Credit: Amardeep Bassey

Anger and criticism

Disgusting to see Great War memorial vandalised.



The strategy of recruitment of soldiers to the British Indian Army was complex and at times questionable, but the sacrifices made were exactly the same. #Remembrance2018#WeWillRememberThem https://t.co/njoJbmDEEr — Jasvir Singh (@_JasvirSingh) November 10, 2018

I hope those who vandalised this memorial are found and punished. Disgraceful to denigrate this war memorial for Sikh soldiers. https://t.co/IWFKeuDtT3 — Professor Aisha K. Gill ✒📑 (@DrAishaKGill) November 10, 2018

This utterly breaks my heart - a memorial in honour of the Sikh sacrifice in WW1 has been vandalised less than a week after it was unveiled. ‘Sephoy is how British referred to soldiers’. I was looking forward sharing the history behind this monument with my son pic.twitter.com/NI7Sp2xyH1 — Balvinder Sidhu (@BalvinderITV) November 9, 2018

Disgusted 2 learn about the vandalism of the #Sikh soldier’s #statue installed in #Birmingham. What the #Sikhs contributed 2 the #uk & the ‘Great War’ effort is way bigger than this statue

WE WILL REMEMBER THEM!

Bole So Nihal - Sat Sri Akal #LestWeForget https://t.co/VIa4jE2d7i — Manjinder Shergill ☬🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🇪🇺 (@TartanTurbans) November 10, 2018

For real? Could this have been a Sikh who desecrating a Sikh statue? If it turns out to be so I am truly lost for words about the mindset of some within our community. They need a THAPAR https://t.co/uYId4N6ONT — Jay Singh-Sohal (@JSinghSohal) November 9, 2018

'One of our own'

I've seen this phrase 'Sepoys No More' again and again over the last few months. Can't believe someone would use the same phrase to desecrate a war memorial when the nation and the world is marking #Armistice100 How cowardly and disgraceful! pic.twitter.com/sBg4HNrr9m — Param Singh 🇬🇧 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 (@paramproperty) November 11, 2018

It is both naive and misguided to condemn those Sikhs who served in the world wars merely as "puppets of colonialism" . Yes there was exploitation and ironically they were fighting for the freedom of Europe and the world whilst their own homeland was under occupation. — Anglo Sikh Heritage Trail (ASHT) (@wwwashtinfo) November 10, 2018

However by using them in a debate in which they have no voice is unfair. In any criticism of their role we merely impugn their memory and the suffering, separation and hardships which their families inevitability endured. — Anglo Sikh Heritage Trail (ASHT) (@wwwashtinfo) November 10, 2018

If they were cannon fodder then let's not use them as political fodder now. It is their individual service and sacrifice we are remembering. To interpret this as endorsement of colonial rule is simply wrong. — Anglo Sikh Heritage Trail (ASHT) (@wwwashtinfo) November 10, 2018

Share this:

On Thursday night, a group of men with covered faces entered the grounds of Smethwick Gurdwara in Birmingham and vandalised a memorial dedicated to South Asian soldiers who fought in World War 1.The story was first covered by HuffPo's Amardeep Bassey , who reported that West Midlands police had classified it as a 'racial hate crime' and were investigating.But many say it was unlikely the vandalism was committed by far-right racists.The graffiti itself offered some clues. Whoever committed the vandalism had crossed out "the Great War" and sprayed "1 Jarnail" instead. It is widely assumed its a reference to the Sikh leader Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, who was killed in the 1984 assault on Harmandir Sahib (the Golden Temple). The vandals had also added "sepoys no more" - likely a reference to the British referred to Indian soldiers at the time.The memorial had been unveiled just a week earlier.It was the first full statue of a turbaned World War 1 soldier in the UK, to honour and remember the hundreds of thousands of Hindu, Sikh and Muslim soldiers from India who enlisted in the war.The Guru Nanak Gurdwara president, Jatinder Singh, told Birmingham Live he was really disappointed. "What makes this incident particularly distressing, is the complete disregard and lack of respect for the significance of the statue and inscriptions installed recently to commemorate the losses felt by many South Asian families who lost their dear ones during the First World War and to mark 100 years since the end of the Great War."The Sikh Federation UK called it a "senseless and cowardly act of vandalism".There was widespread criticism by Sikhs on social media too."Extremely disappointing. Most likely one of our own (Sikh person) did this," wrote user faultymango on the Reddit Sikh forum . "Extremely sad someone would do this. These men are our forefathers, they went to wars which might not have been theirs to fight. They were small in numbers but showed extreme courage, acts of bravery and valour in the theatre of war," they added.User Smokyzen wrote: "Especially with the '1 Jarnail' bit. A lot of 'decolonialists' and others were adamant against the statue, so it could well possibly be one of those."The Anglo Sikh Heritage Trail also posted a few tweets with the same assumption:On the Lions of the Great War FB Page , Gurcharan Singh wrote: "If there is no footage something funny is going on.. this was not done by no racist. Look at the language used."There were numerous other tweets also making the same point. No one has yet owned up to the act of vandalism.