A pair of broken and blood-stained glasses tucked away inside a museum
in West Bengal serves as a poignant reminder to the horrors of war and
helped frame the incredible story of Jogendra Nath Sen, the only
non-white who fought in the 15th West Yorkshire Regiment and the first
known Bengali to be killed in World War I.
Discovered by
London-based India-born Santanu Das, an expert on India's involvement in
the war, the shattered pair of glasses and other memorabilia form the
narrative of a documentary by Shahid Hussain, just featured in the
Inside Out segment on BBC One (Yorkshire).
Sen, who hailed from
Chandernagore (the former French Colony in Bengal now christened
Chandannagar), arrived in England in 1910 to study at Leeds University
in West Yorkshire.
When the war broke out, Sen was employed as an assistant engineer at Leeds Corporation Electric Lighting Station.
In
September 1914, he was among the first to sign up for the 15th West
Yorkshire Regiment, also known as the Leeds Pals Battalion.
"It
was in 2005 I discovered the broken and blood-stained glasses of
Jogendra Sen in the French Institute in Chandernagore," Das told IANS in
an email interaction from London.
"In the Chandernagore display
cabinet, the caption said that Jogendra Sen was part of the West
Yorkshire Regiment, a citizen of Chandernagore and the first Bengali to
be killed in the 1914-1918 war, on May 22, 1916," Das, a reader in
English literature at London's King's College, said.
Private Sen
was killed in action near the Somme in France, aged 28. His name is
etched on the university's war memorial, said Das.
Apart from the spectacles, the display cabinet proved to be a unique window to the past for Das, who grew up in Kolkata.
"There
were other memorabilia related to Sen - a photograph of a European
lady, a razor, a booklet, a dog-tag and a piece of string. The booklet,
we now know, was 'Poems about Friendship' signed by an enigmatic young
lady 'Cis' (Cicely)," Das said, adding the objects inspired his book
'1914-1918: Indians on the Western Front'.
With inputs and aid
from local researchers and academics at the university, Das was able to
painstakingly piece together moments from Sen's short life.
"He was the only Indian, non-white, in that battalion," said Das, who, however, couldn't locate any descendant of Sen.
Around
70,000 Indian soldiers lost their lives in the war. Some 150,000 Indian
soldiers were deployed in Europe from September 1914.
Sen's
story was unique because he went to war as part of a British and not an
Indian battalion. Despite being one of the most well-educated men in the
battalion, his attempts to join up as officer were prevented.
He was known as 'Jon Sen' or 'John Sen' by his army pals and was immensely respected by them, Das informed.
Sen is buried in the Colincamps cemetery in northern France.
The
documentary 'From Bombay to the Western Front:Indians in the First
World War' will be launched in Britain on Tuesday and will be available
online.
(Sahana Ghosh can be contacted at [email protected])
