Inscription on Sikh monument at junction of Stoney Stanton Road, Bell Green Road and Jimmy Hill Way, Coventry

Image: © A J Paxton Taken: 14 Jun 2021

Inscription on a monument standing high on a roundabout at this busy Coventry road junction. It is usually described as a war memorial to the Sikh units that served in the British army from 1850 to 1945. https://www.warmemorialsonline.org.uk/memorial/204827/ https://www.coventrysociety.org.uk/heritage-and-history/coventry-war-memorials/other-memorials.html The rather ambiguous inscription describes the monument as showing the symbols of the Sikh Regiment. The 11th Sikh Regiment was created in 1922 out of Sikh units that had served in the Indian armed forces of the British empire, which in turn had their origins in the armies of the East India Company prior to the uprising of 1857. Sikhs served in these forces following the conquest of their territories by the British in the 1840s. Sikh soldiers fought for the British Empire in both worlds wars, in Europe and North Africa as well as in Asia. After India became independent in 1947, the regiment was incorporated into the Indian army as the Sikh Regiment. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Indian_Army https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/11th_Sikh_Regiment https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sikh_Regiment The monument also refers to the 300th anniversary of the creation of the Khalsa, the tradition initiated by the tenth guru of the Sikhs, Guru Gobind Singh Ji, in 1699. This was from the outset a military ethic, emphasising the protection of innocent people from religious persecution. This reflects the extremely severe persecution of Sikhs and other non-Muslims by the Mughal empire in that period; the ninth guru had been beheaded by the emperor Aurangzeb. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khalsa

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