Seventy Fifth Anniversary of VE Day: The Muslim Contribution

It was the 75^th anniversary of VE day yesterday (Victory in Europe), commemorating the sacrifices and hardship or a generation now mostly gone.  I sometimes think that if the role of the former colonies and their people in the world wars had been properly recognised, perhaps we might have been made a little more welcome here.

For context, the Muslim contribution to World War Two includes:

In North Africa against the Italians and Germans

In Italy against the Germans and

In Burma against the Japanese

In total 65% of all regiments serving in North Africa, Italy and Burma were Muslim (from The Indian Army 1914-1947 by Ian Sumner)  

Two of those 65% would have been my grandad and his brother in Burma.

Another was my husbands great grandfather in Italy.

A breakdown of the British Indian Army in 1939-1945 gives us the following figures:

Gurkha’s - 110,000

Hindu’s – 900,000

Muslims – 700,000

Sikhs: 150,000

The graves across Italy are testament to these figures.

Italy is home to the graves of some 122 Indian soldiers aged between 15 and 17.

90 out of the 122 are Muslim

89 of them belong to areas within pre-partition Pakistan.

Because of the dip in Hindu and Sikh enlistment between 1940 – 1942, Britain came to rely heavily upon the Muslim population.

Most of the adult population were already fighting in Britain's wars which meant that an increasing number of teenagers were accepted into the military.

Image source: Muslim headstones from the First World War in Notre Dame de Lorette French national cemetery. In the background are Christian headstones. David Crossland / The National

In a letter addressed to US President Franklin Roosevelt, dated 4 March 1942, Winston Churchill wrote: ‘We must not on any account break with the Moslems, who represent a hundred million people, and the main army elements on which we must rely for the immediate fighting’.

Bit of a history lesson, but an essential history for those of us who have been made to feel unwelcome here on occasion. I wonder what our elders who fought and are now gone from this world would have thought of how far we have come in some ways from the time they came here and how far we still have to go in others.

You can find out more about the Muslim contribution to the World Wars at the sources below:

The Muslim Experience in WW1

Noor Inayat Khan Memorial Trust

The forgotten Muslim heroes who fought for Britain in the trenches (Guardian)

Forgotten Muslim soldiers of World War One 'silence' far right (BBC)

Forgotten Soldiers: The Muslim Contribution in the Two World Wars (City Circle)

How Muslims Won the Second World War (Huff Post)

Archive commemorating overseas WW1 Victoria Cross recipients - Pakistan (gov.uk)