Military reforms post 1857:
The military was the backbone of the Company’s rule in India.
After 1857, there was a systematic reorganisation of the Army to prevent the recurrence of another revolt.
The Indian branch of the army was to be used for expansion in Asia and Africa, while the British section was to be
used as an army of occupation—the ultimate guarantee of British hold over India.
To begin with, domination of the European branch over the Indian branches was ensured. The commissions of 1859
and 1879 insisted on the principle of a one-third white army (as against 14% before 1857).
o Before 1857 – 1:10
o After 1857 – 1:3
Strict European monopoly over key geographical locations and departments, such as artillery, tanks and armed
corps, was maintained. Even the rifles given to Indians were of an inferior quality till 1900, and Indians were not
allowed in these high-tech departments till the Second World War.
No Indians were allowed in the officer rank, and the highest rank an Indian could reach till 1914 was that of a
subedar (only from 1918 onwards were Indians allowed in the commissioned ranks).
As late as 1926, the Indian Sandhurst Committee was visualizing a 50% Indianised officer cadre for 1952!
Divide and rule within the army:
The Indian branch was reorganised on basis of the policy of balance and counterpoise or divide and rule. The 1879
Army Commission had emphasised—“Next to the grand counterpoise of a sufficient European force comes the
counterpoise of natives against natives.”
An ideology of ‘martial races’ and ‘non-martial races’, which assumed that good soldiers could come only from
some specific communities, developed particularly from the late 1880s, under Lord Roberts, the then commander-
in-chief.
It was used to justify a discriminatory recruitment policy directed towards Sikhs, Gurkhas and Pathans who had
assisted in the suppression of the revolt and were relatively marginal social groups—therefore less likely to be
affected by nationalism.
The soldiers from Awadh, Bihar, Central India and South India who had participated in the revolt were declared to be
non-martial.
Moreover, caste and communal companies were introduced in all the regiments and Indian regiments were made a
mixture of various socio-ethnic groups so as to balance each other. Communal, caste, tribal and regional
consciousness was encouraged to check the growth of nationalist feelings among soldiers.
Finally, conscious efforts were made to isolate the soldiers from life and thoughts of rest of the population through
measures such as preventing newspapers, journals and nationalist publications from reaching them.
On the whole, the British Indian Army remained a costly military machine.
