Advance warning for a short but hopefully interesting programme later this week.

The Muslim Tommies

"Much has been made of the threat posed by Islamic fundamentalists to the security of Britain. But what is often forgotten is that Muslims have fought on behalf of Britain for hundreds of years; thousands have lost their lives in the process.
Using simple reconstructions, this film gives voice to some of the Muslim soldiers who fought in the trenches of France during the First World War as part of the Indian Corps. Censors office reports from the time included many translated letters which document what life was like on the front line.
The letters contain fascinating but often heart-breaking details about the religious practices, sense of identity, hopes, fears, injuries and brave actions of the soldiers from 1914 - 1918."

Brian

Thanks, Brian - one to look out for. Nice to see it at such an accessible time

That looks interesting, thanks for letting us know.

Indeed. Think I'll set the alarm and get up to watch that one. Top job tv schedulers. Not.

Anyways, thanks Brian for the advanced warning. Definitely one to catch. Hopefully iPlayer
will have it the next day.

Thanks Brian, & (hopefully) a timely reminder!

NigelS

Just checked - it does.

I really enjoyed the programme 'Muslim Tommies' and it also helped provide me with a possible clue as to why a small group of WW1 Indian Army Punjabi servicemen's graves (ones that I came across unexpectedly recently) are buried outside of the main Commonwealth War Graves plot in Cologne Southern Cemetery.
In the documentary it explained that it was the custom to bury Muslim servicemen facing Mecca. Therefore if their bodies had been reinterned after the war and brought within the main CWGC site, given its general layout and for sake of uniformity, the grave markers of these men would have had to conform with the alignment of all the other headstones and therefore it would have required that they would not anymore be facing East (I hope that's the reason, anyway).
Congratulations to the programme makers, I found the subject matter and the way it was presented very good indeed and I'm now prompted to find out more for myself about the Indian Army's engagement on the Western Front.
Regards
'Egypt' aka Michael (in Cologne)
Happy to have UK Sat TV.

All,

Like Michael I also found the programme interesting and informative.

However, I was irritated by the continual reminding that it was an aspect of the Great War little known and greatly overlooked; overt implications that with more recent history in mind (Kuwait, Iraq, Afghanistan) that the current generation ought to learn more of this past. Well, if it is a piece of Great War history that is greatly overlooked and important to the current generation (which it indeed is) why run a 30 minute programme at 11.25pm at night and not a programme of say an hour in length during an evening time slot?

That said, better the programme is in the schedules than not, eh?

Best regards,

Ian.

Funny that I should be passing La Bombe Indian memorial a few days ago & come home to find that someone had made this prog.
I liked it but,make up your own minds

BBC i muslim tommies

My g uncle fought alongside the Indian troops in 1915 & I have yet to hear a bad word against them.

Just watched it on iPlayer - really, really good. I could even forgive the censoring officer's appalling sideburns.

Interesting sidelight on the refusal of Muslim jawans from Cureton's Multanis (15th Lancers) to fight fellow Muslims in the holy sites of Mesopotamia in 1916 (and the feeling of fellow-Muslims to that action) - 365 men were punished (out of 429 who rebelled), and they were replaced by Hindu Jats.

Fascinating programme which did due honour to its subject. Why it was stuck away at 11.35 p.m. only the Beeb will know.

The first 'Muslim Tommies' arrived in France in October 1914, the first 'Muslim Tommy' earned his VC 31st October 1914, a fact the BBC has continually neglected to commemorate. It's about time he was mentioned by them!

Khudadad Khan VC is mentioned in numerous primarary and secondary sources.

Khudedad Khan was mentioned, and his grandson interviewed, so he got his mention in this programme.

Really enjoyed the programme - thanks for the heads up or I would probably have missed it. Living in Brighton it was nice to see the Chattri and the Pavillion on TV. I have often walked up to the Chattri - its a beautiful part of the country.

I do like these programmes as the are a poke in the eye to the 'they didn't fight for us' brigade. I remember the loathsome Bernard Manning on Mrs Merton saying there were ''no P*&%'s at Dunkirk'' with his brother. In fact there was a regiment of Indian troops there - sorry rant over...

I'd like to see a program on the Gurkhas, Sikhs and other empire troops too in WW1.

http://www.chattri.com/index.php?The_Chatt...emorial_Service - Chattri website

Sorry if my meaning was not clear: I'm glad he was not only mentioned, but also the copy of War Illustated (or whichever one they used) was displayed. I just think that it's about time that he and others like him were acknowledged. There is plenty of contemporary material available like that, which could be used to make a whole series of programmes along the lines that Tim mentioned. There has been little that has been aired to indicate that the British armed forces have had multi racial elements for over 500 years.

Quite agree there: I think it is utterly scandalous that we don't make more - much more - of the various ethic groups which have made up the Crown's fighting forces for generations.

I couldn't - that and him wearing his Sam Browne with the buckle well around to the left hand side, almost in the centre of his back

I found the programme pretty dull myself - recorded it on to the DVD machine with the idea of copying it off if it was good, but just deleted it staright after. Some bits of it were alright, but the vast majority was nothing new or couldn't be found with a brief search of the web.

Disappointed not to hear about how many sheep the Indians brought with them, would at least of been a bit more informative then, but I suppose, if one has no idea about muslim soldiers it would be informative.
I watched the Atlantic war (or something like that) tonight, for a while anyway, and again was disappointed not to hear any mention of Colin Grazier G.C. and his part in the enigma episode. Then again he was only an AB and he died in U559, so he could'nt contribute any low cost dialogue. We have a memorial, an hotel, roads and an estate named after him in Tamworth. Another program in the same mold.

Alan

To be fair to the makers of the Battle of the Atlantic programme, they're following a chronological approach and have reached only December 1941. Colin Grazier's act of gallantry occurred in October 1942. There were at least 2 examples of code books being recovered from sinking U boats by destroyers. The first one, by HMS Bulldog in 1941, was featured in yesterday's episode. The second, by Grazier's ship, HMS Petard, will hopefully be mentioned in next week's episode.

Returning to topic, I noticed that The Muslim Tommies was made by the BBC's religious rather than history department. Perhaps this expalined why it didn't follow the usual policy of modern history documentaries of frequently reminding us why Muslims were in the British Army and what they were doing in France.

Better to have had some coverage of the topic than no coverage at all; doubtless this programme being 'minority interest' would have had a very limited budget (there were very few names given in the credits) and, as it was intended to draw the service of Muslim soldiers in the Great War to the general public's attention during Ramadan (which had it been on at a more sensible time, it might have done), not improve the knowledge of 'experts' who already have the know-how (and for that matter the interest) to find the information out for themselves, the minor technical issues about the details of the reconstruction (and the dodgy sideburns ) can be forgiven. Not being an 'expert' I found the programme both informative and fit for purpose, and, who knows, maybe some viewers' who had no previous knowledge of 'The Muslim Tommies' might, by having their interest awakened, been encouraged to investigate further with 'a brief search of the web' or elsewhere.

I think it's known as education.

NigelS

I think you're being a bit harsh, Andrew. It's a subject on which, while I am by no means an expert I suspect I know more about than many men on the Clapham Omnibus, and I found it very interesting and, to an extent, informative. A half hour well-filled and much better than a lot of documentary dross these days.

I can only state my own opinion - apart from the revelation of the transcripts of the letters, it was perfect material to get me ready for bed!

Fair enough. The letters were interesting, but I think the sideburns were sooooo 1970's.

Only got round to watching my recording the other night. An interesting documentary, and I found out what 'izzat' meant. Cheers, Steve!

The programme is on again in the very early hours of Monday morning (19th Oct) on BBC1

Alan