THE SEPOY AND THE RAJ

STUDIES IN MILITARY AND STRATEGIC HISTORY

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The Sepoy and the Raj
The Indian Army, 1860-1940

David Omissi
Department of History and
Centre for Indian Studies
University of Hull

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©David Omissi 1994

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10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 I
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 In Memory
of
My Parents

Truly, though our element is time,

We are not suited to the long perspectives
Open at each instant of our lives.
They link us to our losses: worse,
They show us what we have as it once was,
Blindingly undiminished, just as though
By acting differently, we could have kept it so.
Philip Larkin
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States and Provinces of the Indian Empire, 1909

 Contents
List of Tables ix
List of Abbreviations X

Glossan; of Indian and Military Terms xii

Acknowlegements xvi
Preface xviii

1 Recruiting Strategy 1
Mutiny and Manpower 3
In Search of the Martial Races 10
Colonial Doctrine and Colonial Strategy 23
Criticism and Consolidation 35
Conclusion 43

2 Enlisting Strategies 47
Leaving the Land 48
The Tangible Rewards 54
Incentive Structures 66
Conclusion 74

3 Fighting Spirit 76
Honour and Shame 77
Identities 84
Sahib, Sirdar, King 103
Conclusion 111

4 Dissent 113
From Depression to Desertion 114
Mutiny 131
Conclusion 150

5 Indian Officers and Indianization 153

Indian Officers before 1918 155
Indianization: the First Phase 163
Towards a National Army? 178
Conclusion 189
vii
viii Contents
6 Military Power and Colonial Rule 192
The Police and the Army 194
Army Deployment 199
The Army in Action 214

Conclusion: The Sepoy and the Raj 232

Biographical Notes 243
Notes 249
Bibliography 295
Index 308
 List of Tables

1.1 Ethnic composition of the Bengal Army, 1 April1858 7

1.2 Regional origin of Indian infantry battalions,
1862-1914 11
1.3 Madras Army officers by rank, 1862-1881 15
1.4 Class composition of the Indian Army, 1 January 1904 20
1.5 Ethnic composition of the Bombay infantry, 1903 22
1.6 Source of Indian Army recruits, 1905-14 23
1.7 Enlistment in the Indian Army by region, 1914-16
(combatants only) 39
3.1 Internal structure of Bengal Infantry regiments,
1864-97 89
4.1 Ratio of British to Indian troops in British India,
1794-1905 133
4.2 Indian Army mutinies, 1886-1930 136
5.1 Government of India scheme for complete Indianization
in three stages, January 1922 171
5.2 Extent of Indianization, 1932 185
5.3 Religion of Indian Military Academy cadets, 1932-34 187
5.4 Number of candidates for the Indian Military Academy
(entry by open competition only), 1932-38 188
6.1 British and Indian units assigned to internal security,
1905-21 210
6.2 Distribution of the Army in India, 1931 211

ix
 List of Abbreviations

AD Army Department
ADC Aide-de-Camp
AG(I) Adjutant-General (India)
ANZAC Australian and New Zealand Army Corps
BEF British Expeditionary Force
CAB Cabinet Office and Records, Public Record Office
CIGS Chief of the Imperial General Staff
CGSI Chief of the General Staff, India
CID Committee of Imperial Defence
CIH Central India Horse
C-in-C Commander-in-Chief
Cmd. Parliamentary Command Paper
CNS Chief of the Naval Staff (First Sea Lord)
co Commanding Officer
DAAG Deputy Assistant Adjutant-General
DAG Deputy Adjutant-General
DCIGS Deputy Chief of the Imperial General Staff
DCNS Deputy Chief of the Naval Staff
DMOI Director of Military Operations and Intelligence
PO Foreign Office and Records, Public Record Office
FPD Foreign and Political Department, Government of India
GI Government of India
GOC General Officer Commanding
GS General Staff
HD Home Department, Government of India
ICO Indian Commissioned Officer
ICS Indian Civil Service
IDC Imperial Defence College
IMA Indian Military Academy
IMR Indian Military Requirements Committee and Papers
10 India Office and Records
KCO King's Commissioned Officer
KGO King George's Own
L/MIL Military Department and Records, India Office
L/P&J Political and Judicial Department and Records, India
Office

X
 List of Abbreviations xi

MD Military Department
NCO Non-Commissioned Officer
NWFP North West Frontier Province
oc Officer Commanding
OTC Officer Training Corps
PRO Public Record Office
QMG Quarter-Master General
RA Royal Artillery
RAF Royal Air Force
SSI Secretary of State for India
UP United Provinces (now Uttar Pradesh)
uss Under-Secretary of State
UTC University Training Corps
VCIGS Vice-Chief of the Imperial General Staff
vco Viceroy's Commissioned Officer
wo War Office and Records, Public Record Office
 Glossary of Indian and
Military Terms

akali Originally a staunch follower of the Sikh Guru Gobind Singh;

in the twentieth century, initially a volunteer to take over Sikh
temples, later a member of the Shiromi Akali Dal.
Aryan One belonging, to, or descended from, the ancient people
who spoke the parent Aryan language (sometimes called Indo-
European) from which Sanskrit, Greek, Latin, Teutonic, Persian,
Celtic and Slavonic (and their modern representatives) are
derived; the language spoken by them, and its derivatives; one of
those who invaded and conquered India around 1500 BC. From
Sanskrit arya, 'of noble birth'.
Arya Samaj Society of the Aryan People'. A movement for Hindu
reform, established in 1875 by Dayandanda Saraswati.
Assami A payment made, or debt incurred, by a silladar trooper upon
receiving his uniform, weapons and horse from his regiment.
babu A Hindu title of respect, equivalent to Mr or Esq; an Indian
clerk or official who writes in English; often used slightingly by
British of Hindus, especially Bengalis, with an superficial educa-
tion in English.
bania A Hindu moneylender or merchant, especially of grain.
batta A field allowance for soldiers.
battalion A body of infantry, normally several hundred strong,
composed of companies and forming part of a regiment.
bhadralok 'Respectable people'. The higher literate castes of
Bengal.
blzalwa A pigmented substance used by dhobis to mark and iden-
tify their washing.
Brahmin A member of the first varna, traditionally priests and
scholars. From Sanskrit brahman, 'prayer' or 'praise'.
caste Ascribed ritual status in the Indian, especially Hindu, social
hierarchy. From Portuguese casta, 'race', and Latin castus, 'pure' or
'chaste'.
company A body of infantry, usually of between one or two hun-
dred men, normally led by a captain, lieutenant or subedar, and
forming part of a battalion.

xii
 Glossary of Indian and Military Terms xiii

Coorg A mountainous province of Southern India; a high-caste

inhabitant of that province.
dharma Personal duty or conduct appropriate to one's status;
moral obligation; law. From Sanskrit 'decree' or 'custom'.
dhobi An Indian washerman.
doab A tongue of alluvium between two converging rivers. From
Persian do, 'two', and ab, 'water'.
Dogra An Anglo-Indian military term used to denote a high-caste
inhabitant of Kangra (a Himalayan province).
Dravidian Pertaining to the non-Aryan people of India, or to their
languages.
durbar The court, public audience or levee of a ruler.
Dusserah An annual Hindu festival, lasting nine nights or ten days
in the month of Jaistha (September-October).
fa twa A decree in accordance with Muslim law.
furlough A permit or licence given to a soldier to be absent from
duty for a stated time. Cf. German Urlaub.
glladr Revolt or revolution; whence Ghadrite.
got An exogamous subcaste or clan, especially of the Punjab.
Gujar A cultivator of Northern India.
gurdwara 'The door of the Guru'. A Sikh temple, generally also the
centre of Sikh social activity.
Guru Preceptor; religious teacher; an epithet applied to the founder
of Sikhism, to each of his nine successors, and to the Sikh
scriptures.
Granth Sahib The collected writings of the Sikh gurus.
hartal A stoppage of work as a sign of mourning or protest; from
Hindi ltat, 'shop' or 'market', and tala, 'bolt for the door'.
havildar An Indian NCO, equivalent in rank to a sergeant.
Hindi The major Aryan vernacular of Northern India, spoken (with
many dialects) from the frontiers of Bengal to those of the Punjab
and Sind.
Hindustan 'The country of the Hindus'; originally the region of the
river Indus; in the colonial period, normally used to denote
Upper India (the plain of the Ganges, except Bihar and Bengal);
sometimes all of India.
Id The Muslim festival which marks the end of Ramazan.
izzat Honour, prestige, reputation or standing.
jagir An assignment of government revenue from a district, orig-
inally in return for public (especially military) service.
jagirdar The holder of a jagir.
xiv Glossary of Indian and Military Terms
Jat A member of the principal cultivating caste of the Punjab and
Rajputana, of proverbial stupidity.
jati 'Genesis', 'origin' or 'birth'. Used to denote any living group or
species, especially local caste or lineage.
Jemadar An Indian company officer, immediately junior to a
subedar, and corresponding to a lieutenant.
jihad A religious war of Muslims against unbelievers in Islam.
kacchhera Underclothes worn by Sikhs as a mark of their religion.
kanga A bracelet worn by Sikhs as a mark of their religion.
khaki Dust-coloured; dull brownish yellow; a fabric of this colour
used in British and Indian Army field uniforms. From Urdu and
Persian khaki, 'dusty'.
kirpan A sword or dagger worn by Sikhs as a mark of their religion.
Khalifa 'Deputy of god'. The spiritual head of Islam; until the early
twentieth century, the Sultan of Turkey.
Khalsa A political and military brotherhood within Sikhism,
founded in the seventeenth century by Guru Gobind Singh; a
member thereof.
Kshatriya A member of the second, or warrior, varna.
lathi A stout stick or stave, often ringed or ferruled.
lakh One hundred thousand.
Lingayat A member of the South Indian sect who worship the
lingam, or phallus, as a symbol of the god Shiva.
mahant A religious superior or guardian of a shrine or temple.
Mappila A Muslim fisherman or cultivator of Malabar, of low
status and usually landless; also Moplah.
naik An Indian NCO, corresponding in rank to a corporal.
Pathan The name of a Pashto-speaking Muslim people inhabiting
south-east Afghanistan and the North West Frontier.
pir A Muslim spiritual leader.
purdah Seclusion or isolation, especially of Muslim women. From
Urdu and Persian pardah, 'veil' or 'curtain'.
Raj Kingdom or principality; rule; often used loosely to denote
British rule of India.
Raja An Indian prince or ruler; a title of nobility.
Rajputana 'The land of the Rajputs'. A North Indian province, now
Rajasthan.
Rajput A Kshatriya of the most prominent military and landhold-
ing caste-cluster of Northern India, distinguished by its martial
spirit and aversion to handling the plough.
Ramazan The ninth month of the Muslim year, observed as a
thirty-day fast during the hours of daylight; also Ramadan.
 Glossan; of Indian and Military Terms XV

regiment A body of soldiers, composed of one or more infantry bat-

talions or several cavalry squadrons, and usually led by a colonel.
risaldar An Indian cavalry officer.
satyagraha 'Soul-force' or 'truth-force'. Non-violent resistance to
oppression as advocated by M. K. Gandhi.
sehajdari A Sikh who is not baptized as a Khalsa, and who does not
observe the Khalsa code of discipline.
sepoy An Indian soldier employed under European, especially
British, discipline; an Indian infantry private. From Persian and
Urdu sipahi, 'soldier' or 'horseman'.
shikar Hunting.
shudra A member of the fourth varna, of cultivators or labourers.
Sikh A member of the religious sect founded in the Punjab as a
branch of Hinduism in the fifteenth century.
silladar An irregular cavalryman who provides, or pays for, his
own weapons, horse and accoutrements. From Urdu, silalldar,
'armour-bearer' or 'squire'.
sirdar A military chief or leader; the Commander-in-Chief of the
Army in India; from Persian sar, 'head' and dar, 'possessor'.
sirkar The state or government; also sircar.
sowar An Indian cavalry trooper. From Urdu sawar, 'horseman'.
squadron A body of cavalry, usually of between one and two hun-
dred men, composed of several troops and forming part of a
regiment.
subedar The senior Indian officer of an infantry company.
subedar-major The senior Indian officer of an infantry battalion.
subaltern A British junior military officer.
Swadeshi An Indian nationalist movement, originating in Bengal,
which advocated the support of indigenous industries using
home-produced materials (especially cotton). From Sanskrit sva,
'one's own' and desa, 'country'.
talwar An Indian sword or sabre.
Tamil The leading Dravidian language of South India; a speaker of
that language.
Urdu The royal camp'. The language of the Muslim conquerors of
Hindustan, derived from Hindi, but written in the Arabic script,
and with a large admixture of Persian and Arabic loanwords.
From zaban-i-urdu, 'the language of the camp'. Also called
Hindustani.
varna One of the four castes - Brahmins, Kshatriyas, Vaishyas and
Shudras - into which all Indian society is ideally divided. From
Sanskrit 'colour' or 'class'.
 Acknowledgements

When I started this book, I feared it was too ambitious a project for a
young historian with no background in South Asian studies; having
completed it, I can see that my fears were justified. Without the help
of many people, it would not have come even to this imperfect
fruition. Its defects are all my own.
My first acknowledgement goes to Michael Dockrill, the general
editor of the series in which this book appears - it is thanks to his
goodwill and support that it has eventually seen the light of day.
Peter Marshall and John MacKenzie offered timely advice at the
outset of my project, and made constructive comments as it ran its
course. David Arnold suggested many fruitful questions, encour-
aged me when I feared I would never find the answers, and offered
perceptive criticism when I thought I had. I learned a great deal
from exchanging ideas with Jan-Georg Deutsch, Douglas Peers and
Heike Schmidt, and I was happy to borrow many of their insights. I
might have missed some useful sources had not Sandra Gregory,
Lawrence James, David Killingray, Mahesh Rangarajan, Charlie
Smith and Megan Vaughan drawn my attention to them.
Apurba Kundu and Katherine Turner read the entire typescript
and pointed out countless ways in which it could be improved.
Marcus Ackroyd, Judith Brown, Bob Currie, David Edgerton,
Barbara English, Joshua Getzler, Ramchandra Guha, Tony Hen-
derson, Thea Happen, Tony Kirk-Green, Dirk Kolff, Dominic
Omissi, Nicholas Owen, Douglas Reid, Pritam Singh, Andrew
Thompson and Brian Wilkinson each read one or more chapters and
between them suggested many changes for the better.
My undergraduate students at Oxford and Hull made many
robust comments on my work. I am particularly grateful to Reena
Dhanda and Richard Hesp for reading the earlier chapters, and to
Fiona Thomson for providing what she described - unforgettably -
as 'the view from the pond'.
I learned much when I presented my work for discussion at sem-
inars, workshops and conferences. This forced me to clarify my
ideas, to defend them in hot debate, and to modify them upon
cooler reflection. For this I am grateful to the Commonwealth and
South Asian History Seminars at the University of Oxford; the

xvi
 Acknowledgements xvii

Imperial and Military History Seminars at the Institute of Historical

Research, University of London; the History and South Asian Stud-
ies Seminars at the University of Hull; the 'Guardians of Empire'
Conference and the South Asian History Seminar at the School of
Oriental and African Studies, University of London; the War Dis-
cussion Group at the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst; the
British Association of South Asian Scholars; and the Punjab
Research Group. For the chance to present my work I am thankful to
Brian Bond, John Darwin, Clive Dewey, David French, Freda
Harcourt, Tony Heathcote, Sean McKnight, Subrata Mitra, Andrew
Porter, Brian Holden Reid, Ian Talbot and B. R. Tomlinson.
My trip to India in 1991 would have been much less useful and
enjoyable had it not been for the diverting company of Karen
Thomley and the hospitality of the Kumars, the Mansinghs, the
Mehras and the Sahnis.
The staff at the India Office, the Public Record Office, the Indian
Institute Library, the Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives, and
the National Army Museum were always friendly and helpful.
My colleagues at the University of Hull sheltered me from much
undergraduate teaching while I worked on the closing chapters.
Without their forbearance, the typescript would have been
delivered even further behind schedule than it finally was. Belinda
Holdsworth and John Smith at Macmillan Press waited patiently for
me to abandon further work on it.
My two deepest debts remain to be acknowledged. The second of
these is to the Warden, Fellows, Students and Staff of Nuffield Col-
lege, Oxford. It was my honour and pleasure to hold a Prize
Research Fellowship at Nuffield from 1989 until1992. It was during
those years that this project was conceived, researched and mainly
written.
My most profound debt is to my parents. Sadly, neither of them
lived to see this book completed. It is dedicated to their memory.
 Preface

This book is a social and political history of the Indian army during
the apogee of colonial rule.
The Indian Army is of especial interest to historians of empire
because of its central yet deeply ambiguous place within the
colonial order. With the army absorbing up to half of all central gov-
ernment revenue, military policy expressed, with especial clarity,
the priorities and concerns of the colonial state. Armed force was
always a mainstay of imperial rule. British domination in India was
largely the product of military conquest, a process to which armies
were clearly central. Colonial rule retained much of its military and
coercive character even after annexation had given way to settled
control; armed force remained the last - and often the first- resort of
the colonial power when faced with domestic unrest.
But the Indian Army was itself an example as well as an instrument
of colonial control. Although the army was created to serve colonial
ends, and led by a white elite, the men in its ranks were always
drawn from local Indian communities. The relationship between
British officers and Indian sepoys was a microcosm of the wider
colonial order. Drilled, uniformed and quartered in exclusively mili-
tary spaces, Indian soldiers were the indigenous group perhaps
most closely subjected to colonial discipline, regulation and surveil-
lance. Lastly, and most paradoxically of all, the Indian Army was a
major potential threat to the Raj which it defended. In 1857, the Brit-
ish were almost driven from the subcontinent by the rebellion of
their Indian troops, and the spectre of another mutiny haunted colo-
nial rulers until the end of the Raj.
Because Indian soldiers were essential yet potentially dangerous,
their activities were more closely scrutinized and more carefully
recorded than those of most other elements of the indigenous popu-
lation. The written evidence about the Indian Army is accordingly
very rich. There are many thousand relevant files in the India Office
Library alone (besides other British and Indian archives). Between
them, they contain millions of documents, the very quantity of
material bearing witness to the central place of the army in colonial
concerns. A lack of evidence produced by subordinate groups often
hampers enquiry into indigenous perceptions and mentalities

xviii
 Preface xix

during the colonial period. In the case of the sepoys, however, we

are more fortunate; we possess invaluable sources generated by the
Indian troops themselves. During the Great War, the British high
command, worried by depression in the ranks, monitored and
extensively recorded the letters to and from Indian soldiers serving
in France. The resulting materials have copiously survived, allow-
ing us to glimpse the life of the sepoys more vividly than that of
almost any other subordinate Indian group.
The army, however, has yet to make more than a cameo appear-
ance in the textbook literature on colonial India. Judith Brown's ele-
gant study mainly addresses the conflicts and bargains between the
colonial elite and the educated nationalists who were to assume the
mantle of the Raj in 1947; soldiers and armed force rarely interrupt
this delicate story. 1 Sumit Sarkar's more detailed treatment of Indian
social and political history more often exposes the coercive face of
colonial power; but he still devotes only a few pages directly to the
army (although he has made a plea for a closer scrutiny of its
workings). 2
The virtual absence of the Indian army from the relevant text-
books partly reflects the shortcomings of the existing monographs.
Our knowledge of the Indian Army in the later colonial period
derives principally from three books now twenty years old. Philip
Mason's stylish (if rather general) account has all the strengths and
weaknesses of a work by a former colonial administrator; it is satur-
ated with the liberal imperialism which he personifies.3 S. P. Cohen's
briefer volume operates largely within the paradigm of a conflict
between colonial power and elite nationalism; he shows little inter-
est in questions that do not fall within this rubric. 4 Tony Heathcote's
study, perhaps the best of the three, is more concerned with military
than with colonial or Indian issues.5 None of these authors attempts
much rigorous scrutiny of the perceptions, hopes and protests of the
sepoys; in their accounts, the Indian other ranks are relegated to the
margins or serve mainly as an exotic social setting to an essentially
British story. 6
One group of scholars who might have taken an interest in the
sepoys have not done so. The Subaltern Studies project was begun
with the avowed aim of recovering the past of the subordinate or
'subaltern' groups in colonial India- above all, workers, tribals and
peasants? Yet its contributors (with the exception of David Arnold)
have shown little interest in those peasants who sided with the Raj.
The Subalterns' fascination with moments of resistance and protest
XX Preface
has not encouraged them to study the peasant-soldier groups who
voted with their feet in favour of the colonial power - as if peasants
ceased to be subordinate, or conscious, or potentially dissident once
they had enlisted. While often stressing the coercive nature of col-
onial rule, Subaltern scholars have not taken the next logical step of
examining the social structure of the colonial state's military
resources. In their accounts of peasant or tribal protest, the Army in
India (sometimes casually misnamed 'the British Army') plays only
a walk-on, repressive part.
Some more nuanced writing on the nature of the colonial coercive
power has appeared in the last decade, and many of the questions
raised by this work pertain to the army. In particular, David
Arnold's fine book on the Madras police has greatly enriched our
understanding of the strengths and shortcomings of the colonial
security apparatus. 8 (My debt to his work is more pervasive than the
Notes to the present volume can show.) David Anderson and David
Killingray have edited two useful collections of essays about col-
onial policing.9 As these authors point out, the police were the most
visible and intrusive manifestation of colonial power, and one
which directly touched the life of the people. But the workings of
colonial armed force cannot be understood simply by studying its
most visible aspects. The army often remained in the background;
but the background is an important part of the picture.
There remain many unanswered questions about the Indian
Army. Was it gain or glory that inspired several million Indian peas-
ants to volunteer for the colonial armed forces? Which indigenous
groups did the British mainly recruit and how did they choose
them? Why did the Indian army remain loyal to the Raj during
periods of extensive civil unrest? How much dissent troubled the
army, what were its causes, and how did the British deal with it?
How far did the British Raj rely on military force to sustain its rule?
Complete answers to these questions will require many futher
volumes; but even the overview contained in this book may
illuminate some of the core processes of colonial domination,
subordination and resistance.
DAVID OMISSI