Empire, Faith and War

The ‘Empire, Faith & War’ project and website aims to commemorate the remarkable but largely forgotten contribution and experiences of the Sikhs during World War I. Although accounting for less than 2% of the population of British India at the time, Sikhs made up more than 20% of the British Indian Army at the outbreak of hostilities. There’s probably not a single Sikh in the UK who doesn't have a military connection in their family history. It is often because of those links to the armies of the British Raj that many Sikhs now reside in the UK. The Education Zone on the website provides two History schemes of work for Key Stage 2 (Years 5 and 6, ages 7 to 11) and Key Stage 3 (Years 7, 8 and 9, ages 11 to 14) that focus in depth on the experiences and contribution of Sikh soldiers from the Indian subcontinent fighting on behalf of the UK between 1914 and 1918. Other curriculum links to these schemes of work include: the study of Sikhism as a faith or the study of South Asia in Geography. They also link to the requirement for schools to teach British Values particularly ‘tolerance of those with different faiths and beliefs’. The focus on an aspect of world history (the growth of the British Empire in India, the service of Sikh troops around the world during a global conflict and the migration of Sikhs to Britain afterwards) also supports delivery of the Global Learning Programme. Download resources from: www.empirefaithwar.com/learning-resources/education-zone/