ties that bind - sep 11

Ties that Bind
27 Omissi, The Sepoy and the Raj,
p.12
28 Yuvraj Prasad, The Indian
Muslims and World War I: A
Phase of Disillusionment with
British Rule, 1914-1918 (Delhi,
1985) p.43
29 Omissi, The Sepoy and the Raj
p.39
14 | policyexchange.org.uk
Table 1: Regional origin of Indian Army recruitment expressed
as percentage of total, 1862-1914
Region 1862 1885 1892 1914
Hindustan east of the Yamuna (including the UP and Bihar) 21.4 16.4 13.0 12.4
Bombay (including Rajputna and Central Indian provinces) 22.9 21.3 22.6 14.8
Madras 30.5 26.2 21.7 9.0
Nepal, Punjab and NWFP 25.2 36.1 43.0 63.6
The received wisdom after the Mutiny was that regional recruitment should
be ‘balanced’, thus limiting the risk of rebellion if one province was subverted;
and that the size of India’s army should be reduced. The Army’s shift in
emphasis towards predominantly north-western regions was principally
motivated by the fear that India would soon have to defend itself against a
Russian invasion. In the late nineteenth century, Russian power continued to
seep southwards, most notably with the capture of Samarkand. Fear of that
confrontation prompted Lord Roberts (then a Lieutenant-General) to emphasise
recruitment from the Punjab and NWFP, whose men he regarded as being
among the most ‘warrior like’ in India. It was an idea that ultimately gave rise
to the ‘martial races’ theory which suggested that certain groupings, due to
their ethnic and genetic composition, made better soldiers. London embraced
the idea, with the Eden Commission Report on the Indian Army reporting to
Parliament that ‘the Punjab is the home of the most martial races of India and
is the nursery of our best soldiers’. 27 It ensured that the new Indian Army
recruited particularly heavily from the northern and north-westerly regions of
the country. Those areas that did attract the attention of military recruiters often
became intensely loyal and receptive to British rule – reaping the benefits that
service to the Raj often brought.
By 1914, the Muslim population of British India was 57 million, of which
eighty percent was concentrated in the northern regions from the Bengal in the
east to the Punjab and NWFP in the west. 28 The table below gives an indication of
just how heavily recruitment was focused on these regions during the early stages
of the war. 29
Table 2: Regional recruitment to the Indian Army of active
combatants, 1914 – 1916
Region 1914 1915 1916 Total
Punjab 14000 46000 50000 110000
NWFP 3000 6000 5000 14000
Nepal 3000 14000 15000 33000
Rest of India 8000 28000 32000 68000
Total 28000 93000 104000 225000
Year
Year