These heroes of Garhwal had shown their might in the First World War, Devesh Joshi told the history in his book.

Dehradun. You must have heard the mention of freedom fighters and state agitators of Uttarakhand, but today we are going to tell you about the heroes of Garhwal. During the First World War during the British era, there were many heroes of Garhwal, who set an example of bravery by serving in the British Army. Uttarakhand’s writer and educationist Devesh Joshi has written the book ‘Garhwal and the First World War’ after doing 6 years of research on this subject. He has given an authentic description of the heroic participation of Garhwali soldiers in the First World War from 1914 to 1921. This book has separate chapters on major warriors and also has an interesting description of the scenario of Garhwal during the First World War.

Devesh Joshi, author of the book ‘Garhwal and the First World War’, while talking to Local 18, said that after listening to the song ‘Saat Samundar Paar Che Jaana’ by Garhratna Narendra Singh Negi, he took it as the basis and started this research from the year 2018. Before the year 2022, he had written a book on First World War hero Captain Dhoom Singh Chauhan, which was very much liked by the people. After this he got encouragement. To write this book, he went to Lansdowne Museum and also met the families of ex-servicemen. Understand their folk songs.

Contribution of ordinary soldiers also mentioned
He said that through this book, his effort was to preserve in the form of documents the contribution of the soldiers of Garhwal in the First World War from 1914 to 1921. In this, not only the contribution of senior officers but also of ordinary soldiers has been mentioned. In this book he has compiled 14 folk songs, which have references to the First World War.

Mention of soldiers’ letters also
Devesh Joshi told that during the British rule, when the youth of Garhwal were recruited and sent to war, they used to write letters to their friends and family from there asking about their well being and telling about their condition. Originally included in the book are 9 letters sent from the front of the First World War, which were written by the soldiers of Garhwal to their families. From the book we will be able to know about the unknown soldiers of our areas and keep this information safe.

Tags: Dehradun news, Local18, New books, Uttarakhand news