MORE than a million men from Undivided India served in the First World War.

The soldiers - Hindus, Sikhs, Muslims and Gurkhas - came from across the pre-Partition country; the Punjab, Garwahl, the Frontiers, Bengal, Madras, Burma and Nepal.

The Indian Army served in many theatres of war - France, Belgium, Egypt and Gallipoli among them - and more than 74,000 men were killed. They fought in bitter winters, in the unfamiliar territory of trench warfare, often in inadequate uniforms. More than 9,200 Indian soldiers were decorated with medals - including 11 Victoria Crosses, the highest military award.

Yet the contribution made by Indian soldiers in the 1914-18 war has long been a “hidden history”.

Now a dance company is working with schoolchildren to raise awareness of the Army’ of Undivided India's role in the global conflict. Annapurna Indian Dance has held workshops with over 50 schools in the region, including Bradford, as part of a project called The Soldiers of the Empire, touching on issues such as race, religion, empire and culture through dance, music and storytelling.

The Calderdale-based company has devised a dance piece based around a mother losing her son in the war, which will be performed at Bradford Festival next month.

Shantha Rao, artistic director of Annapurna Indian Dance, has researched the Indian Army through the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. “Undivided India in 1914 included present-day Pakistan, Bangladesh, Burma, Sri Lanka, Bhutan and Nepal, all part of the then British Empire. A total of 1,105,000 Indian personnel were sent overseas. It was the largest voluntary army in the world,” she said. “The soldiers served in extremely difficult weather conditions in Europe, in a climate very different to what they were used to.

“I didn’t know about India in the First World War. It’s not widely taught in schools. Through The Soldiers of the Empire, we're helping a new generation to learn about the sacrifice of these soldiers.”

Based in Halifax's Dean Clough Mills, Annapurna Indian Dance works with schools and colleges and delivers work connecting communities. In 2014 it received Heritage Lottery funding to research a production called The Unknown Becomes The Known, which toured Bradford schools and Ilkley Literature Festival, exploring India and Britain's shared war history. The Soldiers of the Empire evolved from that.

The dance tells the story of an Indian soldier, played by Davinder Singh of Bradford arts group Punjabi Roots. "It starts in 1912 and goes on to show his mother saying goodbye to her son," said Shantha. "She makes him a last meal before he goes to war. Students dress up in costumes, the girls take on the role of mothers and the boys play the soldiers. We talk about sad they would feel to say goodbye. We tell them about making chapatis, something the mother does in the play. The young people do a peacock dance, because the mother looks at peacocks as she puts her child to bed. It's a vibrant classical dance, for many young people it's a way of learning what their forefathers did in the war."

"Although the young soldier never returns, it ends with some hope - we follow the Hindu philosophy that the soul is never destroyed."

The Indian Army was emphasised in Bradford World War 1 Group's commemorations of the First World War centenary. Its Shared Remembrance exhibition, taken to community and faith venues, including Khidmat Day Centre, the Bangladesh Centre in Manningham and the Guru Gobind Singh Gurdwara on Leeds Road, highlighted encounters between Bradford men and soldiers from India, including Bradford Pals, in Egypt, 1916, being served curry by the Indian Army camped nearby. The exhibition included artwork by Manningham primary schools.

People were invited to share family stories of the war, and the group compiled lists of men from Bradford and around the world, including Indian regiments, who died the same day.

WW1 Group members have laid tributes at the graves of Indian soldiers in war cemeteries in France, where some of the men are buried alongside Bradford Pals. In 2017 a wreath was laid at the Bradford Pals memorial in remembrance of Indian soldiers. “This was a global war,” said WW1 Group president Tricia Restorick. “Almost everyone living in Bradford today will have some connection with it.”

* Annapurna Indian Dance will perform at Bradford Festival, City Park, on Saturday, July 13. It will also be at the Great Get Together, in memory of MP Jo Cox, at Bankfield Museum, Halifax, on Saturday and St Jude’s Church, Halifax, on June 29. Visit annapurnadance.com or call (01422) 209906.