Indians reacted to world war 1 in a way that - Indian Muslims were angry because Turkey was defeated (with the help from British soldiers) As many as 74,187 Indian soldiers died during the war and a comparable number were wounded. India contributed a number of divisions and brigades to the European, Mediterranean, Mesopotamian, North African and East African theatres of war. In Europe, Indian soldiers were among the first victims who suffered the horrors of the trenches. It was Indian junior soldiers who stopped the German advance at Ypres in the autumn of 1914, soon after the war broke out, while the British were still recruiting and training their own forces. When the war ended in triumph for Britain, India was denied its promised reward. This left loads of Indians angry and sad, they took part in defending there country and they had no reward. Many complained how difficult the war was proving to be. For many Indians, curiosity has overcome the fading colonial-era resentments of British exploitation. They are beginning to see the soldiers of World War One as human beings, who took the spirit of their country to battlefields abroad. The Centre for Armed Forces Historical Research in Delhi is painstakingly working to retrieve memorabilia of that era and reconstruct the forgotten story of the 1.3 million Indian soldiers who served in the First World War.
