India's Forgotten Air Warriors of World War I

 

Every stamp tells a story. These valuable pieces of paper unfold the past events and tell us lesser heard stories. The story that these collectable pieces of paper are telling us today is the story of a Great War, The World War I, and about a series of stamps, called ''Indian Air Warriors of World War I''. There seems to be little awareness about the role of India's air warriors in the Great War, and sadly very little is known about them. Four of these almost forgotten Indians flew as combat pilots, Lieutenant Hardit Singh Malik, Lieutenant S.C. Welinkar, 2nd Lieutenant E.S.C. Sen and Lieutenant I.L. Roy, DFC.

                        

Rs 15, Lt H.S. Malik, Indians in First World War, stamp.

 

Lt H.S. Malik. He was the first Indian to fly as a pilot in the Royal Flying Corps during the First World War. He was born on 23rd Nov 1894 in a Sikh family of Rawalpindi. At the age of 14 years, Hardit left his childhood and went to Britain in the pursuit of higher learning. War broke out as soon as he finished his second year of college at Oxford University. He joined the Air Force and became honorary 2Lt H.S. Malik, RFC, Special Reserve on 05 Apr 1917. Not only was he the first Indian in any flying service in the world, but he was also the first non-Brit with a turban and beard to become a fighter pilot, which was against every British Army regulation of the day. 

                        

1917 photograph of 2Lt H.S. Malik

He went into action in Sep 1917, initially from St Omer airfield and then from Drogland in Belgium. In one such flight, he shot down one enemy aircraft but was attacked by four enemy aircrafts. He got shot in the leg, crashed, but was saved. After recovery he returned to France to continue operational service. Malik relinquished his RAF commission in 1919. 

                       

Casualty Card of Lt H.S. Malik.

 

He passed the Indian Civil Service exam in 1921 and joined in 1922 as assistant commissioner in Sheikhupura. Later, he served as India's High Commissioner to Canada and later as Ambassador to France after India's independence. Highly respected by British, Canadian and European comrade-in-arms. He also played first-class cricket between 1914 and 1930. His awards include Grand Officer of the Legion of Honour, Order of the British Empire and the Order of the Indian Empire. He retired in 1957 when he was promoted to the rank of a group captain. He died in Delhi in 1985.

                      

Block of four stamps, Lt Indra Lal Roy, DFC, Rs 15.

Lt Indra Lal Roy, DFC.  Known as India's ''Ace'' Over Flanders, he was one of India's World War I, flying ace who served in the RFC and claimed 10 aerial victories, in a span of two weeks in July 1918. Born on 2nd Dec 1898, he grew up in Calcutta in the household of a barrister. His family was originally from the Barisal district in the present-day Bangladesh. When the war broke out, he was still in school, at the 400-year-old St. Paul's outside London. After turning 18, he joined the RFC, which was a corps of the British army. He was commissioned in 1917. 

                       

 Photograph of Flt Lt Indra Lal Roy in uniform.

                           

 Rs 3, postage stamp of Lt Indra Lal Roy, DFC.    

One of his experiences in war is breathtaking. In late 1917 while posted with 56 Sqn RFC, he was knocked unconscious, taken for dead and left in the morgue along with the dead. When he came to, he banged on the morgue door and shouted for help. After his recovery, he returned to duty and was posted to 40 Sqn. Over the next two weeks he achieved 10 victories. However, on 22 July 1918, he was attacked by four Fokker DVI. two of the attackers were shot down, but Roy was seen going down in flames over Carvin. He was posthumously awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross in Sep 1918, three weeks before his 20th birthday. 

                       

Indra Lal Roys's grave at Estevelles Communal Cemetery, Pas-de-Calais, France.

He claimed five aircraft destroyed and five ''down out of control'' in just over 170 hours flying time.

                        

Rs 5 postage stamp of Lt S.C. Wellingkar, Indians in First World War.

Lt S.C.Wellinkgar, (Shrikrishna Chandra Wellingkar). He was born in 1894 in Bombay. A member of the Gwalior royal family household, he attended St Xavier's School in Bombay, after which he joined Jesus College, Cambridge, in Lent. In 1917, he was commissioned a temporary 2nd Lt in the RAF and was conferred the rank of flying officer in June 1917. 

                        

Photograph as a 2nd Lt.

He joined a little earlier than Lt. Roy, but they were on the same mission. He was shot down on 27 June 1918 flying his Dolphin (No D3691) and died of wounds on 30 June 1918 in a German field hospital in a town named ''Rouvroy''. He was initially buried in a cemetery under the name ''Oberleutnant S.C. Wumkar'' and that believing him to have been a German officer, the French authorities had reinterred his body in Maucourt German Cemetery. In 1920, the grave is believed to have been opened and tentatively identified the remains as belonging to an RAF flying officer, based on the airman's boots and watch the corpse was wearing. The body was reinterred in the Hangard Communal Cemetery. During his service, he was awarded the Military Cross. His death in action is commemorated at the Hangard Communal Cemetery Extension, at Somme, France.

                        

Lt E.S. Chunder Sen, Indians in First World War, 2019 postage stamp.

Lt E.S. Chunder Sen (Erroll Chunder Sen). was born in Calcutta. At an early age he moved with his mother, brother and sister to England. At the age of 18 years, he was awarded a temporary honorary commission in the RFC as a 2nd Lt. After two months at Reading, followed by 25 hours of elementary flying training and 35 hours in frontline aircrafts, Sen was posted to the western front along with Lt Roy and Lt Wellingkar. While taking part in an offensive patrol, he experienced engine failure and dropped behind the rest. In an attempt to catch up with the others, he was lost in a cloud and was attacked by four enemy aircrafts. He was hit and crashed outside Menin (outside Belgium Province). He was in a prisoner-of -war camp for the remainder of the war. He was repatriated to the UK in Dec 1918.

                        

Erroll Sen seated on ground, in Holzminden prisoner-of-war camp, 1918.

Following the repatriation, Sen was promoted Lieutenant in Apr 1919 and was transferred to the unemployed list of the RAF. He returned to India and joined the Indian Imperial Police as an assistant superintendent in 1921. Lt Sen also witnessed World War II and was doing war duty. It is said that he spent the last few days in Burma and is believed to have died there. 

Sadly, very little is known about Indian Air Warriors of World War I, beyond the bare facts, in British records. They were from well-off families, attended prestigious schools, and fought gallantly with courage. 

                       

India Post released a set of Indians in First Word War, Air Warriors, set of four (miniature sheet) stamps in 2019.

                          

First Day Cover (FDC), showing an anti-aircraft gun position manned by Indian soldiers getting ready to engage an enemy aircraft. In the background is a brick/stone memorial, with names of fallen soldiers inscribed and it shows the four Air Warriors represented on stamps.

 

India's Maritime History and Coins

 

India has had a very rich maritime heritage since ancient times.  Around 3700 BC, one of the world's earliest ports was built in the city of Lothal (Gujarat, India) by the people of the Indus Valley Civilization. This was the beginning of the maritime history in the Indian subcontinent. The boat fragments are found on the painted potsherd and an unfired steatite seal of a boat are excavated at Mohen-jo-daro. The Indus valley was called as Melluha and it was mentioned in Mesopotamian texts, both of the ancient civilization had trading contacts with each other. Of course, this would not have been possible without maritime trading activities. 

                         

An ancient Indian ship on lead coin of Vasisthiputra Sri Pulamavi, Satavahana Empire, 1st - 2nd century AD.

The earliest Indian scriptures like Rig Veda, Ramayana, Mahabharata, Atharva Veda, Samhita, etc. give references about boats and ships faring Samudra (Ocean). Also, the Buddhist Pali texts and the Jakarta references about sea voyages, shipbuilding and maritime activities exist. Arthashastra also mentions the boats. The word ''navigator'' also is believed to have been derived from the Sanskrit word ''Nav Garth''.

                       

Indus valley seal. Boat with direction-finding birds to find land.

During the Nanda and Maurya era, (500-200 BC), India's maritime influence expanded, spreading its culture and beliefs. Megasthenes documented the Mauryan naval administration, detailing the first ever recorded Navy's role in naval warfare and navigation.

Boat as a symbol in Indian ancient numismatics was seen for the first time on the silver Punch -Marked PMC) of the Vagna-Janapada. This was the western part of West Bengal in 200-100 BC. The coin has a sun, boat, six armed symbols and an open cross depicted on it. These coins are found in the region of the Lower Ganga/ Brahamputra where boats would have been an effective means of transportation and trade.

                        

Vanga Janapada of Bengal, 2nd century BC, Karshapana, weight 3.7 gm, Obverse: Three punches, river boat, wheel and six-armed symbol, Reverse: Conch symbol.

                         

Vanga Janapada of Bengal, 2nd century BC, Karshapana, weight 3.5 gm, Obverse: Three punches, river boat, wheel and six-armed symbol, Reverse: Conch symbol.

Kurapurika was an ancient city-state of India around 200 BC in North India. Kurapurika was a Purika of the ancient times. According to    Fleet, Urika was located to the south of the island of Mahismati (in the Khandwa district) on the Narmada. They issued inscribed and uninscribed coins. The inscribed coins bear the Brahmi legend ''Kurapurika''. The boat symbol is often seen on these coins and also the coins of Ujjain (200-100 BC).

                            

Bell Metal Coin of Kurapurika City State with boat.

Ship/Boat as an independent symbol on coins was introduced for the first time in Indian Numismatics by the Satavahanas.

Vasisthiputra Pulumavi and Gautamiputra Yajna Sri Satakarni issued coins depicting ships on them. On the coins of Vasisthiputra Pulumavi, we observe ship with masts. These ship motif coins have been found from the shores of Madras and Cuddalore. While on the coins of Gautamiputra Yajna Sri Satakarni, a ship with two masts and a fish and conch are also seen.

                            

Satavahana dynasty, Gautamiputra Yajna Sri Satkarni (167-196 AD), Lead, weight 8.9 gm, Obverse: A ship with two masts, double strings for mast polls and furling flags for moving direction indication, a fish and a conch shell at bottom, Brahmi legend ''(Shri) Samisa Sri Yana Satakanisa, Reverse: Ujjaini symbol with a dot in each orb and a crescent attached.

These coins depict ships having one or two masts. They were sea surfing ships of large size and high tonnage. It is possible to discern certain characteristics of the boats used during that period.

Shalankayana, a vassal power of Pallavas , was an ancient ruling dynasty in the region of Andhra (300 AD to 440 AD). One of the coins depicts a lion on the obverse and ship with two masts on the reverse. The obverse lion is similar to the Satavahana ruler coins. This combination of a lion and a ship with two masts is seen for the first-time on this coin series in the subcontinent too. The sea power of the Shalankayana helped them to establish the overseas contacts and spread Buddhism to Myanmar and Thailand.

                          

Pallavas of Kanchi, uninscribed alloyed copper, weight 2.4 gm, Obverse: bull standing facing right, a crescent and Shrivatsa above, Reverse: traces of a two-masted ship. 

By the 4th century AD, the Pallavas became a dominant power in the south and established a strong naval power on the Coromandel Coast. This is seen by their coin issued by them. The initial coins depicted a single mast ship and later kings issued coins showing double masts.

                         

Pallava coin depicting ship with masts, Obverse: Bull facing right, Reverse: ship with masts.

The depiction of a ship on coins from a single mast to double masts not only show the transformation in the shipbuilding technique but also the improved economic conditions with the sea trade.

                          

Relief depicting an ancient ship likely to have been used by Indians sailing to Java, Indonesia.

These coins are found as far as Khuan Luck Pot in Thailand signifying the trade contacts with these countries. 

                       

Painted depiction of a three-masted sailship, 5th century from Ajanta Caves.

                          

In the medieval period, we don't come across any boat or ship on coins. Maybe the ships were so common that the rulers didn't find it important to portray them on coins. However, we do see them in medieval art. A ship carving is seen on the Shiva temple of 1100 AD at Tirumangalam (Tamil Nadu), depicting upturned stern and stem with high waves. Some other representations of boats in art forms are seen at Orrisa, Puri, Goa, Konark, Dilawara temples (Mt Abu, Rajasthan), Gujarat etc.

There are many other dynasties and rulers who had a strong hold on navy but are not known to have depicted ships on their coins. Chola, Cheras, Pandyas and Marathas are few renowned sea traders and naval forces.

                             

The Chola Empire (3rd to 13th century), initiated their grand naval conquests during the reign of two of its most illustrious monarchs, Raja Raja Chola (985-1014 AD) and his son Rajendra Chola (1012-1044 AD).

                        

Chola territories during Rajendra Chola I, 1030 AD,

Under Rajendra Chola they expanded the empire with the use of their strong navy and subdued many kingdoms of South-East Asia and occupied Myanmar,  Malaya, Sumatra etc and sent ambassadors to countries as far off as China.