A significant five-year research initiative, the Punjab Registers Project, has led to the formal recognition of 9,909 Indian servicemen from pre-Partition India who fought with the British Indian Army during World War I but were previously missing from official records, a historical omission that left them uncommemorated despite their sacrifice, with most having died in non-operational areas within India and thus not initially afforded war graves status by the British Indian government, but this ruling has now been overturned, and their names will be added to global commemorations, offering closure to families and correcting a historical injustice, as part of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission's ongoing efforts to ensure all who served receive due recognition.

A significant five-year research initiative, the Punjab Registers Project, has led to the formal recognition of 9,909 Indian servicemen from pre-Partition India who fought with the British Indian Army during World War I but were previously missing from official records, a historical omission that left them uncommemorated despite their sacrifice, with most having died in non-operational areas within India and thus not initially afforded war graves status by the British Indian government, but this ruling has now been overturned, and their names will be added to global commemorations, offering closure to families and correcting a historical injustice, as part of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission's ongoing efforts to ensure all who served receive due recognition.

A significant five-year research initiative, the Punjab Registers Project, has led to the formal recognition of 9,909 Indian servicemen from pre-Partition India who fought with the British Indian Army during World War I but were previously missing from official records, a historical omission that left them uncommemorated despite their sacrifice, with most having died in non-operational areas within India and thus not initially afforded war graves status by the British Indian government, but this ruling has now been overturned, and their names will be added to global commemorations, offering closure to families and correcting a historical injustice, as part of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission's ongoing efforts to ensure all who served receive due recognition.

In a major honour for India and the soldiers of the erstwhile British Indian Army, 9,909 Indian servicemen who had remained missing from the official records of those killed during the First World War have now been formally recognised by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) after a landmark five-year research project.

The CWGC said a historical omission had meant that these soldiers from pre-Partition India, who fought as part of the British Indian Army, were never officially commemorated despite making the ultimate sacrifice during the war.

Their names have now been added to the official records following the Punjab Registers Project, a collaboration between the CWGC, the UK Punjab Heritage Association and the University of Greenwich.

Describing the development as a landmark achievement, CWGC Director General Claire Horton said, "The Punjab Registers project is a landmark moment in that mission. The recovery of every one of these 9,909 names helps restore missing chapters in family and world histories."

She added, "It stands as a constant, timeless reminder that commemoration is not only about the past — it is about personal identity, family legacy and recognising the human cost of war."

The commission said it remains committed to ensuring these soldiers receive meaningful commemoration and is working with Commonwealth governments to seek views on a memorial that would honour them with the "dignity and respect they so rightly deserve."

The recognition has brought closure to many families who had spent generations searching for information about their ancestors.

Dr Inder Singh Palahey, whose great-grandfather Kesar Singh was among those recognised, said, "The fact that he will now be remembered in perpetuity within global history ensures the whole family sacrifice is recognised: which simply means everything to us."

Manjinder Nagra, who discovered that her great-grandfather Jagat Singh was one of the forgotten soldiers, said, "After all these years, he is finally being given the honour, dignity and remembrance he always deserved."

The project involved digitising and analysing a fragile collection of records preserved at the Lahore Museum containing details of around 320,000 Punjabi recruits. Researchers examined 15,935 deaths and compared them with 74,000 existing CWGC Indian Army records, eventually identifying 9,909 casualties that had been omitted from official records.

According to the CWGC, most of the missing soldiers had died in non-operational areas within India during the war. "Due to rulings made by the British Indian government at the time, these men were not afforded war graves status, and so their names were never shared with the commission. This project has overturned that decision," the commission said.

During the First World War, more than 1.4 million men from the British Indian Army served across major battlefronts, with one in six soldiers fighting for Britain coming from pre-Partition India. However, their contributions were often overlooked in mainstream histories.

Calling the project an effort to correct a historical injustice, Amandeep Madra, chair of the UK Punjab Heritage Association, said, "Putting that right means giving families around the world their history back, and properly and equally commemorating the men who died."

The Punjab Registers Project forms part of the CWGC's wider Non-Commemoration Programme, under which more than 20,000 additional names have so far been identified for commemoration.

—With PTI inputs

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