By Kulbhushan Kain
In 2010, while in Paris, I took an early morning bus to Neuve-Chapelle in the North of France. The route was lovely, passing through rolling green fields and small villages. There were only a few tourists going to the Neuve Chapelle – amongst them a middle-aged Indian with the surname ‘Negi’. After a small conversation, I realized that he too was travelling to it with the same purpose!
We were travelling to the village which became famous among military historians and serious students of history and was the site of a First World War battle that took place between 10 and 13 March, 1915. Those 3 days witnessed the valour and bravery of the Garhwali soldiers.
On 4 August, 1914, the British government declared war on Germany in what came to be called the First World War. Just four days later, two infantry divisions and a cavalry brigade of the Indian Army were ordered to mobilise and prepare for overseas service in what was called the “Indian Expeditionary Force”. The soldiers of the force began arriving in France in September, and by late October they were involved in heavy fighting. Among them were two brave soldiers – Darwan Singh Negi and Gabar Singh Negi. Both were to win Victoria Cross Medals fighting in battlefields separated by hardly 8 kilometres – at Neuve Chapelle and Festubert, in some of the bloodiest battles of the first year of the war.
At Neuve Chapelle, from 10 to 13 March 1915, Indian soldiers made up half of the attacking force and despite suffering very heavy casualties succeeded in capturing important sections of the German line.
The 2/39th Garhwal Rifles played an important role at Neuve Chapelle and their actions were typical of the bravery shown by the Indian Corps. The units’ war diary entries of 10 March, as well as a narrative account of the battalion’s actions written by their Commanding Officer (CO) a few days later, give a fascinating account of the assault, and the courage and discipline of its troops.
The unit’s war diary recounts that ‘‘bombing and bayonet parties worked down the main (German) fire trench’’ as well as communication trenches, reporting that “several casualties occurred here” but that the “line pressed on”.
One of these casualties was Rifleman Gabar Singh Negi (often erroneously referred to as Gobar Singh Negi in contemporary British sources). He led one of the bayonet parties which bombed and charged their way through the main German trench that day. Showing bravery, he led his comrades in the charge, with the London Gazette recording that he “was the first man to round each (German) traverse, driving back the enemy until they were eventually forced to surrender”. Gabar Singh Negi was sadly killed during this action, but his bravery allowed the Garhwalis to take 187 prisoners and three machine guns in their attack, the battalion quickly sending two companies forward to occupy the village of Neuve Chapelle.
He was only 19 years old when he was martyred.
Who was Gabar Singh Negi?
Gabar Singh Negi was born on 21 April 1895 at Manjaur village near Chamba, Tehri Garhwal. He joined the 2nd Battalion of the Garhwal Rifles, a regiment of the British Indian Army, in October 1913. The personnel of the regiment were mainly from Uttarakhand.
Negi was awarded the Victoria Cross which was sent to the India Office to be forwarded to Satoori Devi, his wife. A letter of condolence from Queen Mary was also sent to Satoori Devi. The medal was a source of pride for Negi’s widow, who wore it until her death in 1981.
Descendants of Negi organise the Gabar Singh Negi Fair annually at Chamba in his memory, held every on 20 or 21 April since 1925. A recruitment rally, stalls, and army bands provide entertainment.
Negi has no known grave; his name is recorded on the Neuve-Chapelle Memorial, as Gabar Singh Negi. His name was also included on the dome of the Memorial Gates in London, unveiled in 2002 which I had also visited.
I stood at Neuve Chapelle to see and feel the terrain Gabar Singh Negi must have fought in. Unfortunately, few records of him survive in Britain, other than the Gazette entry for his medal and a brief mention in the April 1915 war diary of his battalion. However, the Indian Memorial at Neuve Chapelle commemorates over 4,700 Indian soldiers and labourers who lost their lives on the Western Front during the First World War and have no known graves. The memorial is in the form of a sanctuary enclosed within a circular wall after the manner of the enclosing railings of early Indian shrines. The column in the foreground of the enclosure stands almost 15 feet high and was inspired by the famous inscribed columns erected by the Emperor Ashoka throughout India in the 3rd century BC. The column is surmounted with a Lotus capital, the Imperial British Crown and the Star of India. Two tigers are carved on either side of the column guarding the temple of the dead.
On the lower part of the column the words, ‘God is One, He is the Victory’, are inscribed in English, with similar texts in Hindi, Gurmukhi, and Arabic.
The memorial was designed by the celebrated British architect, Sir Herbert Baker, and unveiled in October 1927. Lord Birkenhead, then Secretary of State for India, the Maharaja of Kapurthala, Marshal Ferdinand Foch, Rudyard Kipling, and a large contingent of Indian veterans were also present
As I stood at the memorial, I remarked to my co- traveller Negi, who had undertaken the journey with me from Paris, “Very sad. He died so young. He had just stepped into the world.He was a flower in spring and not in autumn”.
Negi was quick to retort, “Thats not the way soldiers look at life. Dying in battle and with honour is the greatest reward. He died young – but went home to heaven early. Wahaan kabhie Khizaa nahi hoti- sirf Basant.”
We looked at each other. Both of us had teary eyes.
(Kulbhushan Kain is an award winning educationist with more
than 4 decades of working in schools in India and abroad. He is a prolific writer who loves cricket, travelling and cooking. He can be reached at kulbhushan.kain@gmail.com)
