NEXT split the class into small groups and explain that they will play the role of a company of designers and writers who specialize in preparing museum or exhibition display panels. Each will be given a commission about Sikh soldiers during the First World War from a mystery client that they must keep secret from other groups.

GIVE OUT the instructions from Resource W1, W2 or W3 to different groups. The commissions represent two fictional groups, the American Sikh Association and the British Sikh Society, and one real body, the Government of India.

Each commission requires the group of designers to devise a sample panel for a touring exhibition including information on Sikh soldiers of the First World War. The text of the panel and the choice of sources and accompanying captions deliberately reflect the differing requirements of each client.

While these commissions are obviously fictional they have been written to try and reflect the current thinking of particular groups around the commemoration of Sikh soldiers during the First World War. (Note: the reason for making two groups fictional is to make the task sufficiently accessible to pupils.)

Some American Sikhs, particularly in California, do look back for inspiration to the Ghadar Party and identify them in an American tradition as freedom fighters for liberty. The fact that these were very radical revolutionaries akin to communists tends to be overlooked.

The Government of India has certainly celebrated Ghadar activists as heroes of the independence struggle in the past and has been embarrassed by the volume of Indian soldiers who fought in what have been seen as essentially colonial wars. However, with the distance in time this attitude appears to be shifting, particularly as these soldiers are proving useful in diplomacy with Western governments commemorating the First World War. The wording of the commission tries to reflect the tentative shift in official Indian government attitudes. 

British Sikhs tend to be viewed as one of the most successfully integrated communities in multi-cultural Britain. Evidence points to the vast majority of British Sikhs as being comfortable in identifying themselves as such. However, there are the usual tensions across generations where a culture with its roots mostly in fairly recent migration has to come to terms with how it expresses itself in a different setting than Punjab. Those in British Sikh communities actively promoting knowledge of Sikh history and tradition among British Sikhs view the First World War as an opportunity to highlight the sometimes forgotten historic links between the British as a whole and Sikh communities. It is an opportunity to remind British Sikhs and other British people that their links with Britain predate post-war migration. There are parallel efforts by Sikhs in Canada and Australia to commemorate Sikh soldiers who served in the dominion forces during the First World War. Of course, with current British political debates about identity and migration the record of Sikhs in the British Indian Army also becomes an important example of historic diversity.     

For the completion of the task pupils will need access to resources already used in previous lessons such as Lesson 5: Resource R, which contains Sikh soldiers' letters passed through the British censor during the First World War.

The task will probably be most effective using electronic presentation and groups could be organised to ensure that pupils able in design are spread among different groups. In the same way particular commissions could be slanted towards groups of particular ability - the Government of India group is probably the most difficult and could be given to more able pupils.

(Note: the task could also be completed as a homework.)