From the Pages of History :
The National Liberation Struggle and the Indian Armed Forces
- Subrata Banerjee
(Read in the Seminar on the occasion of the Golden Jubilee of Chittagong uprising in Delhi)
The Indian liberation struggle
can in no way be compared to the
Great October Socialist Revolution
in Russia. Nevertheless, the
transfer of power from the British
to Indians amounted to a change
of regimes. The old imperialist
regime yielded place to the new
national regime. In that limited
sense it was a revolution. In this
situation too it required the
“disorganization” of the armed
forces to give the final push
towards victory.
As we celebrate today the
golden Jubilee of Chittagong
Armoury Raid, we should also recall
the RIN revolt. Exactly 33 years ago
today those brave young men were
still fighting a losing battle. It was
probably no coincidence that the
naval ratings at IMS Talwar went on
strike on 18 February 1946 and the
British Prime Minister, Mr. Clement
Attlee, announced on the following
day, the decision to send
liquidation of the British Empire in
India.
The year 1857 marked the
beginning of the organized
participation of Indian soldiers in
the fight for liberation. The year
1946 was its culmination. Much
happened during the nine
intervening decades. One was the
series of dramatic, spectacular,
violent actions by individuals of
small groups of revolutionaries.
The second was what is known as
the constitutional movement. From
small beginnings the genius of
Gandhi converted it into a mass
movement.
The origins of the Indian armed
forces go back to the early days of
the East India Company. That was
in the 17 th century. The company
enrolled Indian guards to protect
8
the several factories set up in
different parts of the country. By the
end of the century three fortified
positions grew up in Madras,
Calcutta and Bombay. Around
them developed administrative
units with their own armies.
Europeans, recruited locally or
from abroad, and Indian sepoys
served in these armies. This
emerged the sepoy army,
commanded by its own Indian
officers, serving the needs of the
British rulers. At this stage even the
British soldiers served under Indian
officers.
In the middle of 1734, the first
contingent of British troops arrived
in India. The Company reorganised
its armed forces in three
categories-the King’s troops, the
Company’s European troops and
the Company’s Indian sepoys. It
took some years for these three
categories to be gradually
incorporated into one monolithic
structure. In the process the Indian
officers lost their prestige and
powers of command. This was one
of the factors that contributed to
the first organized revolt of Indian
soldiers, the revolt of 1857.
The sepoy army was an army
of mercenaries. Between 1757 and
1857 it fought 20 wars. It enabled
the British conquer the whole of the
Indian subcontinent from Burma in
the east to Kabul in the west. With
the total military occupation of the
country, the character and role of
the sepoy army changed. This
transformation was very well
explained by Karl Marx:
“With the conquest of Scinde and
the Punjab, the Anglo-Indian Empire
had not only reached its natural limits,
but it had trampled out the last vestiges
of independent Indian states… Hence
a great change in the position of the
East India Company. It no longer
attacked one part of India by the help
of another part, but found itself placed
at the head, and the whole of India at
its feet. No longer conquering, it had
become the conqueror. The armies at
its disposition no longer had to extend
its dominion but only to maintain it.
From soldiers they were converted into
policemen; 200,000,000 natives
curbed by a native army of 200,000
men officered by Englishmen and that
native, in its turn, being kept in check
by an English Army numbering 40,000
only. On first view it is evident that
the fidelity of the allegiance of the
Indian people rests on the fidelity of
the native army, in creating which the
British rule simultaneously organized
the first general centre of resistance
which the Indian people was over
possessed of”. (The First Indian War
of Independence, 1857-1859, K.
Marx and F. Engels, Foreign
Language Publishing House.
Moscow, PP. 39-40).
It would be wrong to think that
the Indian soldiers of the
Company’s army, raised the
banner of revolt for the first time in
1857. It is very significant that there
were reputed “mutinies”, for
various reasons. The Indian
soldiers never ceased to be
civilians. In the cantonments, on the
line of march they mixed with the
people. They corresponded with
friends and picked up news in the
bazars. They could not but be
affected by the sufferings and
moods of the general population.
The Cambridge history of India
records one incident after another.
Every time the leaders of these
revolts were blown up from guns in
the presence of their compatriots.
The first recorded incident took
Class Struggle