START by displaying Resource P: Slide 1, which shows the Sikh corporal of the British Indian Army (featured in Lessons 2 and 3).

EXPLAIN to the class that they have so far studied British and German views of Sikh soldiers but that now they will study evidence about how Sikh soldiers saw themselves.

DISPLAY Resource P: Slide 2, which shows a rare colour photograph of Indian troops (cavalrymen) on the Western Front (the three soldiers with red showing under their turbans are Sikhs).

SWITCH back and forth between the two slides and lead a discussion about which image appears closer to what these soldiers must have actually looked like most of the time. Pupils might suggest the colour photograph because:

• such images are more immediate than black and white;
• it makes the soldiers seem less remote;
• the group photograph was taken on campaign while the single soldier is in parade posture in peacetime around 1910.

REFERRING to the questions on Resource P: Slide 3 explain that in 1972 an Indian historian interviewed 42 Sikh veterans of the First World War and asked them the following questions:

• why they had joined the British Indian Army in the first place;
• why they had remained in it;
• what they had thought about the way the British had run it.

ASK pairs (within a set time limit) to guess what they think Sikh soldiers might have answered to the questions based on what they have studied about Sikh soldiers so far.

DISPLAY Resource P: Slide 4, which summarises the answers given by the majority of the interviewees.

LEAD a discussion about whether there were differences between the pupils’ original suggestions about how the Sikh veterans might have answered and what they actually said.