2011 – Ongoing
“One million one hundred thousand Indian soldiers served in the First World War, 60,000 died, 9200 were decorated for their valour, yet they are the forgotten heroes of the horrific bloodshed that eventually led to the defeat of Germany. Yet the memory of this crucial contribution of manpower, transport and money finds no place in the Eurocentric histories of the First World War”
– Mark Tully in David Omissi’s, ‘Indian Voices of the Great War: Soldiers’ Letters, 1914-18’.
“Two-and-a-half million men from undivided India served the British during the Second World War. Their experiences have been little remembered, neither in the UK where a Euro/US-centric memory of the war dominates, nor in modern South Asia where nationalist histories of independence from the British Empire have prevailed”
– Diya Gupta, Past & Present Fellow, Race, Ethnicity and Equality in History, Royal Historical Society and Institute of Historical Research, UK.
Since 2011, Baptist Coelho has been researching the contribution of Indian soldiers in the two World Wars. His fieldwork spans across Asia, UK, Europe, and Australia from which he has developed artworks in various mediums which have been exhibited worldwide. – Updated Mar 2024
