Lascar War Memorial
The Lascar War Memorial, located on Napier Road in the Hastings area of Kolkata, is a memorial dedicated to the memory of the 896 lascars (sailors from the Indian subcontinent) who died serving on ships of the Royal Navy and British Merchant Service during World War I. == Lascar == He had thought that the Lascars were a tribe or nation, like the Cherokee or Sioux: he discovered now that they came from places that were far apart, and had nothing in common, except the Indian Ocean; among them were Chinese and East Africans, Arabs and Malays, Bengalis and Goans, Tamils and Arakanese. A lascar (Lashkar, Laskar) (Persian: لشکر) and (Bengali:লস্কর) was a sailor or militiaman from the Indian subcontinent or other countries east of the Cape of Good Hope, employed on European ships from the 16th century until the beginning of the 20th century.