The Main Ethnic Groups in the Indian Army

“These Indian units comprised Gurkhas, Punjabis, Mahomedans, Sikhs, Pathans, Garwhalis, Dogras, Rajputs and Jats. Men of many different races, speaking different languages and holding different religious beliefs, but one and all British and Indian alike, bound together by the tie of loyalty to their King Emperor and determined to uphold the honour and ideals of his Empire.”

Sir Charles Anderson - Opening Address The Indian Memorial, Neuve Chapelle, France 1927

Baluchis

Baluchis

Originating from a mixture of Arab and Scythian stock, the Baluchis are Muslims and are found throughout Baluchistan and Sindh. With partition in 1947 the Baluch Regiment was allocated to the forces of Pakistan

Pathans

The Pathans original antecedents came from what is now Israel, enriched with the blood of the original tribes of Afghanistan and invaders from Persia and Central Asia. They consisted of a large number of fiercely independent tribes united by the bonds of language and the Muslim religion and inhabited the mountainous North-West Frontier.

Rajputs

From a warrior caste tracing their rise in India back many thousands of years, Rajputs came primarily from Rajasthan. Their close proximity to the North-West Frontier made them the vanguards of the defenders of Hindu India from foreign invaders and they are the backbone of India’s fighting races.

Gurkhas

Descendants of Rajput immigrants with a strong measure of Mongolian blood, Gurkha soldiers were selectively recruited from the hill people of Nepal. They owed their “martial” tradition to their founder, an eighth century Hindu warrior saint called Guru Gorkhnath.

Garhwalis

Descendants of the Rajputs, they came from the hilly Garhwal subdivision of the Uttaranchal. They are ethnically close to the Gurkhas and are Hindus. The Garhwal Rifles exists today as a regiment in the Indian Army thus perpetuating its long and distinguished history.

Punjabi Mussalman

This class was a British invention to denote all Muslims recruited from the Punjab, Mussalman being the Punjabi for Muslim. They were a largely agricultural people sharing the same language, Punjabi, as the Sikhs.

Sikhs

From the essentially agricultural area in Northern India called the Punjab, Sikhs owe their “martial” origins to their 10th Guru Gobind Singh, who created the Khalsa (Warrior-Saint) army to defend their religion.

Dogras

Originally descended from the Rajputs, the Dogras, generally orthodox Hindus, had their homes among the lower spurs of the Himalayas. Considered solid and dependable people, in 1914 three regiments of the Indian Army were composed entirely of Dogra soldiers

Jats

A race closely allied to the Rajputs, Jats inhabited the agricultural area which comprises the Punjab states of Sindh, Haryana, Jammu, Rajasthan and Western Uttar Pradesh. They were either Hindus or Sikhs.

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Arrival and Trench Warfare