place in 1764. It was a turbulent
year. According to Sir John Kaye
one battalion even imprisoned its
British Officers. This was the
period of the Sannyasi-Fakir
rebellion in Bengal.
The mutiny at Vellore in July
1806 has a clearly anti British edge.
The rebel soldiers were personally
encouraged by the third son of Tipu
Sultan, and hoisted Tipu’s flag on
the palace. Some 40 rebellions
soldiers were killed by the British.
In 1824, the 47 th Regiment at
Barrackpore refused overseas
service at the time of the British
invasion of Burma. They were
brought out on parade and literally
mowed down by artillery fire. With
the expansion of the British Empire
in India, more and more troops
were needed for garrison duties,
away from home and without active
service allowance. From 1835
onwards, after the annexation of
Sindh, there was a series of revolts,
extending over wider and wider
areas, and drawing in ever
increasing numbers. In 1843 and
1844, at least five infantry,
regiments, two cavalry regiments,
and some artillery units refused
garrison duties. The next two years
there were reports of conspiracies
which failed to materialize into
action.
Again during 1849 and 1850
there was the same problem of
garrison duty in the newly acquired
territory of Punjab. One regiment
even went on a pay strike at
Rawalpindi. Another significant
development in 1850 was the
introduction of a Gurkha regiment
to replace the rebellions 66 th
Regiment. Once again in 1856, the
Bengal Army and the Madras Army
refused to go on overseas service
to Burma. The soldiers claimed
overseas service was not part of
their contract. In response to this
stand, Lord Canning introduced a
new rule on 25 July 1856,
incorporating obligation “for
general service in or outside India”.
December - 2018
In each of these rebellious
acts by the Indian soldiers in the
100 years between the Battle of
Plassey and the great uprising of
1857, there was evidence of close
collaboration with civilians. Thus
1857 was really the culmination of
a series of peasant struggles and
revolts in the Indian armed forces.
The links between the two
movements were not always direct.
There is no doubt, however, that
each influenced the other, however
indirectly. There is also evidence
to show that many of the
disbanded soldiers joined the
different peasant struggles and
provided them with the necessary
military leadership. Most of those
revolts and struggles were the
outcome of their own immediate
experiences. Ultimately, however,
they found themselves facing the
British might. Thus they inevitably
took the form of a struggle for
freedom against foreign rulers.
The lesson that Marx drew
from the revolt of 1857, was not lost
on the British either. The first war
of independence was ruthlessly
crushed. India passed under the
direct rule of the Crown. The sepoy
army was reorganized. The theory
of martial races was evolved. The
idea was to keep out of the armed
forces those who had already
developed to some extent
intellectually. At the regimental
training centres the soldiers were
motivated through the develop-
ment of their racial or religious
pride. The newly organized
regiments were given racial and
religious names – Punjab
Regiment, Rajputans Rifles,
Kumaon Regiment, Sikh Light
Infantry and so on. Their
regimental histories were histories
of battles fought for the expansion
of the British Empire. These were
the traditions included in the
soldiers as part of their training.
The government took well
considered steps to keep the
armed forces isolated from the
people. Soldiers’ families received
special treatment with regard to
housing and food. Land was given
to retired soldiers to create vested
interests; Special schools were set
up for soldiers’ sons. They got
special preference at the time of
recruitment. Some joined the same
regiment as their father’s. They
became the rural elites. The
officers’ cadre, when Indian officers
began to be recruited, came from
the feudal aristocracy. The elitist
attitude was carefully nurtured at
all levels.
The soldiers learnt to look
upon the civilian population with
contempt. This was the process of
converting soldiers into ‘police-
men”. This was the only way to let
them loose against unarmed
people fighting for the country’s
freedom. One of the important
tasks of the Indian armed forces
was assistance to civil authorities
in the maintenance of law and
order. The other tasks were the
defence of the borders of Britain’s
Indian Empire and serving as
auxiliary forces in Britain’s
imperialist wars in different parts of
Asia and Africa. These roles they
fulfilled, in the main admirably, even
winning royal recognition, much as
the Royal Garhwal Rifles.
The units were so organized
as to prevent any united action by
the Indian soldiers. An infantry
brigade, for instance consisted of
British, Gorkha and an Indian
battalion. Certain units were further
divided on communal and caste
lines. The Sikh Regiment had, for
instance, a Mahar battalion.
Another might be composed of
50% Punjabi, Muslims and UP
Hindus. Then there was a class of
Indian officers, known as Viceroy’s
Commissioned Officers, as distinct
from the Sandhurst trained, King’s
Commissioned Officers. The
VCOS formed the backbone of the
unit administration. With caste and
community divisions, one section
or the other felt that the VCO
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