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Indian Voices From The First World War

The song of a butter loving Indian prisoner of war, recorded in 1916

The British Library holds several recordings of soldiers from South Asia who fought for the British during the First World War. One of them, Punjabi soldier Mall Singh, was taken prisoner by the Germans in 1915, who used the latest technology to record his voice. Ishleen Kaur of 大象传媒 Hindi tells the story behind the recording.

Image: Indian infantrymen on the march in France during World War I
Credit: Hulton Archive/Stringer/Getty Images

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8 minutes

Podcast