AMRITSAR: France-based Interfaith Shaheedi Commemoration Association (ISCA) will be organizing an exhibition on November 11 to remember the unsung heroes of World War I (
WWI) as part of commemorations of the great war.
Stating that as many as 140000 Indian soldiers had participated in the WWI out of which nearly 74000 soldiers gave their lives for France between 1914-1918, founder president of ISCA Ramesh Vohra told TOI “this is first of its kind exhibition of paintings that attempt to better sketch a more complete history of thousands of Indian soldiers (including present-day Pakistan) who were sent to the Western Front in France and Belgium under the British army during the WWI” adding that many gave their lives while others remain unknown or very little known.
Vohra informed that the exhibition comprised of paintings, drawings, private and official photographs, press articles, films, posters, and objects; highlights the absence of representation of Indian soldiers of the first world war.
“These are being presented to the public for the first time and reflect a variety of testimonies of the lives of different Indian soldiers, their way of living, their cultures, and faiths, as also the lesser-known facts of India’s participation in the World War I” he said.
Vohra who has authored 122 pages Coffe Table Book of the exhibition in two versions , French and English,said that he got several paintings made from the street artists from Delhi, Vietnam, Malaysia and so on.
Sarfraz Khokhar Ex-Légionnaire whose grandfather Muhammad Zaman had participated in the WWI said that his grandfather was a Prisoner of War (PoW) in Japan.