Memories refreshed: After a long period of neglect, the annual pilgrimage to the umbrella is back in Brighton. Chhatri is a small memorial built for the many Hindu and Sikh soldiers who died in World War I. He was wounded in Europe and brought for treatment to hospitals in Brighton where he died.
A cemetery was kept for Muslim soldiers. Hindu and Sikh soldiers were cremated just outside Brighton in a venue donated by a local resident. It was here that the Chhatri was built in 1921 by order of the Prince of Wales.
The remembrance at the site was more or less abandoned for a long time. Not many people came, and those who didn’t could not be offered a cup of tea on site. Then businessman Davinder Dhillon came looking for the revival and found that he had been asked to arrange it. Now hundreds come every year, as they used to on Sundays. Wreaths were laid, and The Last Post had some moist eyes on the game.
a day out: Although not all eyes were moist. For many, it was a Sunday in fine weather followed by a photo-op and then topped off with fine lunches provided by Punjab restaurants in London. That lunch was around an exhibition of photographs, mainly of wounded Indian soldiers in Brighton hospitals, and a reminder that they were all soldiers of the Undivided Army. India And of course under the British.
As always there was an observation of who was there and who was not, and who had what to say after being caught. This is all normal, and to be expected, it has been more than a century since those deaths. But at least, and if only briefly, the hundreds of people gathered remembered that thousands had been killed. And that’s already a much better thing than dropping the umbrella and not remembering at all.
inconvenient truth: Those dead are mostly forgotten because they died in political no man’s land. The British did not care because they were only their Indian subjects. Indians did not do this because they fought and died for the British. His sacrifice mostly remains unheard.
People forget that a soldier’s first loyalty is never political. This is for his regiment and commanding officer. Respecting and obeying him is an inherent discipline that the soldier knows in his bones, be it big politics. It is known, and respected, at least in internal defense circles.
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