This Article First Appeared In The Wire On Apr 18, 2023
Months after it was announced that a British Indian Army Memorial commemorating the sacrifice of millions of Indian soldiers who fought for the British during the two World Wars will be built in the Scottish city of Glasgow, the UK government has placed an export ban on a portrait by Anglo-Hungarian painter Philip de Laszlo of two Indian soldiers who fought in the World War I.
As per a press release issued by the UK government’s Department for Culture, Media and Sport, the unfinished portrait is estimated to be worth £650,000. It features cavalry officers Risaldar Jagat Singh and Risaldar Man Singh, who served as junior troop leaders in the British Indian Army’s Expeditionary Force at the Battle of the Somme in France and were reportedly killed in battle.
all of these soldiers are Muslim, most likely from what is now Pakistan – how ironic.