Farewell My Indian Soldier, an untold narrative of the men who fought in Europe during the First World War, premieres on TV

Paris-based filmmaker Vijay Singh is a new-age Howard Carter. Like the renowned Egyptologist who opened up the mysteries of King Tut’s tomb to the world, Singh has spent many years unearthing little-known stories of the nearly-million Indian soldiers who fought in the Great War (1914-1918). Beyond the Kaisers and kings, redrawn maps of Africa and Europe, and poignant headstones scattered across continents, Singh chose to tell tales of love and not war.

Accounts of the First World War are replete with the white man’s memoirs and very little is known of the soldier from the Indian subcontinent who marched off to frozen fields to fight for king and country, except for a few letters that survived. Singh, the son of a surgeon who served in the Second World War, was a student of history at St Stephen’s, Delhi, and JNU before he moved to Paris to pursue surrealism and become a journalist, novelist and filmmaker. It was here that he found the story that was made into Farewell My Indian Soldier.

“At the Indian Embassy, the military attaché gave me a French administrative missive on the war, which had a single paragraph on the affairs between Indian soldiers and French women and their children born out of wedlock.” But Singh couldn’t find a single family that matched the description till he met Dominique Faivre, a collector of war memorabilia, who remembered a woman at one of his exhibitions whose grandfather was an Indian soldier. Through appeals in the local newspaper, Singh finally found Monique Soupart and the story of how her father had never known his biological father and the societal stigma he faced.

The film took five-and-a-half years to make and stars Paloma Coquant as the great great granddaughter. The story travels a vast canvas, across France, Belgium, the UK and India and numerous hill towns and cities, where the spirit of these men lives on in melas, letters and family treasure chests before it ends at the British Indian Command Headquarters in France where Sopart performs the last rites of her father.

Last year, when it was privately screened across the country, the film drew deep resonances with an audience trying to discover the place of the Indian soldier in the Great War. Ahead of its debut on Indian television, Singh tells us why the film is an extension of our identity as a nation and why it must be watched:

What has been the journey between the screening of your film in India and its telecast on Discovery?

The Chennai screening, was only the starting point. Subsequent screenings in nine major cities turned out to be huge affairs. The audience and press response to the film was stupendous... Then came the European highlight — a telecast on the most prestigious channel, Arte. The film was aired on our 70th Independence Day in French, German, English, Spanish and Polish, and the rest of Europe received it with English subtitles. It was so very moving to see the story of the Indian WW1 soldier at last reach European audiences — 100 years after the War!

Do you intend to pursue stories of Indian soldiers who fought in other continents?

I would love to do a Part 2 to cover the other theatres where our soldiers fought — Mesopotamia and Africa, mainly. This would complete the story of our WW1 soldiers, and the two films could form a proud record of our national heritage. Strangely, people have loved the film in India and abroad but there’s still no funding in sight, public or private.

Any plans to screen it at defence establishments?

Yes, I have pitched the idea to the Ministry of Defence and the Chief of Army Staff’s office. The Army press and information office wrote back to say they had found the film very heart-warming and complimented me for having made it, but they said they have no finances. As for the Ministry of Defence, there has been no response...

Any interesting reactions to the docu-film?

The president of a leading Indian channel once said to me, “In India, there’s no space for documentaries. Only Bollywood or serials work here.” Well, watch Farewell My Indian Soldier. As Mani Ratnam said in Chennai, this is a serious documentary but it has the poignant emotion of a feature film...