’s grandmother, gives a reader a deep insight into the war front in Mesopotamia through the eyes of a doctor. The words of an anxious Bengali doctor, who wishes to come back to his motherland but is also bound by the principle of serving the wounded, speaks volumes about the braveness of the “timid” Bengali.In one such letter to his mother from Nasiriya in Iraq, Mukherjee writes, “… Tents were farfetched, even temporary beds were not allowed near the firing line.... We used to guard ourselves behind 4-foot-high walls when enemies used to shower bullets on us.... There is no wind behind the walls and the place is infested with insects and frogs.... There is so much bloodshed that it feels there is a river of blood.”Mukherjee points out two very important contributions in his letters. In one letter he mentions the Bengal Ambulance Corps, while in the other he says women from the country have sent essentials as war relief, which indicates how the entire country was a part of the war, directly or indirectly.Mukherjee’s letters also talk about how Armymen had to run on half rations for a long time and how people were dying of hunger in the camps.“Bengal has been a frontrunner in many things and during World War I, it produced the first Indian flying ace, Indra Lal Roy. Initially rejected by the Royal Flying Corps for defective eyesight, Roy took a second opinion from a leading eye specialist, and the decision was overturned. It was then that he joined the RFC, and was commissioned as a second lieutenant,” says Pal Chaudhuri. Roy’s elder brother, Paresh Lal, also served in the war but was later known for boxing.One of the several installations commemorating WWI heroes is found in College Square.While entering from the east gate opposite Mahabodhi Society of India, the 49th Bengalee Regiment memorial stands tall but usually covered by clothes left out to dry.“This memorial pays tribute to the brave men of Bengal who joined the 49th Bengali Regiment during the Great War. The names of the ones who died in the war, along with the rank and the districts they hailed from, have been inscribed at the base of the memorial,” says blogger and WWI enthusiast Rangan Datta.Another important memorial is the Glorious Dead Cenotaph near Eden Gardens. The sandstone structure, built in 1924, commemorates British and Anglo-Indians from Calcutta who gave their lives for King and Country between 1914 and 1918.While the above two can be spotted easily, there is a third one sandwiched between Navy House on Napier Road and the river on the other. “Seamen, known as Lascars, joined the British Army from Bengal, Assam and parts of Upper India,” says Datta. “Their condition was deplorable and around 896 died in WWI. Interestingly, Calcutta paid tribute to the seamen and erected a memorial known as the Lascar War Memorial.”This reporter also accessed some invaluable voice recordings with Lautarchiv, Humboldt Universität zu Berlin, an audio archive at Berlin’s Humboldt University. The audio recordings are of Bengali lascars who were taken prisoners in Germany and housed at the Wünsdorf POW camp in 1918. The lascars were mainly asked to say something. While some narrated something about how the Germans were treating them and recited the Bengali alphabet, others sang songs of melancholy.Whether you like the fact that Bengalis fought on their rulers’ behalf or not, is subjective, a matter of opinion. But the “Bengali account of the Great War” will help bust some stereotypes, it is hoped.

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