On 28 May 1940, Major Akbar Khan marched at the head of 299 soldiers along a beach in northern France. They were the only Indians in the British Expeditionary Force at Dunkirk. With Stuka sirens wailing, shells falling in the water and Tommies lining up to be left, these soldiers of the British Indian Army, bring their handicapped imam, discovered their method to the East Mole and embarked for England in the dead of night.
On reaching Dover, they obtained brass trays and began playing Punjabi folk music, upon which even ‘lots of British viewers took part the dance’. What journey had brought these males to Europe? What ended up being of them– and of pals caught by the Germans? With the appealing design of a real writer, Ghee Bowman exposes completely, for the very first time, the impressive story of the Indian Contingent, from their arrival in France on 26 December 1939 to their go back to an India on the edge of partition.
It is among the war’s concealed stories that casts fresh light on Britain and its empire.
http://pharmacytechprogram.com/the-indian-contingent-the-forgotten-muslim-soldiers-of-dunkirk/
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