Sikhs and the Indian Army

Posted by reallynicearticle on February 7th, 2021

The Sikhs constitute 2% of India's population and mainly stay in the Northern part of the country in the Punjab. But despite their small numbers they form a significant part of the Indian Army. Presently the Indian army has 18 pure battalions of sikhs in its ranks.

The British had a concept of martial and non martial races in India. Thus after seeing the Sikhs battle them in the Anglo Sikh wars they had formed a high opinion of Sikhs as soldiers and accordingly graded them as a martial race. One may or may not agree with the concept of a martial race, but there is no doubt that certain races have faced the brunt of invasions more than others and are thus more ready to join battle in any environment. The Sikhs is one such race. Indian Army Admit Card

The first battalion of the sikh troops was formed in the erstwhile British Indian Army in 1846 just before the annexation of the Punjab. from that time onwards the Sikhs became an integral part of the British Indian Army. At one time the Sikhs formed as much as 33% of the strength of the Army during the days of the Raj.

The Sikhs covered themselves with glory in many fields of battle for the British. The most notable being the brave fight by 21 Sikh soldiers against the tribesmen of the Frontier at Saragrahi, where they faced a horde of 10, 000 Moslems. The Sikhs also fought in the First World war and the Second World war and earlier in the British Army campaigns against the Afghans on the Frontier.

After independence the Sikhs retained their dominant position in the Indian Army. But a subtle discrimination started which is hard to explain. Thus despite the officer corps being one third Sikh hardly any Sikh was promoted as Army Chief. To start with Nehru showed his bias when he bypassed Lt Gen Kulwant Singh in favor of Cariappa and later Indira Gandhi bypassed Harbaksh Singh, the man who saved India during the 1965 war in favor of Manekshaw.

Even during the tenure of Rajiv Gandhi most Sikhs were seconded to command Southern Command. Perhaps this had something to do with 'operation' blue star where the Indian Army assaulted the Golden temple in complete disregard of all canons of civilized behaviour. It was a sad occasion and disturbed all right thinking people..