Indian Army

“ Whatever the decision come to with regard to the details of the changes to be made in the Indian army system, it is at least clear that it will be expedient in us to reduce the English army in India if we intend it for India‘s defense, and our duty to abolish it if we intend it for our own. ”

“ The country hangs upon a thread. The slightest reverse would set the whole in a flame, and you have not the smallest hold upon any class of men in all your vast Indian dominions except that which is immediately derived from the opinion—or rather the conviction—that your bayonets and sabres are superior to theirs. The Indian army must become, and that speedily, a king’s army, the number of officers must be greatly increased, and the broken spirit of both officers and men regenerated. ”

“ Both for the Indians themselves and for the Empire, the sending of the Indian Corps to Europe was a great adventure, in many respects the most remarkable event of the world war. The future lies on the knees of the gods, but to those, like the writer, who have seen the British and Indian troops side by side in the field, one thing at least is clear, and that is, that this campaign has knit even closer than before the ties of affection and respect existing between the Indian soldier and his British leaders. ”

“ The establishment of Indian units has not only been kept up to strength, but has been considerably increased. There has been an augmentation of 20 per cent. in the cavalry and of 40 per cent. in the infantry, while the number of recruits enlisted since the beginning of the War is greater than the entire strength of the Indian Army as it existed on August 4, 1914. ”

“ Under an ordinary state of affairs, and without reference to the mutiny of 1857, the Indian army is in theory a strange conglomerate. The Queen lends some of her English troops, for which the Company pay; the Company enlist other English troops on their own account; they maintain three complete armies among the natives of India who are their subjects; they raise irregular corps or regiments in the states not so fully belonging to them; they claim the services of the troops belonging to certain tributary princes, whenever exigency arises ”

“ In the infantry, too, the old system of paying men and requiring them to equip, clothe and feed themselves, is in vogue to some extent. There is a reserve of the native army, numbering some 35,000 men. But it is rather a draft to replace wastage than a means of bringing the army up to a war footing in the European way. Indeed, a cardinal principle of the Indian forces, British and native alike, is that the units are maintained in peace at full war effective, often a little above their field strength. ”

“ That India pays for her defense and also contributes towards the [Pg 58] defence of the Empire are facts which cannot be questioned. That she shall continue to do so in the future may also be assumed. That it is extremely desirable that in the matter of war supplies she should be self-dependent has been freely admitted. The permanent Indian army as constituted in pre-war days contained two-thirds Indians and one-third British. If the present strength of the Indian army be examined it will be found that the proportion of British troops is still smaller. ”

“ When we reflect on the momentous issue decided by this and the preceding actions between the French and ourselves in India, and compare the number of the troops engaged with those we now mobilize for an Indian frontier campaign, it seems little short of marvellous that our Indian Empire should have been built up with such slender means. ”

“ The proportion between British and Indian troops observed since the Mutiny is roughly one British to two native, the Indian army being about 162,000 men. In addition the native army includes supply and transport corps, the medical service, and the veterinary service, officered in the higher ranks by officers of the A.S.C, R.A.M.C. and A.V.C. respectively.
The Indian army is recruited from Mahommedans and Hindus of various tribes and sects, and with some exceptions (chiefly in the Madras infantry) companies, sometimes regiments, are composed exclusively of men of one class. ”

“ If English lads of 19 and 20 are worthy of King's Commissions—and the long roll of slain Second Lieutenants proves it—then certainly Indian lads, since Indians have fought as bravely as Englishmen, should find the door thrown open to them equally widely in their own country, and the Indian Army should be led by Indian officers. ”

“ Indian Army.—The forces in India consist of the British army on the Indian establishment and the Indian native army with its dependent local militias, feudatories, contingents, &c. In addition there is a force of European and Eurasian volunteers, drawn largely from railway employés. The Indian army consists of 138 battalions of infantry, 10 regiments of cavalry, 16 mountain batteries, 1 garrison artillery company, 32 sapper and miner companies (2 railways companies included) . ”

“ The Indians were better armed than the soldiers, and possessed ammunition in plenty. Their numbers in the field have been estimated at from twelve hundred to six thousand warriors, with their wives and children. Those who have studied the war from the Indian point of view have put the number at the lower figure; nearly every one else at 185from three thousand up. Whatever the facts, there were enough of them to give the United States Army the busiest time that it had enjoyed since the Civil War. ”

“ Historically, the Indian army grew up in three distinct divisions, the Bengal, Madras and Bombay armies. This separation was the natural result of the original foundation of separate settlements and factories in India; and each retains to the present day much of its old identity. ”

“ Irregular and Contingent Troops. Fifteen regiments of irregular native troops. The European and the native troops of the Company are not here separated, although in effect they form distinct regiments. So costly are all the operations connected with the Anglo-Indian army, that it has been calculated that every English soldier employed in the East, whether belonging to the Queen’s or to the Company’s forces, costs, on an average, one hundred pounds before he becomes available for service, including his outfit, his voyage, his marching and barracking in India. ”

“ The first and great interest of the army officer is to preserve peace with the Indians. His home during his life is to be at some military post in the Indian country, and aside from the obligations of duty, his own comfort and quiet, and the possibility of escaping arduous and harassing field service against Indians at all seasons of the year, accompanied by frequent changes of station, which render it impossible for him to have his family with him, render a state of peace with Indians the most desirable of all things to him. ”

“ The Indian Corps has rendered a great, an inestimable service to the British cause. The first contingent came into the field at a moment when every man was wanted, and as its numbers were completed, it took over its share of our line and held it efficiently. Everything in trench warfare was new to the Indians, and for months they had no opportunity of displaying those qualities of dash that won them fame in many a hard fight in their own land. ”

“ Not only is the number of British troops in India comparatively small, but the British Government has not feared to raise and keep up alongside of them an army of Indian regular troops twice as strong, and to arm and make efficient for war other bodies of men drawn from the population, notably some fine contingents of soldiery in the Feudatory chiefships. ”

“ The numerous posts scattered over the vast area in which the Indian Wars were fought usually were garrisoned by a force comprised of a troop of cavalry and a company of infantry and led by company officers. Seldom were troops from several posts assembled in sufficient forces or for periods of time sufficient for officers to get practice in leading units larger than a company. In fact, during the Indian Wars many of the actions were fought by detachments commanded by lieutenants. ”

“ In addition to the special battle honours, "Defence of Lucknow" and "Defence of Saugor," all regiments which took part in the suppression of the great rebellion in India should be awarded the battle honour "India, 1857-58."
For upwards of half a century a picked body of native troops kept watch and ward over the North-West Frontier of our Indian Empire, waging numberless campaigns against the independent tribes who people the borderland between our frontiers and those of Afghanistan. ”

“ An army of five thousand, or any other number, of British troops must have a large train of native attendants, to contend against the peculiarities of Indian climate and Indian customs. Mr Russell, marching with this portion of the late ‘Army of Oude,’ said: ‘If the people we see around us, who are ten or twelve to one as compared with us in this camp, were—not to arm and cut our throats, or poison us, or anything of that kind—but simply bid us a silent good-bye this night, and leave us, India would be lost to us in a day. ”

“ Officering of the Native Army The one thing left undone, and which I should like to have been able to accomplish before leaving India, was to induce the Government to arrange for more British officers to be given to the Native regiments in time of war. Nine to a Cavalry and eight to an Infantry corps may be sufficient in time of peace, but that number is quite too small to stand the strain of war. Indian soldiers, like soldiers of every nationality, require to be led ”

“ For upon the success or failure of these two Indians depended in a great measure the question whether or not we were to be forced to continue the war; and among the hundreds who watched the departing bearers of the olive branch, there was not one but hoped earnestly that the mission would prove successful, and we be spared the barbarities which a further prosecution of the war would necessarily entail. Yet there are those who would have the public believe that the army is at all times clamorous for an Indian war. ”

“ I know that with five hundred men of my selection I could exterminate any Indian tribe in North America in a very few months. But so long as our government continues to enlist the offscouring of European cities into our army, and entrusts the command to inexperienced officers fresh from West Point, just so long will they afford food for the Indians in and about the Rocky Mountains. Encumbered as our army is with baggage-waggons and artillery, an Indian chief can move his whole community farther in one day than our soldiers can follow them in three. ”

“ In no country in Europe is there an army so anomalous in its construction as that which, until lately, belonged to the East India Company. Different kinds of troops, and troops from different provinces, we can well understand. For instance, the French avail themselves of a few Algerine Arabs, and a small foreign legion, as components in the regular army. The English have a few colonial corps in addition to the Queen’s army. The Prussians have a landwehr or militia equal in magnitude to the regular army itself. ”

“ The French taught us to enrol and discipline natives to fight our battles, and as we gradually advanced from our bases at the seaports we drew to the colours, not only the inhabitants of the conquered countries, but adventurers in the shape of Patháns, Rohillas, Rajputs, and others from more distant lands. Field brigades were organized, then divisions, until at last, just before the Mutiny of 1857, we had 811,000 native troops, forming, with the European forces, 40,000 strong, three 'presidential' armies, and various local forces and contingents. ”

“ There is perhaps even a greater bond of union between the sepoys and the white officers of a native regiment than between the soldiers and the commissioned ranks in a British corps. In the first place the Indian Army is a long-service one; and so officers and men remain longer together. ”

“ It is easy to understand that if the management of Indian affairs were turned over to the military service the interests of the Indians and the interests and convenience of the Army might not always agree ”

“ When officers of the army deal with these Indians, if they mistreat them, we have a certain remedy for their cases. They can be dismissed and disgraced, while Indian agents can only be displaced by others perhaps no better. ”

“ The 3rd, 9th, and 14th cavalry regiments behaved well, as did the 10th, 29th, and 32nd Foot, with the native Indian regiments, but into the “Story of the Army” that of the army of the East India Company does not enter. It was another instance of where “the dauntless valour of the infantry rectifies the errors of its commanders, and carries them through what would otherwise be inevitable defeat and disgrace. But it redeems their errors with its blood ”

“ The Field Force which can be mobilized in India for war consists of 9 Divisions and 8 Cavalry Brigades. It is composed of British and Indian Troops in combination. This fact necessitates an organization somewhat different in detail from that in England, especially as to number of Officers and men and constitution of Administrative Services. But, on the whole, the organization of the Army of India is on the same lines as that of the Home Army. ”

“ The occasion was not primarily a military one, and the numbers of the force were limited; but 50,000 troops, British and Indian, were being drawn together to represent the armed might of the greatest power in the East, and to show that if ever he chose, the British Emperor of India would be able to throw into the scale of any 45 world-conflict an army in which the military efficiency of the West would be blended with the loyal devotion and numbers of the Indian fighting races. ”