Paper short abstract:

This paper discusses select letters of Indian Muslim soldiers sent to their families from the "front lines" during the "Great War of 1914-18." It examines religious imagery used to display bravery and loyalty to the British, and analyzes interfaith and intercultural relations.

Paper long abstract:

This presentation will discuss select letters of Indian Muslim soldiers sent to their families from the "front lines," mainly from France, during the "Great War of 1914-18." The letters selected, most of which were censored, provide a window into how these soldiers viewed not only the "Great War" but a host of other issues supposedly affecting Muslims in British India. The focus will be to try to understand these soldiers' concern from a religious standpoint, analyze their reception of and perspectives on being in the front lines with a religious "other" (Hindu, Sikh, and Christian). The letters reflect an anxiety concerning their role in the war defending British interests, all the while the British - as far as they were informed - sought to dislodge the longstanding, albeit powerless, Muslim political institution, i.e. the Caliphate. The paper seeks to raise some other pertinent questions that generally remain outside the purview of a historian or an ethnologist, such as: (1) Despite the anxieties noted above, what kinds of religious imagery was used by these soldiers - as part of a complex set of motivations - for their desire to display bravery and loyalty to the British (e.g. the Karbala and the notion of jihad) which may help us understand their hopes and aspirations? (2) How were the relations between Muslim and Hindu soldiers? Did they reflect the state of Muslim-Hindu relations in India at the time or were they governed by a different (interfaith, intercultural) dynamic?