The British-Nigerian historian David Olusoga demonstrates how the European powers that started the First World War called on their colonial subjects around the world to supplement and bolster their own war efforts. This thoroughly researched text sets the deployment of the British Indian Army on the Western Front and elsewhere in the context of examples of the treatment of colonial forces from Africa and Asia.

Olusoga exposes the complex racial obsessions that dictated how these men were treated, and explains how attitudes at the time and since have led to an airbrushing of their contribution from conventional histories of the conflict. The book quotes extensively from soldiers' diaries and other eye-witness sources, bringing to life the searing experiences of these troops.

This thoroughly researched text gave me the most complete account so far of the deployment of the British Indian Army on the Western Front in 1914 and how elements of it continued their service there until the end of the war. Morton-Jack details how this colonial force helped to save the British Expeditionary Forces (BEF) from defeat, describes how recruitment swelled its numbers rapidly and explores the complex relations between Indian soldiers and their colonial masters.

This excellent battlefield guide outlines the service of the Indian Army Corps on the Western Front, concentrating in particular on the years 1914 and 1915 (most Indian forces were withdrawn to other campaign theatres in the second year of the war). On a conventional Western Front Battlefields tour, UK school parties visit the most famous battle sites and cemeteries but this guide focuses in detail on more neglected sites such as the Indian Memorial at Neuve Chappelle. The first half of the book gives excellent summaries of the organisation and deployment of the Indian Army Corps and how the British carefully balanced the numbers of Sikh, Muslim and Hindu soldiers. This guide could be used to diversify the sites visited on your own battlefields tour or to supplement classroom teaching.

This detailed online scheme of work and its accompanying original resources for KS3 focuses in-depth on the contribution of Sikh soldiers within the British Indian Army to the war effort 1914–1918. It deals with their deployment on the Western Front, the treatment of South-Asian prisoners of war by the German authorities and the little-known attempt by the Germans to recruit such prisoners in plots to overthrow British rule in India. The resource also focuses on how Sikh-Indian soldiers of the First World War viewed themselves and how they might be viewed today.

In this excellent BBC documentary series, historian Olivette Otele explores the untold story of a black regiment in World War One.

The Indian troups were the first ones to experience the brutalities of trench warfare, and this clip analyses this perspective.

Indian troups were summoned to Marseille by their British rulers in 1914, and this clip explores the complexities of this hastily assembled army.