Kids Corner

Film/Stage

Canadian Soldier Sikhs
World Television Premiere on Remembrance Day

DAVID GRAY

 

 

 

The award-winning documentary film, Canadian Soldier Sikhs: A Little Story in a Big War, will air on OMNI Television across Canada on Remembrance Day, November 11, 2012.

Canadian Soldier Sikhs is the fascinating and unknown story of a handful of Sikh immigrants to Canada who enlisted in the Canadian Army in World War I. They were volunteers who fought, and some died, for a country which denied them even the basic rights of citizenship.

A short trailer of the film in progress was first shown at The Spinning Wheel Film Festival in Toronto, and at the exhibition, The Spirit Born People Defending the World, at the West Block in the Parliament Buildings in Ottawa, Canada, in October 2009.

The completed film has been shown only three times, at major international film festivals. In 2011, Canadian Soldier Sikhs won the Best Documentary award at the New York Sikh International Film Festival, and a Creative Media Award at the Sikh Arts & Film Festival in California. The film was also screened at the Punjabi International Film Festival in Toronto in 2012.

FILM BACKGROUND

We know of over 50 men born in India who enlisted in the Canadian army in World War I. Most of them were of British origin. Only twelve were of Indian descent.

Of these twelve men, one was Muslim, one probably Hindu and the ten others, most with the surname Singh, were Sikhs.

The Canadian military records of these Sikh men provide the thread for a unique story of service, discipline and cultural clash, set against the tragic background of the “Great War.”

The film follows the path of these Sikhs through the enlistment process, training, and transport to France by troopship. It features the struggles these Sikh soldiers faced and the battles they fought, including those during which two of the men were killed. The film follows one injured soldier back to Canada on a hospital ship and to Kitchener’s TB hospital. Images of his war grave and the story of how his war medal has survived bring a personal touch to the film.

The film ends with the story of the soldiers’ return to civilian life, the search for their descendants, and the moving visit to the European graves of two of the Sikh-Canadian soldiers.

This project is an important step in bringing to light a largely unknown aspect of the history of the Sikh-Canadian community. It is a way to bring a newly-discovered war history, an understanding of Sikh culture and the pioneer Sikh-Canadian experience, to a large audience.

WHAT COMES NEXT?

The research for this film required many months of intensive searching. Because of the limited funds for research and the time constraints for film production, research on the soldiers had to be cut off at a point where the information for the film was adequate, but not exhaustive.

We are proposing to continue our research into the immigrants -- mostly Sikhs from Punjab and India -- who participated in Canada’s Army in World War I. Our goal is to produce a book on this story which would be published in early 2014, as Canada and other nations begin to commemorate the start of World War One.

To reach that goal, we need to complete the next phase of research. The research steps proposed are to search the personnel archives at the Department Veterans’ Affairs Canada, the War Diaries of the Sikh-Canadians’ units, the Commonwealth War Graves Commission’s archives, and the Indian Army records of these Canadian men. We will also search the new online sources such as Ancestry.ca, the 1911 census of Canada, the Canadian Letters & Images Project, newspaper archives, and other online community and war histories.

We would greatly appreciate any support, and any new information, photographs, or suggestions relating to the search. For more information on the ten Sikh soldiers, please visit the website at: www.canadiansoldiersikhs.ca

 

The film will air on Sunday, November 11, 2012, as follows:

ONTARIO - on OMNI 2 at 6:00 pm

ALBERTA - on OMNI Alberta at 9:00 pm

BRITISH COLUMBIA - on OMNI BC at 8:00 pm

 

IMAGES on this page, from top to bottom:

1   The town memorial in France with Lashman’s Singh’s name inscribed.

2   Students of the “Lest We Forget” project at Sunta Gouger Singh’s grave in Belgium. 

3   Lashman Singh’s war grave at the Arras Road Cemetery in France.

4   Film poster.
  

Conversation about this article

1: Resham Singh Raju (LaSalle, Quebec, Canada), November 06, 2012, 9:15 AM.

Thanks a millions for this great documentary. I would like to know, when it will be aired in Montreal and the rest of Quebec. I also want to help in any way I can ...

2: Aman (London, Ontario, Canada), November 11, 2012, 7:03 PM.

Well researched and produced documentary. Makes me very proud to be both a Canadian and a Sikh.

Comment on "Canadian Soldier Sikhs
World Television Premiere on Remembrance Day "









To help us distinguish between comments submitted by individuals and those automatically entered by software robots, please complete the following.

Please note: your email address will not be shown on the site, this is for contact and follow-up purposes only. All information will be handled in accordance with our Privacy Policy. Sikhchic reserves the right to edit or remove content at any time.