SET UP the furniture in the classroom to roughly resemble a map of the world, with tables and chairs pushed together to form land masses. From the list of locations in Resource I ask individual pupils to stand by desks that correspond to the rough location on “the world map”.

PRINT OUT large copies of each location from Resource I and give particular labels for particular pupils to hold up representing a location.

INVITE suggestions as to how these locations might be linked.

DISPLAY Resource G: Slide 6, which shows the location of where Indian Sikh soldiers served as part of the British Indian Army during and just after the First World War.

EXPLAIN that the labels pupils are holding up are the modern names of the countries where Sikh soldiers fought. (Take care to point out the link between the Mohan Singh Trophy, which portrays fighting in Gallipoli in Turkey, on Resource G: Slide 1). The details from the map are given below (note: it is unnecessary for these to be given to pupils although some might find the detail of interest):

• Western Front (1914-1918)
• Italy (1917-1918)
• Macedonia (1915-1918)
• Gallipoli (1915-1916)
• North Africa (1915-1916)
• Sinai and Palestine (1915-1918)
• Persia (Iran) (1914-1918)
• Mesopotamia (1914-1920)
• South Arabia (1914-1919)
• North-West Frontier Province (India) (1914-1918)
• Russia (1918-1919)
• East Africa (1914-1918)
• China (1914)

DISPLAY Resource G: Slide 7, which shows an Indian Sikh corporal (naik) on parade in 1910.

EXPLAIN that during the First World War all countries fighting published photographs and pictures of their soldiers which were designed to win the support of ordinary people for the war effort.

EXPLAIN that these images were called propaganda (display this term).

(Note: it should be emphasised that in many cases the artists may not have actually witnessed the event being portrayed, even if it is a real event, and will have used their imaginations in deciding what to draw or paint.)

EXPLAIN that the British government wanted British people to think highly of soldiers from the British Empire but that at the time most British people were white and most had never seen people with different coloured skins before.

SELECT a British propaganda image from Resources H1–H6.

ASK pairs to look at one source at the same time and decide:

• what the source shows;
• what the artist, photographer or journalist wanted British people who saw the pictures or read the newspaper articles to think of Sikh soldiers.

HOLD a discussion taking suggestions of adjectives.

(Note: the emphasis of this discussion is on what the creator of each source may have wanted viewers to think about Sikh soldiers, not the relative accuracy of each one.)