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NepalArrangements after World War II
The British ended their two-century rule over the
subcontinent
after World War II and agreed to an independent India,
shorn of its
Muslim-majority areas that had formed the new nation of
Pakistan.
Unlike most territories belonging to native princes, which
were
soon absorbed into the British successor states of India
and
Pakistan, Nepal and its feudal dynasty survived the
British
withdrawal intact. Still an independent entity, Nepal thus
became
a small South Asian state wedged between Asia's greatest
land
powers, India and China. Nepal nevertheless continued to
provide a
fertile recruiting ground for the British and Indian
armies.
Under a tripartite agreement signed in 1947 by Nepal,
India,
and Britain, the Gurkha brigade was divided between
British and
Indian forces. Four regiments remained in the British
service, and
six passed to the new Indian Army, which recruited an
additional
regiment for a total of seven. Gurkha units in both
military
establishments played an important role throughout the
postcolonial
period. Gurkhas formed the backbone of the British
counterinsurgency effort in Malaya that, by 1960, had
crushed the
communist offensive on the peninsula. Other Gurkha units
fought in
the defense of North Borneo against Indonesian-sponsored
guerrillas
in the early 1960s and also in the 1982 British campaign
against
Argentine forces in the Falkland Islands (called Islas
Malvinas by
Argentina). Throughout this period, Gurkha units were the
mainstay
of the British garrison in Hong Kong, which was scheduled
to revert
to China in 1997.
Gurkhas in the service of India have also played an
important
and colorful role in national defense, despite the early
complaints
of Indian nationalists that Nepalese soldiers were acting
as
British mercenaries or tools of the Ranas. According to
Leo E.
Rose, a noted historian of the period, "However critical
the
[Indian] Congress party may have been about the use of the
Gurkhas
by the British, their value was quickly recognized." The
Rana
regime sought to counter Indian criticism by specifying
that
Gurkhas in the Indian Army could not be used against
Nepal, other
Gurkha units, Hindus, or "unarmed mobs." No restrictions
were
imposed, however, on their use against Muslim mobs or
against
external enemies, including Pakistan and China.
Gurkhas, some of whom came from Nepalese families
resident in
the Indian Tarai, served with distinction in India's three
wars
with Pakistan (1947-48, 1965, and 1971). Many Indian
Gurkhas also
were stationed in the former North-East Frontier Agency
(Arunachal
Pradesh) when Chinese forces overran beleaguered Indian
outposts
along the disputed Sino-Indian frontier in 1962. A
battalion served
with distinction in the Congo (now Zaire) in the 1960s as
part of
the Indian Army contingent in the United Nations
Operations in the
Congo. Several battalions served with the Indian
Peacekeeping Force
in Sri Lanka from 1987 to 1990.
After World War II, the end of the British Raj
(1858-1947), and
the anti-Rana revolt of 1950-51, Nepal struggled to find
its
identity in a vastly changed Indian subcontinent. By 1950
all
important army posts were held by members of the Rana
ruling
family. Many of the battalions had just returned from war
duties in
India and Burma; the battaloins included some soldiers who
had
defected from British units and fought with the Japanese
as part of
the Indian National Army. The returning soldiers found
that pay,
rations, equipment, housing, and general conditions of
service in
Nepal contrasted unfavorably with what they had known
under the
British. Many of the general officers had never served in
the lower
ranks. The bulk of the army was stationed in the Kathmandu
Valley,
where the Rana government, aware of growing opposition,
could keep
potentially disloyal officers under surveillance. As
remained true
in 1991, British recruiters attracted the best candidates
for
military service because of improved prospects for
advancement and
higher pay. Those unable to land positions in the Brigade
of
Gurkhas usually opted to serve in the Indian Army, leaving
the
Royal Nepal Army with the remaining large pool of recruits
from
which to choose.
Many World War II veterans were discharged at the end
of their
enlistments. Many of the officers who remained in service
were
unqualified to give proper training to the young
replacements, and
poor pay added to mounting discontent. By the time the
revolt began
in 1950, many soldiers were predisposed to defect to the
anti-Rana
forces
(see The Return of the King
, ch. 1). Most soldiers,
however,
remained loyal or, at a minimum, did not lend active
support to
political forces attempting to overthrow the Ranas. The
officer
corps, however, remained staunchly loyal to the king
throughout the
crisis. The organization leading the revolt, the Nepali
Congress
Party, developed a distrust of the army leadership that
reportedly
still persisted in some quarters in 1991. At the same
time,
memories of India's moral and limited matériel support for
the 1950
uprising led some sections of the military to question the
national
loyalties of the Nepali Congress Party.
Data as of September 1991
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