The Indian War Memorial: national memory and selective forgetting

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Periodical article

Title:	The Indian War Memorial: national memory and selective forgetting
Author:	Itzkin, Eric
Year:	2009
Periodical:	Historia: amptelike orgaan
Volume:	54
Issue:	1
Pages:	147-158
Language:	English
Geographic term:	South Africa
Subjects:	Indians military personnel monuments Anglo-Boer wars
Abstract:	This article uncovers the neglected history of the War Memorial commemorating thousands of Indian Army soldiers involved as noncombatants in the Anglo-Boer War. Erected in 1902, the monument in Observatory, Johannesburg, South Africa, overlooks the site of a large remount camp staffed by Indians. Excluded from official accounts of the time, which viewed the conflict as a 'white man's war', the Indian auxiliaries have likewise been overlooked in more recent historiography aimed at creating a more inclusive view of the War. Revisionist scholarship focused on African involvement in the conflict, while the role of the Indian auxiliaries remains largely forgotten. By comparison, the role of Gandhi's Stretcher-Bearer Corps in the War is well known. Commemorations to mark the centenary of the War, although intended as an inclusive anniversary, failed to recover the public memory of these auxiliaries. After the War, most of the Indian soldiers returned to India. Notes, ref., sum. in English and Afrikaans. [Journal abstract]