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NepalFrom the Anglo-Nepalese War to World War II
Before the end of the eighteenth century, Gorkha rulers
had
sent successful military missions into Tibet and China.
Pressure to
the south and west, however, met resistance from the
military
forces of the British East India Company, which were
expanding
north of the Gangetic Plain into the Tarai and the
foothills of the
Himalayas. Increasingly frequent clashes of the opposing
forces
culminated in the Anglo-Nepalese War of 1814-16, in which
the
victorious British forces were impressed by the fighting
qualities
of their Gorkha opponents. When Nepal's General Amar Singh
Thapa
was forced to capitulate west of the Kali River in 1815,
the
remnants of his troops were accepted into the service of
the
British East India Company. By the 1816 Treaty of Sagauli,
the
British recognized the sovereignty of Nepal and received
permission
to recruit Nepalese soldiers
(see The Making of Modern Nepal
, ch. 1;
Relations with Britain
, ch. 4).
British recruiting efforts, which actually began in
1815, were
carried on semiclandestinely even after the treaty came
into force
because all foreign military representatives were
forbidden by
Nepalese law to enter the country. The three battalions
formed from
General Thapa's conquered forces were expanded into
regiments, and
each regiment sent its own Gurkha recruiters into the
interior.
Applicants for service came almost entirely from the
mountain
areas. The ethnic groups represented included the Limbu
and Rai
from the Kiranti area in the east, the Magar, Gurung, and
Tamang
from the center, and the Chhetri and Thakuri castes from
the west.
These groups, eventually lumped together under the term
Gurkha, became the backbone of British Indian
forces along
with other supposed "martial races" such as Sikhs, Dogras,
Punjabis, and Pathans. Throughout the colonial era, the
British
raised the bulk of their military recruits from Nepal,
Punjab, and
the North-West Frontier.
The Gurkha reputation for martial prowess and obedience
to
authority was firmly established during the 1857-58 Sepoy
Rebellion, which seriously threatened British ascendancy
in South
Asia. Some 9,000 Nepalese troops under Prime Minister Jang
Bahadur
Rana, in power from 1846-77, rendered valuable service to
the
British
(see The Dictatorship of Jang Bahadur
, ch. 1).
Nepalese
exploits in relieving the British resident in Lucknow made
a
lasting impression on British officials and strategists.
Nepalese
troops were awarded battle honors, and two additional
regiments
were raised.
Recruiting continued, and the adaptability of the
Gurkha troops
to various types and conditions of combat was demonstrated
by their
performance in the Second Afghan War (1878-80) and in the
Boxer
Uprising (1900). By 1908 the fabled Gurkha brigade had
been formed.
A flexible unit, the brigade numbered about 12,000 troops
in
peacetime and was organized in ten regiments, each
consisting of
two rifle battalions. Other Gurkha units included the
Assam Rifles,
Burma Rifles, Indian Armed Police, and Burma Military
Police.
Regiments and battalions were designated numerically. For
example,
the Second Battalion of the Seventh Gurkha Rifles was
commonly
referred to with pride by its members as the 2/7/GR.
Within Nepal itself, Prime Minister Ranoddip Singh, who
governed from 1877 to 1885, introduced a militia system in
the
early 1880s by which the army could be rapidly expanded on
short
notice--an expedient which proved of great value to future
British
war efforts.Prime Minister Chandra Shamsher Rana, in power
from
1901 to 1929, introduced many military reforms under a
program to
modernize government service. Among measures affecting the
army
were the adoption of translated British military manuals
for the
use of troop units, promotion examinations, improved
standards of
efficiency, reorganization of administrative processes,
and payment
of all ranks in cash, rather than in land tenure
(jagir--see Glossary)
or grain, as was formerly the practice. Despite
these
reforms, the officer corps above the grade of captain
continued to
be limited to members of the Rana family and to the
Thakuri,
Chhetri, and Rai ethnic groups. Barracks remained
inadequate for
accommodating all the men in the twenty-six battalions
stationed in
the Kathmandu Valley. Many soldiers had to seek their own
food and
lodging in towns and villages outside their garrisons.
Until 1914 the British recruited about 1,500 men per
year to
keep the twenty Gurkha battalions up to strength. As a
rule, men
from the same ethnic group were assigned to the same
units. About
seven regiments were composed of Magar, Tamang, and
Gurung; two
regiments were recruited from the Rai and Limbu; and one
from the
Chhetri and Thakuri. In many instances, several
generations of one
family served in the same regiment--a practice that
continued in
the early 1990s. The Magar, Gurung, and Rai, who over the
years
have supplied most of the recruits, are most closely
associated
with the fabled Gurkhas, but the Limbu, Chhetri, Tamang,
Sunwar,
and Thakuri also were included in the category. On a
percentage
basis, the Gurung group provided a higher proportion of
its total
population for military service than any other group.
Under the British system, Gurkha regimental
representatives
examined and enlisted recruits within Nepal. From there
recruits
were sent to collection centers in northern India,
primarily at
Gorakhpur and at Ghum near Darjeeling, for final
processing and
assignment to units. The Nepalese government encouraged
recruitment
through assurances that service with British forces would
be
regarded as service in the Nepalese army and that special
efforts
would be made to provide employment for returning
veterans. This
policy was based on the view that returning veterans would
add to
the military strength of Nepal during emergencies
(see Gurkhas Serving Abroad
, this ch.). Relatively high pay and
pensions as well
as the opportunities for advancement in noncommissioned
ranks also
helped recruitment efforts.
During World War I (1914-18), the army was expanded and
six new
regiments, totaling more than 20,000 troops--all
volunteers--were
sent to India, most of them to the North-West Frontier
Province, to
release British and Indian troops for service overseas.
Simultaneously, the Nepalese government agreed to maintain
recruitment at a level that both would sustain the
existing British
Gurkha units and allow the establishment of additional
ones. The
battalions were increased to thirty-three with the
addition of
55,000 new recruits, and Gurkha units were placed at the
disposal
of the British high command for service on all fronts.
Many
volunteers were assigned to noncombat units, such as the
Army
Bearer Corps and the labor battalions, but they also were
in combat
in France, Turkey, Palestine, and Mesopotamia. The Rana
prime
ministers urged Nepalese males to fight in the war. Of the
more
than 200,000 Nepalese who served in the British Army,
there were
some 20,000 Gurkha casualties.
Following the war, the Nepalese government requested
that
Britain cede portions of the Tarai in recognition of
Kathmandu's
contribution to the Allied war effort. London refused, but
the
Treaty of Perpetual Peace and Friendship, signed in
December 1923,
granted "unequivocal" recognition of Nepal's independence.
This
treaty formed the basis for Nepal's continued independence
following the British withdrawal from India in 1947
(see The Rana Oligarchy
, ch. 1).
In 1919 at the height of a civil disobedience campaign
called
by the Indian National Congress, Gurkha troops serving
under
British brigadier R.E.H. Dyer brutally suppressed a pro-
independence political gathering in a walled courtyard
outside the
Sikh holy temple in Amritsar. Acting under Dyer's orders,
the
Gurkhas killed some 300 persons and wounded approximately
1,200
others. The episode generally was considered a watershed
in the
Indian independence movement. The Indian public, however,
held Dyer
and the British government responsible for the massacre
and did not
blame the soldiers who carried out the order to fire on
unarmed
civilians.
The British call to arms during World War II (1939-45)
met with
an enthusiastic response from the Rana prime ministers who
again
coerced Nepalese citizens into joining the British Army.
At the
outset of the war, ten Nepalese battalions arrived in
India, where
they served until the hostilities ended. By the close of
1946,
various specialized units, such as paratroops, signal
corps,
engineers, and military police, had been established.
Other
elements served in Southeast Asia, particularly in Burma.
The total
number of Gurkha battalions in the British service
increased to
forty-five. In all, over 200,000 men passed through ten
Gurkha
training centers to serve in line units that fought on
almost every
front, although primarily in the Burmese, Middle Eastern,
and North
African theaters. Casualties in all theaters amounted to
over
25,000 persons. Gurkha unit histories are replete with
accounts of
courageous stands in the face of heavy odds. In the two
world wars,
twelve Victoria Crosses (comparable to the United States
Medal of
Honor) were awarded to Gurkha soldiers.
Data as of September 1991
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