Question

Explain the following statement with a reason.

After the struggle, Indian army was divided on the basis of caste.

Answer 1

After the 1857 revolt, there was a systematic reorganization of the Army for the following reasons:

1. To prevent the repetition of another revolt like that of 1857.
2. To use the Indian Army to defend the Indian territory of the empire from other imperialist powers in the regions like Russia, Germany, France, etc. This guaranteed the ultimate security of British hold over India.
3. The proportion of Europeans to Indians was carefully fixed at one to two in the Bengal Army and two to five in the Madras and Bombay Armies. There was severe European control over key geographical locations and departments, such as weapons, tanks, and armed corps.
4. The rifles given to Indians were of inferior quality till 1900.
5. No Indians were allowed in the officer rank, and the highest rank an Indian could reach till 1914 was that of a Subedar (a rank position)
6. The Indian branch was reorganized on the basis of the policy of balance and counterpoise or divide and rule.
7. It was used to give a reason for an unfair employment policy directed towards Sikhs, Gurkhas, and Pathans who had helped in the suppression of the revolt and were marginal social groups.
8. The soldiers from Awadh, Bihar, Central India and South India who had participated in the revolt were stated to be non-martial.
9. Caste and communal companies were introduced in all the regiments to form a mixture of various socio-ethnic groups so as to balance each other.
10. Communal, caste, tribal and regional awareness was made positive to check the growth of nationalist feelings among soldiers.
11. Alert efforts were made to separate the soldiers from life and thoughts of the rest of the population. They were controlled through measures such as preventing newspapers, journals and nationalist publications from reaching them.
12. On the whole, the British Indian Army stayed on a valuable military machine.