Britain argues in favor of allocating £1 million for a monument honoring Muslim troops who served in the British Empire

London: The United Kingdom government has defended the use of $1 million in public funds to build a memorial in memory of the hundreds of thousands of Muslim soldiers who served in the armed forces of Britain during and after the two world wars. These soldiers came from the Middle East, North Africa, the Indian Subcontinent, and other regions.
India responded strongly to the TOI story, with some calling it divisive, others wondering why a monument for Hindus, Gurkhas, and Sikhs isn’t there, and BJP legislator Swapan Dasgupta labelling it as “stupid, woke politics.”

“We are supportive of efforts to commemorate and honor the military sacrifices made for our country by soldiers from a range of faiths, beliefs, and backgrounds,” a representative for the UK’s Department for Communities told TOI. These include the Chattri monument in Brighton, which honours Hindu and Sikh troops who lost their lives in the First World War; memorials to Sikh soldiers at Leicester, Wolverhampton, and the National Monument Arboretum; and a memorial to African and Caribbean soldiers in Windrush Square, Brixton. Thus, endorsing a Muslim war monument is an appropriate complement to our efforts to commemorate the roles and sacrifices made by marginalized populations in the military history of the United Kingdom.
“Many thousands fought & died for King & Country,” wrote Swapan Dasgupta on X. The majority of the military, the British-Indian army, was not structured along religious lines. Men battled and lost their lives in all religions. Congressman Kamru Choudhury responded to Dasgupta’s tweet with, “We are still searching for that one RSS guy who fought for India’s independence.”
On X, other people penned: “Why not just Indian soldiers? Why does a divided world need to remain divided? and “The former empire is still pursuing its polarizing policies.” Another stated: “Conservatives are now trying to get something out because they feel that they lost the majority Muslim vote because of Gaza.”
A second person said, “Brits left India 75 years ago, but their divide and rule doctrine lives on!” Another person said, “Wasn’t it enough to create Pakistan?” Another person said, “The memorial is the proof of why the British allowed partition.”
The Hindu Forum of Britain’s president, Trupti Patel, declared: “A memorial should represent all faiths.” Where does it end? If there is a Muslim community, there ought to be a Hindu, a Jain, and a Parsee one as well. We think that bringing people together is more important than separating them along religious lines.
The Mughal architecture of Pakistan and Northwest India, where a large number of the troops honored by the monument originated, served as inspiration for the memorial’s design. A passage from the Quran must appear at the bottom of the column.
It will be at Staffordshire’s National Monument Arboretum, where a Sikh monument honoring the roughly 124,000 Sikhs who served in the British Indian Army during World War I was erected in November 2015.
However, the Sikh Federation UK denounced the news as “discrimination” and said that government money for a national monument intended for London to honor Sikhs who served in both world wars has still not been provided.