Previous page | New search |
The free AfricaBib App for Android is available here
Periodical article | Leiden University catalogue | WorldCat |
Title: | The Indian Monument: Selective Memories of the Anglo-Boer war, 1899-1902 |
Author: | Itzkin, Eric |
Year: | 2003 |
Periodical: | Africa Quarterly |
Volume: | 43 |
Issue: | 2 |
Pages: | 79-88 |
Language: | English |
Geographic term: | South Africa |
Subjects: | Indians military personnel Anglo-Boer wars Ethnic and Race Relations History and Exploration Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups) Military, Defense and Arms colonialism |
Abstract: | The Indian Army's contribution to the British war efforts during the Anglo-Boer War of 1899-1902 has been largely ignored. Although no Indian Army regiments took part, volunteers from these regiments, referred to as 'Indian Army auxiliaries', participated in a noncombatant role, as hospital staff and stretcher bearers, horse trainers and transport drivers, cooks, water carriers and laundrymen. Eventually over 9,000 Indian noncombatants, including NCOs, were brought to South Africa during the course of the war to perform auxiliary duties. They shared the fate of other 'non whites' who were drawn into the conflict, but whose contribution has been largely overlooked and undervalued. Only Johannesburg's first war memorial, at the summit of Observatory ridge, unveiled on 31 October 1902 in the first flush of victory, honours the memory of the Indians who fell in the war. Four unknown Muslims from the nearby remount depot were buried close by in August 1902. Notes, ref. [ASC Leiden abstract] |