World War I is considered to be one of the deadliest global conflicts involving countries like Germany, France, Russia, Italy, Japan and many other central powers and allied forces at that time. This war resulted in an estimated death of nine million soldiers while triple the amount were wounded. India did not participate in this but Indians did. At that time India was under British rule. England deployed British Indian Army soldiers during the World War. It is estimated that nearly 74,000 Indian soldiers died during the First World War. Soldiers from the Virudhunagar district also participated in this battle. To pay tribute to their sacrifices, the British authorities have erected a slab remembering their contribution at Thirumalai Nayakkar Palace at Virudhunagar district in Madurai region, Tamil Nadu.
There is a rectangular marble inscription that the British erected in the Thirumalai Nayakkar Palace on the southern Ratha road adjacent to the Andal temple in present-day Virudhunagar district’s Srivilliputtur area. It is titled Srivilliputtur and at the bottom, it is mentioned that 52 people from this village took part in the war from 1914-1919, of which eight people died.
“From this village, 52 men went to the great war 1914-1919 of these 8 gave up their lives” inscribed on the slab. It is done to honour the soldiers.
Apart from this, the British have also commemorated the war by constructing the triumphal arch known as India Gate in New Delhi. The world was pushed into the war after Austria declared war on Belgrade, exactly a month after the heir to the throne of the Austro-Hungarian empire, Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie were assassinated by Bosnian Serb student Gavrilo Princip. Later, Germany declared war on Russia followed by the British declaring war against them.
Millions of soldiers perished, and the economies of the participants were in tatters before the war ended in 1918, two days after Germany’s ruler Kaiser Wilhelm II was forced to renounce the throne on November 9.
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