Remembering the British Indian Army

This year marks the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II, with the war ending in the Asian theater in August. One of the main players in both World War I and World War II, was of course, the British Empire. What is not as often remembered, however, is the role of the British Indian Army in the Middle Eastern and Asian theaters of those and other wars.

The British Indian Army (officially the Indian Army) was the army of the British-controlled Empire of India, the official administrative designation of the British-controlled territories – the British Raj – in South Asia and parts of Southeast Asia and the Middle East. India and Indians were in some ways junior partners of the British, especially in the countries of the Indian Ocean littoral. Indian soldiers, bureaucrats, and merchants were nonetheless powerful and influential in many of Britain’s Asian and African colonies, at least relative to other colonial groups. Many British colonies, such as Malaya and British East Africa (Kenya), for example, were secured by large garrisons of British Indian Army soldiers. This army consisted mainly of native Indian soldiers, often called sepoys, commanded by British officers. The Indian subcontinent was an important source of manpower for the British who raised many regiments for their Indian Army, especially from what they deemed to be “martial races,” warrior peoples like the Sikhs, Gurkhas and Marathas. There was also a much smaller British Indian Navy throughout this period and eventually an air force.

The British Indian Army was technically formed in 1895, though British Indian forces had been in operation for over a hundred years before that date. Prior to 1895, British Indian forces consisted of three armies under the command of the three presidencies (or centers of power) of Bombay, Bengal and Madras. Some of these armies participated in the Anglo-Afghan War of 1839-1842 and the Great Rebellion of 1857. After 1895, these armies were all merged into one single force with four commands. One of the first missions of this unified force, active throughout much of Asia and Africa, was the Boxer Rebellion in China (1899-1901) with Indian troops forming part of the occupying force in Beijing.

The British Indian Army saw major action in the two world wars. During World War I, more than 1.3 million Indians soldiers fought on the British side, 74,187 of them died. Indian soldiers fought on the Western Front in Europe, in Gallipoli, and in Mesopotamia. Some 700,000 Indian soldiers fought in the Mesopotamian campaign alone. This campaign included many triumphs and defeats. One of the worst defeats was the Ottoman siege of the British garrison of Kut in 1915-1916. The large British force at Kut was defeated and thousands were taken prisoner; at least half of the Indian prisoners died in captivity. However, as the war continued other British forces, mostly Indian, in Mesopotamia were able to launch a successful campaign toward the end of 1916 that led to the fall of Baghdad on March 11, 1917. Later, Indian troops occupied Mosul. Indian troops thus contributed to the fall of the Ottoman Empire and the eventual creation of what would become the modern state of Iraq.

The Indian Army’s real test, however, would come with World War II. That war would test both its loyalty – coinciding as it did with the heyday of the Indian independence movement – and its ability to fight against the Japanese (some Indian troops also fought in Egypt). During World War II, the Indian Army became the largest volunteer army in history, with about 2.5 million soldiers. In addition, Indian industry expanded to provide supplies and munitions for the British Empire.

The Japanese assault on British possessions in Asia began immediately after Pearl Harbor, with a Japanese force attacking the largely Indian garrison at Hong Kong on December 8, 1941. This garrison surrendered on “Black Christmas,” December 25, 1941. The Japanese then moved on Malaya and Singapore, which were poorly garrisoned. In the case of Singapore, the garrison was taken by surprise since it was assumed that any major invasion of Singapore would come by sea rather than by land. The fighting raged in Malaya and Singapore from December 1941 until February 1942 but ultimately the British and Indian forces surrendered. The loss of Singapore was one of the largest in British military history. On the other hand, many of the Indian soldiers captured in Singapore and later Burma would be organized by the Japanese into the Indian National Army (1942-1945), which was led by the Indian nationalist Subhas Chandra Bose. Although this alternative Indian army did not do much, it did weaken the foundations of the British Empire in India by calling into question the loyalty of many of the Raj’s soldiers. In theory, the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, which the Japanese occupied in 1942, were turned over to Bose, but the Japanese effectively called the shots there, as was the case elsewhere  with other collaborationist regimes.

Japanese forces also occupied and defeated British and Indian forces in British Burma, though the going was harder here for both sides due to the terrain and the added complication of Burmese forces fighting on both sides. The major turning point of the Japanese drive westwards into India itself came in 1944 when the Japanese fought British and Indian troops at the battles of Imphal and Kohima. The Battle of Imphal lasted from March to July 1944; the Japanese goal was to advance into India to forestall a British invasion of Burma and cut off supplies to China. At the same time, Japanese forces advanced northward to attack Kohima. Capturing Kohima would prevent reinforcements from reaching Imphal. Between April 5 and 18, 1944, in some of the bloodiest fighting of World War II, earning Kohima the title Stalingrad of the East, some 2,500 Indian soldiers held off 15,000 Japanese troops. Upon relief, the Japanese lost the initiative and had to retreat from both Kohima and later Imphal back into Burma.

The British Indian Army had a glorious history and played an important role in the major conflicts of the first half of the 20th century. Ultimately, when India and Pakistan became independent, they retained their portions of the British Indian Army, which is the direct predecessor of those counties’ national armies. Many of the best traditions along with the professionalism of the British Indian Army are retained by these modern forces.