9,909 Indian WWI soldiers commemorated

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) added 9,909 Indian soldiers from the India — Indian Army who died in World War I to its official casualty records on July 6, 2026. These soldiers, previously omitted due to a historical ruling by the British Indian government that denied them war graves status, were identified through the India — Punjab, India Registers project—a five-year partnership between the CWGC, UK Punjab Heritage Association, and University of Greenwich. The project digitized fragile documents at Lahore Museum containing details of approximately 320,000 India — Punjab, Indiai recruits. Researchers, including PhD student George Williams and 19 volunteers, cross-referenced 15,935 deaths with 74,000 existing records, confirming 9,909 missing casualties. The CWGC's Non-Commemoration Programme, established in 2021, has now identified over 20,000 additional names. Families of the soldiers, such as Inder Singh Palahey and Manjinder Nagra, expressed gratitude for the recognition. The CWGC remains committed to physical commemoration and is consulting Commonwealth governments on a memorial.