Tag: British Indian Army

COVID & The Spanish Flu, An Interesting Parallel…

There is no doubt that the current global COVID-19 health crisis is fluid, perplexing, dramatic, unsettling, paralyzing, and all-consuming; with countless images and data of people hooked up to ventilators or in body bags, healthcare workers & first responders in full PPE, (exhausted in some cases), deserted and empty streets, masked and gloved people and officials, rumors of shortages, etc., are omnipresent 24/7, in all news outlets, social media, concerned welfare calls, expert opinions and analysis, governmental or public health briefings, in unemployment numbers, in obstructed routines, etc.  Although some details are useful and informational, inspiring and even funny, but mostly forbidding, confusing, and conflicting! What’s confounding is the level of disruption, uncertainty, unpredictability and paranoia that prevails.  I wonder why our emotions are so heightened this time around?  Doesn’t the seasonal Flu kill more people annually?  What about more deadlier outbreaks like Swine Flu, SARs, MERs and Ebola, haven’t they become somewhat unmemorable & an illness of the past? It’s odd how we are indifferent and unconcerned to some maladies, yet so irrational and fearful of others?  Is it because its novel (no pun intended) & unfamiliar, and we haven’t developed any coping mechanism for? Or is it more innate and is triggering our reptilian brain and our instinctive survival mechanism?  Could it be even more primordial, perhaps it lays bare the cosmic truth about death, that we ultimately are not in control of how and when we die?

Also, what’s uncanny is the similarity that exists between ‘COVID-19’ crisis and the ‘Spanish Flu’ Influenza’ outbreak from only a 100 years back!  Both respiratory diseases (one coronavirus and the other H1N1) are so analogous that barring the period attire, one can easily swap pictures, posters and advice, and in my opinion one wouldn’t even know the difference!  Also, now overhearing my father, recount over the phone for his friends, the suffering from fall/autumn of 1918-19, as shared by Manji (his beloved grandmother who also lost her husband to this affliction within a short span of returning home to recuperate from the injuries to his spine that he sustained fighting in WW1), I hear him say, “Manji said there were so many deaths, when you returned from one funeral, the next funeral would be ready for cremation”.  I was stunned by this revelation and the poignant, sobering and soul-stirring picture these works painted, that are also so reflective of what we are seeing with the disturbing COVID-19 scenario!  Unfortunately that was the reality of the times and a common suffering, misfortune and depravity that many people and families share globally. I also noted that he called the infirmity ‘Katak di Bimari’ or ‘Illness of Katak’ (Katak, in Punjabi is the eighth month of the Desi calendar, 30 days long, with the first day falling on October 15th and the last day on November 13th), which my father later clarified that because there was absence of formal education and even lack of English language knowledge in the masses, perhaps Manji (and the locals) described this pestilence in Punjabi dialect which they were familiar & comfortable with, and one which made sense to them.  

As I further my research into the perils of ‘Spanish Flu’ in India, I am finding that although it is very well pictorialized in the West, photos from Indian subcontinent was hugely lacking. This felt odd given that Indian deaths accounted for 1/5th of the 50 million deaths worldwide!  Also, India had a large contingent of soldiers in WW1 and in the epicenter France where this disease broke out, what was I missing?  I know experts called it the ‘forgotten pandemic’ and it certainly seemed true from the Indian experience. Also now that are read these two write-ups – 1) Arnold David’s paper titled ‘Death and the Modern Empire: The 1918-19 Influenza Epidemic in India’,  where he states that “the impact of the disease was overshadowed by the prior encounter with bubonic plague, by military recruitment and the war, and by food shortages and price rises that pushed India to the brink of famine”, and 2) Angana Chakrabarti’s article “102 yrs before COVID-19, India braved The Bombay Fever pandemic that killed over 10 mn’,  she calls ‘Spanish Flu’ ‘Bombay Fever’ or ‘Bombay Influenza’!  I wonder if the depravations that existed in colonial India were so grave that people didn’t see ‘Spanish Flu’ as a distinctive disease and also the various colloquial names used to describe the disease takes away from knowing the true human tragedy in India?  While we ponder on this, there is no doubt that Spanish Flu came to India in three waves (like the rest of the world), mainly – 

  1. The first wave manifested in May/June 1918 in the dock workers at the Bombay port.  It lasted about 4 weeks and devastated Bombay (or Mumbai) and which the local British health officer, J.A. Turner, professed at the time “it came to Bombay like a thief in the night” (Chakrabarti, 2020).  Symptoms reported were fever, bone pain, bronchial inflation, congestion, eye pains and a general feeling of malaise.
  2. The second wave, the most lethal & fatal, targeted young men between ages of 20 to 40 years old (of which my aforementioned great-grandfather was one of its fatalities), came to India and Punjab in September 1918 and lasted till December 1918.  
  3. The third and final wave came in 1919.

In closing, although it’s unknown with COVID-19, what the next few days, weeks or months are going to look like, or how it may show up in history’s storyline & timeline, I am confident in the human spirit and its resilience.  Also, history is witness that mankind has overcome many endemics, epidemics and pandemics, so certainly we will prevail over this too.  For now, please head the warnings of the experts, wash your hands, and stay safe.  

References –

Mystery Of The Medal Solved…

I had a conundrum with one of my ancestors’ medal.  At first glance it is an inconsequential, flimsy medal; a red enameled cross with a ceramic white center with the letters SS surrounded by a gold wreath of sorts.  It doesn’t resemble any known British campaign medal of the time.  Plus, I hypothesized, given its lackluster and diaphanous quality, it to be an insignificant regimental honor given for a sporting competition or some leisure activity.  So you can imagine my astonishment and disbelief when my friend Tejpal shared it to be the Russian Imperial medal ‘The Order of St. Stanislas’ (Orden sv. Stanislava, Орденъ Св. Станислава).  A medal of great historical significance and quite a collector’s item!  

Wait.  What? A dynastic Russian award from the times of the Tsar/Czar!  What? How did my ancestor, an Indian soldier of the British-Indian army, ever get such a decoration?  In what way would he have had contact with any Russian?  As the name of the ancestor is not inscribed on the medal, could it be from Babaji Sawan Singh’s 2nd Afghan war times which was fought to drive Russians out of Afghanistan?  Or was it from Babaji Indar Singh’s generation when Russian empire was part of the ‘triple alliance’ on the Western Front?  It so turns out that during the First World War about 350 ‘Orders of St Stanislas’ were awarded to British and Indian troops!  Iain Smith, my connection from the UK based ‘Sikh Pioneers and Sikh Light Infantry Association’, stated that “at the end of the war, the Allied states made a point of making reciprocal awards of medals to their fellow Allies. You often find lists of medal awards in the London Gazette with British and Indian soldiers receiving French, Belgian, Serbian, Romanian or Russian medals. You are very lucky still to have the medal”.

Hold on.  When was the Russian Revolution?  Wasn’t the Russian imperial family deposed in 1917 (while the Great war ended in 1918)?  So, was this awarded under Czar Nicholas II’s reign or by the Russian provincial government that took over when the Czar abdicated?  Although, getting my head around Tsar Nicholas II, ’House of Romanov’ or ‘Lenin’s Bolshevik Revolution’ was overwhelming but it really brought history to life!  Now those boring and monotonous classes of world history (and historical events) had context and connection. Wow!  By now you must be wondering.  What is this award?  From my research it appears that this royal decoration has origins in Poland where it was awarded for ‘chivalry and exemplifying christian virtues’. Then sometime in 1831, it entered the Russian honor system and was given out to both military personnel and civilians for their distinguished service.  In 1844, after undergoing a few revisions and redesigns ( including splitting it into 3 classes), it started to be given out to non-christians as well.  It remained in place in Russia for some time in 1917, when the ‘Provincial Government of Russia’ came into power after the abdication of the Czar.  However, once the ‘Bolsheviks’ took control, all imperial and dynastic award were suspended and discontinued.  The original medal as it would have been awarded to my great grandfather would have been a ‘Bath’ cross with four double-headed eagles (representing the Russian empire) with swords at each angle (all made of gold), with a circular wreath of green laurel holding the white enameled medallion with red SS in the middle.  Plus, it would have been finely crafted in the workshops of highly skilled goldsmiths, silversmiths and enamelers!  

In closing, although, ours is a denuded medal that is stripped of its decoration of gold crown, eagles, and swords (perhaps for its extrinsic value), it is a magnificent reminder of my ancestor’s valor, heroism, sacrifice, and for being brethren in arms in the trenches of an awful war.  It tells of a tremendous story of resilience in the battlefield for which he was recognized by a foreign sovereign/government.  What an exquisite and priceless piece of history which I will cherish all my life!

Other Interesting stuff –

  1. Our medal has a mismatched ribbon! For some reason, a family member swapped out the ribbon with the one from 1911 Delhi durbar.  Hopefully, I can correct it in future once I procure the correct ribbon.
  2. Did you know historians did not chronicle WW1 records until 1922 (4 years after the war ended)?  Therefore, they may have failed to properly document the accounts of Indian soldiers especially the ones who perished before the war records were tabulated.  Thus my great grandfather’s story in an incomplete one! (Thank you Tejpal for this information

References – 

http://www.theaerodrome.com/medals/russia/osts.php

http://www.worcestershireregiment.com/wr.php?main=inc/a_foreign_russian

http://nicholsonadvisory.com/imperial-royal-order-of-st-stanislas

Caste and Clan Clarification …

Growing up I was acutely aware that I belonged to a Sikh family and was different from the population at large.  Although there were quite a few Sikhs in the different Air Force stations that my father got posted to, we were still a small number.  I remember my father looked different from other fathers because of his turban, my mother was taller than all my friends mothers’ & wore salwar-kameez as opposed to saris, their penchant for speaking Punjabi to each other (and their delight when other folks spoke their mother-tongue) while switching to other dialects in public. Plus, the unfettered liberty my classmates/friends took in cracking Sikh jokes also added to one feeling distinctive.   

Having said that what I was not much cognizant of the clan/caste differentiation that is so deeply rooted & entrenched in the psyche, traditions, beliefs and sentiments of the society and people of the subcontinent.  I think my first recollection of this stratification was thru my school curriculum where the ‘Laws of Manu’ was taught in history and sociology classes.  Although, as a minor, I didn’t see much evidence and any questions I had regarding caste/clan was countered with a very healthy discourse that the Sikh Gurus departed from such practice(s), and in the formation of the ‘Khalsa Panth’ (Sikh religion) the last Guru homogenized the religion by abolishing the clan/caste delineation by instituting that all men were to be called ‘Singh’(Lion) and women as ‘Kaur’ (Princess) as their last name.  Regardless, awareness of caste/clan social order crept in subtly and perhaps thru socialization!  For instance, during our annual vacation trip to Punjab, it was customary for my grandparents to take us to our ‘Pind’ (village), not only to mingle with our rural cousins, expose us to our ‘Jat’ roots, visit our farms, but also to socialize us to the ways of the ‘Jats’!  It was expected that as children of prominent ‘Jat Sikh’ family of our village, we not only needed to be familiar of our rural land holdings, what the land grew, when was the harvest season, etc.  Any talks of selling these lands were quickly hushed and made known that there is no Jat without land (farms that is).  For me the unspoken bias regarding inter-clan/caste dynamics came into prominence during my sister’s wedding.  My sister was marrying a ‘Khatri’ Sikh, and the idea that my parents even sanctioned it to take place was very unpalatable for many of our relatives.  They made their opposition & disapproval to this union known, with some being very vocal whilst others grumbling behind closed doors.  This was a bit of surprise to me given she was marrying a Sikh guy (and the only other example I know of a marriage that was opposed was that of my cousin who married a ‘Gupta’ but I thought that antipathy was because she married outside the religion!).  Now that after two decades of marriage my sister and her husband are divorcing, the same polarity & dogmatism is surfacing with our relatives surfacing their original opposition to this marriage. I realized that the clan/caste lines in India is very dominant and it transcends religion and time.  Powerful stuff!

Having knowledge of this bias, I was very surprised during my research into my paternal ancestor’s military service in the British-Indian Army that their regiments (23rd and the 34th Sikh Pioneers) were predominantly compromised of Sikhs from the ‘Mazbi’ clan.  The more I researched the more it got confusing with most literature calling all members of the regiments as ‘Mazbis’ as well as modern day experts congratulating me for the bravery of my ‘Mazbi’ ancestors.  Initially all this amusing given my introductory remarks but it became very apparent to me of the disservice this is creating toward the contributions of others that were also part of the regiment, and their participation was going unrecognized!  Although I have lots of questions, mainly around how come my paternal ancestors who were ‘Jat Sikhs’ end up in a regiment of ‘Mazbi Sikhs?  Were they progressive and aspired to the teachings of the Sikh Gurus who attempted to erode these class/caste/clan structures?  or were they ambitious and saw an opening for faster promotion in a regiment of a different clan?  I guess the answer I will never know but I do know that they were brave men and their contribution is immense which I will make entries in future blogposts.