Britain’s failure to honor Muslim troops a great stain
Zaid M. Belbagi
April 28, 2021 23:17
Indian troops serving with the British army pray outside the Shah Jahan Mosque in Woking, Surrey. (Getty Images)
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More than a century after the passing of events, the long shadow of empire still haunts governments today. In the same week that Turkey was pressured over the massacre of Armenians during the First World War, the UK found itself in hot water concerning imperial matters. The UK defense secretary was last week forced to apologize over the successive institutional neglect of British governments not properly commemorating black, Asian and Arab troops that fought for the allies in both world wars. The furor around this issue has once again highlighted how the history of both conflicts has been incorrectly recorded and how the role of Muslim troops in particular has been entirely underplayed.
Historian speaks out after 350,000 Black and Asian war heroes forgotten
As many as 350,000 people of colour were not commemorated by name or possibly not commemorated at all, a report has found
Updated
Defence Secretary Ben Wallace (Image: Ian West/PA Wire)
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A historian has said the failure to properly commemorate potentially hundreds of thousands of predominantly Black and Asian service personnel who died fighting for the British Empire is one of the biggest scandals I ve ever come across .
2021-04-26 08:35:54 GMT2021-04-26 16:35:54(Beijing Time) Xinhua English
LONDON, April 26 (Xinhua) They fought for the same British Empire alongside their white counterparts during World War I. Yet tens of thousands of African and Asian troops who perished during the fighting have barely been commemorated - or not at all - while their white counterparts received headstones.
Those soldiers, who died fighting for Britain, went largely unremembered simply because of their race.
According to a report from the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, which is tasked with commemorating those who died in the two world wars, between 45,000 and 54,000 named casualties are or were in some way deliberately treated differently to those killed in Europe.
Honour Britain s imperial troops as heroes of empire
What the critics often ignore is the fact that many of the black and Asian troops who fought in both world wars were salaried volunteers
26 April 2021 • 7:50am
Many people will sympathise with the response of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission to its own “special inquiry” into allegations of historic racism. Of course, there was ample racism in the early 20th century, although it was by no means confined to Britain and its institutions. Of course, there were historic errors in how some war dead were honoured and commemorated. Of course those errors should be rectified if possible.
Army veteran, 63, restores more than 80 graves over three years for forgotten fallen soldiers dailymail.co.uk - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from dailymail.co.uk Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.