“We have so much to say, and we shall never say it.” All Quiet on the Western Front (Erich Maria Remarque).A war always proves that human happiness is not ordinary. It reorders our notions of life and death in strange, sad ways. Common lives are pulled into its fold, knowingly and very often unknowingly. Brajio Manik Syiem, a resident of the Khasi-Jaintia hills of India’s northeast was a participant in World War I. Like him many others from this corner of the world were sent as war labourers during that catastrophic event. All of them experienced the tragedy of displacement and homelessness, many died in reduced circumstances. They represent the ordinary people of the world upon whom the war was imposed.Dominant or official war histories have scarcely documented this curious chapter of World War I. By and large, these hills remain forgotten, unacknowledged. War was a distant knowledge for these people, it did not hold any immediacy for them. They did not choose their roles Wanphrang K. Diengdoh’s documentary film Because We Did Not Choose takes up the subject of this unusual and remarkable participation of labourers from Khasi, Jaintia and Garo hills during the first world war. Diengdoh’s film has travelled globally across many film festivals. The film was shot in India, England, France and Wales over a span of four years. He engages with this unexplored narrative to render a unique vision of the grips of war. The agonising experiences of these war labourers illumine our readings of the bloody war that punctuated lives and caused violent separations. This essential piece of history is provided with a nuanced insight through this visual narrative. Multiple truths resonate in the documentary, one challenges the other. Wanphrang does not privilege one over the other. It is interesting to witness a fascinating matrix of texts and subtexts in that film. Compassionate, moving and rich in details, this poetic visual canvas unveils the expanding scope of critical inquiry into an almost forgotten cartography of micro memories of war.Motphran or French Monument in Shillong. Credit: Because We did Not Choose, Wanphrang DiengdohGoing Away: Moans and Songs of SeparationWhen war broke out, nobody expected such level of disorder in these territories. The situation altered when the British Empire experienced acute shortage of man power. This crisis was overcome by recruiting labourers from the colonies. Killing was rationalised as it has always been in history. One of the many narratives from this region contends that religion was used strategically to elicit participation. Faith has a unique position in human universe. The Welsh missionaries played a key role in making people willing. Because We Did Not Choose reflects on this balanced collaboration between political administration and religious institutions. Wanphrang uses interviews, archival materials, journal entries, personal notes to bring forth the complexity of this chapter. Presbyterian Church Assembly was convened at Mawphlong between March 1 and March 4, 1917 to recruit around 2,000 Khasi and Jaintia people for labour work. The people were informed that they would be freed from bonded labour in the Khasi and Jaintia hills. People from Jaintia hills would be exempted from tax. Certain interviews in the film reveal that these farmers and cultivators sought adventure; they looked for a life beyond the hills. War offered them the scope to serve their motherland. Some other documents and interviews contest this claim. The documentary raises these contrasting questions, the answers are not arrived at. This tentativeness enriches the entire visual exercise.Henri Barbusse, the French novelist in his novel Le Feu presented the soldiers as “civilians uprooted”, they “await the signal for murder or death.” The documentary shows how on April 16, 1917, 969 Khasi and Jaintia men started their journey and how from that point, their association with war began truly. D. Stephen Davies notes in his letter that this group of labourers embarked on a journey that was treacherous, they went beyond Shillong, beyond India, beyond all threads of familiarity. Their departures occurred in instalments. One witnesses in the film how the people of the hills encountered plains for the first time. The city scapes of Calcutta and Madras on the way generated a sense of non-belonging. Home was elsewhere. The ‘other’ was perceived from both the sides.Farewell songs were composed to evoke this sense of displacement. The film touches upon the history behind the composition of these songs. The transitory journey of geography and of the interior rendered them vulnerable and disillusioned. Llewyn Sungoh’s composition heightens these emotions of transition and separation. He wrote, “Now we leave our home/ without looking back/ we’ll bid goodbye to our family/ Hope we return home.” Not all return home. Many died during this long journey. The film talks about Bah Clif who died during the journey. He was one amongst many. They navigated lands, crossed oceans to reach an alien land shorn of warmth and familiarity. In a different context, Jakob Kellenberger in his study on displacement and separation reflects on the challenges of dislocation and says that those who leave their land “also leave behind their past- their photo albums, the tree they planted when their first child was born, their homes, their neighbours, their social network.” Here, separation was not only in a political, social sense but in the emotional and psychological too. War had crumpled their souls.Home is unendingly far away….Shall we come back?How were the experiences in such a faraway land? A significant portion of the documentary looks at the diverse strands of their lives in a foreign territory. Some of them wrote memories of their stay after they had returned. The remembrances are interesting. They had gathered a lot of stories to narrate. Their memories dwell upon a world of feeling alone. They existed in isolation. An opportunity turned out be a kind of entrapment. On the one hand, these labourers had to witness the ravages caused by war and on the other, they missed their homeland terribly. It was a phase of sustained nightmare for most of them. They waited endlessly for letters from home. The words written in these letters carried them back to their homes. The members who did not receive letters were filled with sadness. Twelve to fifteen members had to live in the bell bottom tent; clothing was inadequate to combat such oppressive cold. They created some redeeming moments amid such hardships. They sang, cracked jokes and gambled. The film records how a common spectacle of the Indian bazaar repeated itself on the Somme battlefield. It was a fascinating sight to behold. But this merrymaking was only a facade. The film delivers a piercing insight into the psychological trauma that affected these workers. Their existence was defined through a sense of sadness that could never be surmounted.Grave of Khasi labourers in France. Credit: Because We did Not Choose, Wanphrang DiengdohThe descendants of many of these war labourers remember funny anecdotes and share these tales in the interviews conducted by Wanphrang. There is an interesting story about two Khasi boys who were hospitalised in France, The nurse who attended them was very pleased and gave them ties as gifts. They thought it was their uniform and they wore it around the neck and roamed around. It generated much laughter later. These were the lighter moments. But by and large everything there was gloomy and horrifying. They had no control over their fates. Everything familiar and intimate had been taken away from them.By December 1917, many were dead. Around 700-800 members returned home. War had treated them miserably. It had transformed their lives completely. Promises which were made earlier were not fulfilled. These were the moments of betrayal which were hard to grapple with. Back home they were not war heroes because they were labourers. This marginal position denied them any measure of glory and celebration. The documentary also covers the legacy of remembering these people. How do people of Meghalaya remember this nature of participation? Remembering is a complex task. In the series of interviews conducted by the filmmaker we are introduced to multiple remembrances.The film explores how people make sense of the past and highlights the pluralities embedded within this collectively perceived past. The representative of a church remembers Kho Shylla and Siang Dhar for bringing a big church bell as return gift from the war. Some people till now refer to this journey as ‘going to France.’ On April 17, 1920, a circular ordering donation for erecting a war memorial was distributed and eventually a war monument was structured as Motphran to commemorate the contribution of these members. Today Motphran has become more of an everyday street marker than anything else. Traces of war memories have mostly been forgotten here. One witnesses complete inadequacy of historicising this crucial phase of history. Some stories float through mutual exchanges, nothing seems to exist beyond that. The spectrum of these memories does not feature in national narratives, it is not even a part of regional references. Do these gaps and erasures matter? Wanphrang’s documentary is a significant intervention in this regard. It reconstitutes the names and voices of those who suffered traumas of separation amidst unquiet and turbulent front. Communities rediscover themselves through these mediations. Because We Did Not Choose remarkably creates room for such crucial discoveries.Suranjana Choudhury is an assistant professor at the department of English, North Eastern Hill University, Shillong. Her areas of interest include narratives on partition and displacement and women studies. She may be contacted at suranjanaz@gmail.com