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See Indian Army for the post-independence (and post-partition) army of the Republic of India.

Image:BritishIndianArmy.jpg The British Indian Army was the army in India in the time of the British Raj (1858–1947).<ref>Peter Duckers The British Indian Army 1860-1914 Pub: Shire Books, ISBN 9780747805502</ref><ref>Indian Army: History "the total strength of the British-Indian Army was 90,000"</ref><ref>Brig (Retd) Noor A Husain The Role of Muslims Martial Races of Today's Pakistan in British-Indian Army in World War-II </ref> The Indian Army served both as a security force in India itself and, particularly during the World wars, in other theatres.

Between 1903 and 1947 the Army of India consisted of two separate entities: the Indian Army and the British Army in India. The former consisted of Indian Army regiments originating in India, while the latter were British Army regiments originating in the United Kingdom which were sent to India on a tour of duty.

Contents 1 Organisation 1.1 Command 1.2 Rank system 2 Function 3 Operations 3.1 Sikh Wars 3.2 Afghan Wars 3.3 Internal Security 3.4 North West Frontier 3.5 World War I 3.6 World War II 3.7 Post World War II 4 See also 5 References 6 Further reading 7 Footnotes

[edit] Organisation

Image:Indian Army Madras.jpg The Indian Army was formed after the Indian Mutiny in 1857 by the British when the crown took over direct rule from the British East India Company which had their own army units, paid for by their profits.

The army of the British East India Company recruited primarily from high-caste Hindus in Bengal, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. These troops had been predominant in the Indian Mutiny due to extremely crass and insensitive treatment by British officers.

Post-Mutiny recruitment switched to what the British called the "martial races," particularly Sikhs, Gurkhas, Jat, Garhwalis, Mohyals, Muslims and Dogras. Pathans and Balochis also provided many soldiers.

The "Indian Army" is the name for the Indian Armed forces of India, and the meaning has changed over time:

1858–1894	The Indian Army was a collective term for the armies of the three presidencies; the Bengal Army, Madras Army and Bombay Army.
1895–1902	The Indian Army meant the "army of the government of India" and included British and Indian (sepoy) units.
1903–1947	Lord Kitchener was appointed Commander-in-Chief, India between 1902 and 1909. He instituted large-scale reforms, including merging the three armies of the Presidencies into a unified force and forming higher level formations, eight army divisions, and brigading Indian and British units. Following Kitchener's reforms: The Indian Army was "the force recruited locally and permanently based in India, together with its expatriate British officers."<ref>Oxford History of the British Army</ref> The British Army in India consisted of British Army units posted to India for a tour of duty, and which would then be posted to other parts of the Empire or back to the UK. The Army of India consisted of both the Indian Army and the British Army in India.

[edit] Command

The officer commanding the Army of India was the Commander-in-Chief in India who reported to the civilian Governor-General of India. His command was known as India Command and his staff were based at GHQ India.

Indian Army postings were less prestigious than British Army positions, but the pay was significantly greater so that officers could live on their pay instead of having to have a private income. British officers in the Indian Army were expected to learn to speak the Indian languages of their men, who tended to be recruited from primarily Urdu speaking areas. Prominent British Indian army officers included:

• Claude Auchinleck
• William Birdwood, 1st Baron Birdwood
• Frederick Roberts, 1st Earl Roberts
• William Slim, 1st Viscount Slim

[edit] Rank system

The Rank system for the Indian army (with modern UK equivalents)

• Viceroy's Commissioned Officers
  • Subedar Major (Major (Queens Gurkha Officer))
  • Subedar (Captain (Queens Gurkha Officer)
  • Jemadar (Lieutenant (Queens Gurkha Officer))

• Non-Commissioned officers
  • Company Havildar Major (Company Sergeant Major)
  • Company Quartermaster Havildar (Company Quartermaster Sergeant)
  • Havildar (Sergeant)
  • Naik (Corporal)
  • Lance Naik (Lance Corporal)

• Soldiers
  • Sepoy or Sowar (cavalry) (Private)

[edit] Function

The main role of the Indian Army was seen as being defence of the North West Frontier against Russian invasion via Afghanistan, internal security, and expeditionary warfare in the Indian Ocean area. The British Indian Army had a strength of about 150,000 men on the eve of World War I in 1914.

During the days of British rule, the Indian Army proved a very useful adjunct to British forces not only in India but also in other places, particularly during the First and Second World Wars. Recruitment was entirely voluntary; about 1.3 million men served in the First World War, many on the Western Front and 2.5 million in the Second. Initially the soldiers and NCO's were Indian, with British officers but later Indian officers were promoted as part of Indianisation (see King's Commissioned Indian Officer). The Indian Military College at Dehradun was opened in 1932 to train Indian officers. The Indian Army comprised of 65% of Sikhs Officers and 20% of Infantry/foot soldiers.

[edit] Operations

[edit] Sikh Wars

• First Anglo-Sikh War - 1845 to 1846
• Second Anglo-Sikh War - 1848 to 1849

[edit] Afghan Wars

The British Indian army took part in three Anglo-Afghan wars with the help of the Sikhs of Punjab.

• First Anglo-Afghan War - 1839 to 1842
• Second Anglo-Afghan War -1878 to 1881
• Third Anglo-Afghan War - 1919

See also: The Great Game and European influence in Afghanistan for a more detailed description.

[edit] Internal Security

The British Indian Army provided armed support to the civil authorities, both for combatting banditry and in case of riots and rebellion (the latter was a controversial measure not popular with officers).

[edit] North West Frontier

The main "conventional" warfare task of the Indian army was to prevent an invasion of India via Afghanistan. There was also a need to pacify warlike local people and prevent banditry. This involved numerous small scale actions. See North-West Frontier (military history) for more details.

[edit] World War I

Image:Indian Army WW.jpg Prior to the outbreak of the Great War, the strength of the British Indian Army was at 155,000. By November 1918, the Indian Army rose in size to 573,000 men.[1] In World War I the Indian Army saw extensive service including:

• Western Front
• Battle of Gallipoli
• Sinai and Palestine Campaign
• Mesopotamian Campaign, Siege of Kut
• East Africa, including the Battle of Tanga

About 43,000 Indian soldiers were killed and 65,000 wounded during World War I.

Also serving in World War I were so-called "Imperial Service troops," provided by the semi-autonomous Princely States. About 21,000 of these were raised in Word War I, mainly consisting of Sikhs of Punjab and Rajputs from Rajputana (such as the Bikaner Camel Corps and Jodhpur Lances). These forces played a prominent part in the Palestine Campaign.

[edit] World War II

Image:Indian Army WWII.jpg At the outbreak of World War II, the Indian army numbered 205,000 men. Later on during World War II the Indian Army would become the largest all-volunteer force in history, rising to over 2.5 million men in size. These forces included tank, artillery and airborne forces. On October 18, 1941 the 151st Parachute Battalion was formed from soldiers serving in the Indian Army. Later this unit was joined by the 152nd (Indian) and 153rd (Gurkha) Parachute Battalion.

Indian soldiers won 30 Victoria Crosses during the Second World War. See List of Indian Victoria Cross recipients for details of these men.

About 87,000 Indian soldiers lost their lives during this conflict.

Particularly notable contributions of the Indian Army during that conflict were in the campaigns in:

• Burma, including the Battle of Kohima and Battle of Imphal
• Middle East,
• North Africa,
• Italy;
• East Africa,
• see also British Eighth Army, First and Second Battles of El Alamein and the Battle of Monte Cassino
• Operation Crusader

See also the Indian National Army which was raised by the Japanese from Indian Prisoners of War captured in Malaya and Singapore in cooperation with Indian independence leader Subhash Chandra Bose and numbered up to 40,000 men. The Nazis also raised the Tiger Legion from Indian Prisoners of War captured by Germany. This unit never numbered more than 2,000 men and was largely used for propaganda purposes.

The term 'Brindian' was used during the war to refer to British Indians, particularly those part of the British Indian Army.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Post World War II

Following the war, the British formations that had been part of the Army of India were withdrawn. Upon independence the British Indian Army was split: most units went to the Indian Army, four Gurkha regiments were transferred to the British Army (they formed the Brigade of Gurkhas and were stationed in Malaya) and the remainder of the army went to the Pakistan Army.

[edit] See also

• List of Regiments of the British Indian Army (1903)
• List of regiments of the British Indian Army (1922)
• Commander-in-Chief, India

[edit] References

Indian Army: History:British Era on the Indian Army website

[edit] Further reading

• Mason, Philip, A Matter of Honour: An Account of the Indian Army, its Officers and Men, Macmillan 1974
• A bibliography
• Alan J. Guy & Peter B. Boyden, Soldiers of the Raj, The Indian Army 1600-1947, 1997, National Army Museum Chelsea
• Richard Holmes, Sahib the British Soldier in India, 1750-1914
• The Indian Army website history page: British Era
• http://www.atra.mod.uk/atra/rmas/tour/iamr.htm
• 1914 Order of Battle
• Royal Engineers Museum Indian Sappers (1740-1947)
• Stand at East - Mark Tully in a series of BBC audio programmes on the pre-independence Indian Army

[edit] Footnotes

<references/>de:British Indian Army ja:英印軍 no:British Indian Army sv:Brittisk-indiska armén