Where poppies blow

The mist lifts to unveil a blue-green baize of hills with clustered forests of bamboo and orchid. Kohima War Cemetery stands on the gentle rise of Garrison Hill, once a place of both revulsion and courage, in the heart of the capital of Nagaland. It was here, separated only by the few yards’ span of a tennis court, that the British, Indians and Japanese fought in a Second World War battle so savage and heroic that it was voted Britain’s greatest ever. Today, vehicles belch great fumes of smoke as they wind their way at the foot of the hill and people hurry past on their morning chores. But inside, where row upon row of headstones — inscribed in English, and some in Devanagari and Arabic — marks the final resting place of 1,420 men of the Allied Forces, and of thousands of Japanese buried in mass graves under the burnt stubble of grass, birds sing from a cherry tree once used by snipers. All is quiet except for stray visitors; three Australians gathered to honour a fallen grand uncle and a serving Indian Army Major trying to bring the place alive in his mind.

It’s a scene playing out in many battlefields across the world — as the centenary of the First World War draws to a close, veterans of the Second World War become a fast-fading generation and colonial history is revisited. The tourism industry, which was far removed from the glorification of war, now strives to give both military aficionado and lay traveller a sense of the happenings of a place and the people who fought and died here. And, in the process, it also increasingly assists families in finding a dear one’s grave or memorial. While reading and watching films do provide background, nothing brings these battles alive like visiting these sites. The trend began in the 1920s when Ypres, Belgium, site of five horrific First World War battles, became a centre of homage, with boatloads of war widows coming in from Britain. France’s undulating verdant fields, where sheep now graze under blue skies, and sandy beaches (where Operation Overlord was launched) have some of the largest concentrations of battlefields, memorials and cemeteries of both World Wars. And, with films like Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk breaking records, guides and battlefield tour operators are bringing the action home.

In 2016, apart from regular vacations, UK-based Leger Holidays took 10,000 tourists for battlefield tours says Anita Rodgers, Head, Marketing Services. Military historian Paul Reed, author of seven books on the World Wars and head guide at Leger Holidays, has been conducting tours for 30 years. “My area of expertise spans from Waterloo to the Cold War (1815 to 1990), and my tours encompass places across the world associated with the Napoleonic and the World Wars,” says Reed. “My father, an officer with the Royal Artillery, fought at Monte Cassino and Rimini alongside Gurkha troops of the 4th Indian Infantry Division and that spurred my interest. Both my grandfathers were in the Great War, and people of my generation in Britain grew up on war stories. What I find remarkable, however, is that in 2017, the centenary of the Battle of Passchendaele, I’m leading a tour, comprising mostly teenagers, octogenarians, teachers and those tracing ancestors, to the site. There is still tremendous interest across ages.”

While tours run between four and 14 days, they are not always stoic journeys of remembrance. In places like Gettysburg, where Union and Confederate forces fought during the American Civil War, re-enactments of battles with actors and props are popular. The war poets of the First World War find themselves the subject of tours across Flanders fields. At USS Arizona Memorial, near Honolulu, that marks the resting place of over a 1,000 sailors and Marines killed in the Japanese surprise attack on Pearl Harbour, nearly two million annual visitors explore the “date which will live in infamy” through the many rooms that straddle the sunken hull of the battleship.

In India, where thousands of battles have been fought, not much has been remembered, except those involving the Raj. Delhi-based JP Sangar, founder-director of Jaunt and Joys India that specialises in tours commemorating places associated with the Revolt of 1857 and the Anglo-Sikh Wars, says, “It’s a niche market drawing only 2% of tourists, mostly Britishers, Australians and Americans. The tours are of two kinds — for those interested in battlefield tactics and ammunition, and for those interested in cemeteries.” For 15 years, Sangar has toured Mudki and Sobraon in Punjab, Lucknow, Jhansi and Meerut in central India, the ruins of the Lucknow Residency and the Ridge in Delhi. “Only 1% of Indian tourists opt for these tours. Their lack of interest is surprising, as these are places where our countrymen fought. Our educational institutions don’t promote this.”

Captain DP Ramachandran (retired), Chennai-based military heritage activist, says, “The culture of visiting battlefields has not been nurtured here. Veterans need to take the initiative. One of the agendas of our Colours of Glory Foundation is to visit military destinations like Meiktila in Myanmar.”

Reed also feels that Indian soldiers are better remembered in Europe. “The names of a million Indian troops who fought here are found in memorials. In a way, they are more honoured here.” As is evident from Vijay Singh’s comment in the visitor’s book at Neuve Chapelle, France — “Today, I discovered who my grandfather was.”