The Flying Sikh: The Story of a WWI Fighter Pilot - Flying Officer Hardit Singh Malik

By Stephen Barker

Pen & Sword, Ltd, 2022

Peter L. Belmonte, Reviewer

Fighter Pilot

The Flying Sikh is more than a biography of one of the few Indian pilots in the Royal Flying Corps and Royal Air Force (RFC and RAF) during World War I; it is also an interesting and important account of the struggle for Indian rights in the British military. Author Stephen Barker is an independent historian and museum curator who specializes in World War I.

Hardit Singh Malik was born to a well-to-do family in 1894. He aspired to a career in the Indian Civil Service, and his father ensured he had a solid British-style education in India. At the tender age of fourteen, Malik went by himself to Britain to join his older brother and attend British schools. After graduating from a public school in Eastbourne he attended Balliol College in Oxford. Soon after graduation, Malik sought and eventually obtained a temporary commission in the RFC. 

Barker portrays Malik’s life as a British fighter pilot against the backdrop of Britain-India relations with which it was so closely intertwined. Along the way, Malik and the very few other Indian pilots found benefactors (often behind the scenes) as well as detractors. Malik served initially as a volunteer ambulance driver with the French Red Cross. After obtaining an honorary temporary commission in the British Army, he became a pilot and flew Sopwith Camels and Dolphins in England, France, and Italy. He was wounded and credited with one aerial victory.

For Malik’s initial posting in France, he flew his Camel in support of reconnaissance aircraft and bombers. On only his third mission over the lines Malik was engaged in a dogfight and claimed to have brought down an enemy aircraft in flames; however, this claim was not substantiated. Furthermore, Malik’s plane was damaged, either during the dogfight or by ground fire; this resulted in Malik crashing upon landing and walking away shaken but unhurt. Not long after, Malik was engaged in another dogfight. Malik described the combat:

A German dived on me and hit me almost immediately, but only in the right leg. He was obviously as scared as I was, for instead of flying off, he continued past and below me, still diving, and I simply pulled the triggers of both my Vickers guns straight at his tail as he flew past, and had the satisfaction of seeing him burst into flames. [pp. 109-110]

Malik received credit for this victory and spent time in the hospital recuperating. He rejoined his squadron briefly in Italy. He had developed an allergy to the castor oil spewed by the rotary engines of the Camel, so he returned to England to fly the Sopwith Dolphin as an instructor and in home defense. Malik had one more brief combat tour in France late in the war.

While descriptions of Malik’s service as a pilot are an important part of this book, Barker also recounts the difficulty of Indians in obtaining a King’s commission in the British armed forces. Barker concisely lays out the arguments on both sides of the issue. Just when it appeared that the “progressive” view of allowing Indian men to aspire to a regular commission was about to triumph, the war ended, and the urgency evaporated. It would take several more years for this logical, fair, common-sense idea to take hold.

Barker succeeds in showing how British policy toward Indians suffered from the racial attitudes that were perhaps prevalent in the government. He makes a good argument that Malik’s success could be attributed to his early Anglo-influenced schooling as well as his early attendance in schools in Britain. Malik’s good nature, “proper” upbringing, and success in sports served to make him popular and accepted among his classmates and others of more influence. 

Later in Life: A Diplomat (Canada, Late 1940s)

The author portrays Malik as a capable, driven, and easy-going young man who succeeded in reaching a difficult goal; his abilities further propelled him to success in the Indian Civil Service and in Indian diplomatic duties throughout his life. In this regard, Barker states:

[Malik] became one of many British educated diplomats, who were not agents of imperial “collaboration,” but representatives of an aspiring independent country, the personification of India at its best, what it could and would be in the future (p. 180).

The Flying Sikh is highly recommended as the military biography of an interesting young man who battled discrimination and difficulty with good humor and poise. It is also a good overview of the history of British-Indian relations, at least as regards the military of the period. Those who are interested in a deeper examination of the topic of Indians in the Great War should consult George Morton-Jack’s Army of Empire: The Untold Story of the Indian Army in World War I (New York: Basic Books, 2018). 

Peter L. Belmonte