The dramatic adventures of India's first fighter pilot

The first Indian fighter pilot who saw active combat, Hardit Singh Malik, fought many decisive battles in World War I

- Probal Dasgupta

On 1 June 1912, author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, playing for the Sussex Martlets, stepped up to bowl to a stylish Indian batsman from an Eastbourne cricket team, from the town of East Sussex, UK. The Indian batsman scored 19 runs out of a total of 852 before being stumped by Doyle's wily off-spin delivery. His impressive batting skills caught the attention of a friend of Ranjitsinhji, the Indian cricketer, who recommended the teenager, Hardit Singh Malik, to Sussex cricket team captain Herbert Chaplin. By 1914, Hardit was playing for the Sussex County in the English cricket league. However, his future was about to take a dramatic turn, changed by an event in Sarajevo.

On 28 June 1914, the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the heir presumptive of the Austro-Hungarian throne, and his wife Sophie, by a Bosnian revolutionary in Sarajevo, had led to the outbreak of war. As Germany, Russia and France issued ultimatums to each other, the long shadow of war fell upon Great Britain which would soon join the conflict.

Hardit, who [was born in 1894 in Rawalpindi, west Punjab, grew up in a privileged home and enjoyed an idyllic childhood, and] had been sent to England from India to study at the age of 14, was at Balliol College, Oxford, and paving new paths on the cricket field when war broke out...

At Oxford, the choice wasn't easy. To fulfil his passion for flying. Hardit would have to fight for a colonial power that ruled his country by force... Watching his peers at Oxford head to the frontlines, Hardit applied for a fighter pilot's position at the Royal Flying Corps (RFC). The prospect of an Indian in that role raised a few sniggers, and his application was rejected. Undaunted, Hardit urged Francis Urquhart, his Oxford tutor, to recommend him for a civilian support role in France.