Panel Launched to Document Families of Garo Labour Corps Heroes Who Served in World War I
In a significant step toward reclaiming a long-overlooked chapter of Meghalaya’s history, the Preservation of Garo Cultural & Heritage Committee has launched a statewide drive to identify, verify and document the descendant families of the Garo men who served in the Labour Corps during the First World War. The initiative seeks to prepare an authentic official register of those who left the hills of Garo Hills more than a century ago to support Allied forces on the battlefields of France.
The move follows a formal mandate from the state’s Home (Political) Department and the Directorate of Arts and Culture issued between 2025 and 2026. A specialised research subcommittee under the 28-member Preservation of Garo Cultural & Heritage Committee has been tasked with the work. The larger committee itself was constituted in April 2025 in the wake of public outcry over the demolition of the historic cenotaph at Lower Babupara in Tura, a memorial that had stood for generations as a quiet reminder of the Garo Labour Corps’ sacrifice.
The research committee will examine archival records, military documents, genealogical data, memorial inscriptions and oral histories. Families who believe they are descendants of the corps members have been urged to come forward with whatever information they possess. Details sought include the name of the personnel, the company in which he served, his native village, family lineage and any supporting material such as photographs, medals, certificates, letters, diaries or simply oral accounts passed down through generations. All submissions will be carefully cross-checked against available official records before being entered into the register. The collected data will be used strictly for historical research, genealogical documentation, museum development and educational purposes.
Officials have appealed for cooperation from Deputy Commissioners across the Garo Hills districts, the Garo Hills Autonomous District Council, Nokmas, village authorities, churches, educational institutions and civil society organisations. The call extends beyond Meghalaya’s borders to neighbouring states where Garo communities have settled over the decades. The committee has stressed that participation by descendant families is essential if the incomplete colonial-era records are to be corrected and the full story of these men finally told with accuracy and dignity.
The historical episode the panel seeks to document is both remarkable and tragic. In 1917, as the First World War dragged into its third year, the British administration turned to the hill districts of Assam for labour to support the Allied armies on the Western Front. From the Garo Hills, roughly one thousand men were recruited, primarily from areas around Tura, Baghmara and Nishangram. Most were farmers and hunters who had rarely travelled beyond their own villages. After medical examinations, about five hundred were declared fit. Of these, 456 eventually embarked on the long journey that took them by sea to France. They were organised as the 69th Garo Labour Corps, later partially reorganised into the 84th Company.
These men did not carry rifles into battle. Their duties were the hard, often dangerous work of maintaining the infrastructure of war: building and repairing roads under fire, digging trenches, constructing fortifications, salvaging materials and keeping supply lines open. Stationed first at Puisieux in northern France and later moved to other sites including Bucquoy, La Chapellette and Brusle, they laboured through the bitter European winter in conditions utterly alien to men from the warm hills of Meghalaya. Disease, exposure and the hazards of working near the front lines took a heavy toll. Records remain incomplete, but it is clear that many never returned. Survivors began the long voyage home in May 1918. Only about 120 reached Tura on 16 July 1918, where they were received with celebration and relief. That date has been observed ever since as Garo Labour Corps Day.
For decades the story remained largely confined to local memory and a handful of academic works. The original cenotaph at Lower Babupara, erected to honour those who died, became the focal point of annual commemorations. Its recent demolition sparked widespread anger and accelerated official efforts to preserve the memory in a more comprehensive way. The state government has since committed to rebuilding a permanent memorial and developing an associated museum or gallery. Chief Minister Conrad K. Sangma and Cabinet Minister Marcuise N. Marak, who chairs the heritage committee, have repeatedly emphasised that the new structure must honour every identified member of the Corps, both those who perished and those who returned. Research into the full list of names continues, with the hope that far more than the limited number currently inscribed will eventually be recorded.
The documentation drive is therefore more than an administrative exercise. It is an attempt to restore names, faces and family stories to men who were treated as anonymous colonial labour. Oral histories held by families often contain details absent from official files. Medals, faded photographs and letters still treasured in some households can help confirm identities and lineages that colonial record-keeping failed to preserve. By combining these community sources with military archives and casualty registers, the committee aims to produce a reliable historical register that can serve future generations.
There is also a clear educational dimension. At recent Garo Labour Corps Day observances, speakers have called for the inclusion of this history in school curricula so that young people in Meghalaya understand the contribution their ancestors made, however unwillingly, to a global conflict far from their hills. The research now under way is expected to provide the solid factual foundation needed for such teaching materials, as well as for exhibitions in the planned museum.
The scale of the task should not be underestimated. More than a century has passed. Many family lines have dispersed. Colonial documents are incomplete and sometimes inaccurate in the spelling of names and places. Yet the committee’s approach—combining archival work with systematic field verification and an open invitation to descendants—offers the best chance yet of recovering what can still be recovered. Every authenticated name added to the register will represent not only an individual life but also a family that waited, hoped and, in many cases, mourned.
As the research continues, the people of Garo Hills are being asked to look into their own family histories and consider whether an ancestor once left for France in 1917. Those who respond will help ensure that the Garo Labour Corps is no longer a half-remembered episode but a fully documented part of Meghalaya’s collective past. The sacrifices of these men, made under conditions of great hardship and far from home, deserve nothing less than accurate remembrance. The panel’s work is a concrete step toward that long-overdue recognition.
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