1. My great-grandfather was a soldier in the First World War.
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Replying to @HeerJeet
2. He was a Sikh, from the Punjab, a group that was heavily recruited by the British army after the 1857 rebellion.
1 reply 7 retweets 21 likes -
Replying to @HeerJeet
3. On the hundred anniversary of WWI & 96th anniversary of its end I want to think about imperial soldiers like my great-grand father
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Replying to @HeerJeet
4. According to family lore, after the war ended, my great-grandfather waited for British to send him back to India. Then got impatient.
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Replying to @HeerJeet
5. Tired of waiting, he started walking back to India, hitching rides, stowing away. (I'm pretty sure this story isn't true.).
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Replying to @HeerJeet
6. That little bit of family folklore speaks to the ambiguous position of imperial soldiers: they served the empire but had other plans.
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Replying to @HeerJeet
7. We think of imperialism as Europeans sending armies to Asia, Africa, the Americas. But there was a reverse traffic too.
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Replying to @HeerJeet
8. For the French and British, one advantage of empire was an nearly inexhaustible supply of soldiers for the European wars.
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Replying to @HeerJeet
9. Not just French and British: you can't understand Spanish Civil War without appreciating Franco's advantage of having Moroccan troops.
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10. At the background of WWI was German anxiety that France & Britain had global empires, which included supply of imperial troops.
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Replying to @HeerJeet
11. Here in Canada, it's common to talk about the First World War as being fought for freedom and democracy.
7 replies 11 retweets 16 likes
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