Untold History of Gurkha Brigade

Be it first, or the second world war, Nepal didn’t fight any of it. But in these wars, more than 200 thousand Nepalese died. Strange, but true. These were the Nepalese enrolled in the British army, whom we know for their bravery. But behind it, is a dark politics, which many of us are unaware of.

Beginning of Gurkha Recruitment

Till the 1800s east India company that entered India on the pretext of trade had already seized most of the land of India. They wanted to capture the entire Indian subcontinent. Nepal was well aware of this. And Prithivi Narayan Shah had already started a campaign to Unify Nepal. At around 1809 AD, Nepal had reached up to Kagada fort. Nepalese strategy was to reach Kashmir and ally with other strong free nations. This was what the Britians were frightened of. And they wanted to deal with this danger in time. When they got defeated in Sindhuli Gadhi, they came to understand that even when outnumbered Nepalese troops can be deadly. So, in 1814, using some regions of Butwal as the reason Anglo-Nepal war was started. During this, Amarsingh Thapa was on the western front. He had an approximate of 3,000 soldiers with him. And against this British General David Ochterlony came with 18,000 soldiers and with canons loaded on elephants.

After months of the long war, Balbhadra Kunwar was forced out of his fort. Bhakti Thapa was killed. And till May of 1815, when there were no more than 150 soldiers left, Amarsingh Thapa had no other option than to sign the Malaun treaty. Though the Malaun treaty hadn’t said anything exactly about the Nepalese enrollment in the British army. It was the first step towards enrollment. In reality, enrolling Nepalese in their army was a predetermined plan of the British. When the war was going on even before the Malaun Treaty British had already made the first Gurkha Battalion- Shirmur Battalion by taking Nepalese POWs.

British objectives of Gurkha Recruitment

To understand the history of Gurkha recruitment, we have to understand the British strategy behind it. British had two main objectives. The 1st one was to weaken Nepal. To solve the threats from Nepal in the North their initial objective was to capture Nepal by war. But when the first few battles against Nepal gave the sign that to win wouldn’t be easy then they made another strategy to keep Nepal weak. That was to make Gurkha Brigade. The first one to propose this was captain Hearsay and was supported by General Ochterlony. And before the Anglo-Nepal war was over, under Lt. Robert Ross and Federick Young’s leadership, by taking the POWs of war first Gurkha Battalion was made. After 1816 AD the recruitment was done in even greater numbers. According to the British plan, by recruiting Nepalese in huge numbers, they weaken the Nepalese youth power. As a result, the Nepal army would weaken. And due to the lack of workers, Nepal’s economy would also weaken. As a result, the now weakened Nepal would be forced to obey anything the British tell them. Though not actually colonized, Nepal would be equivalent to a colonized country. And sadly, in time that is what happened.

The second objective of recruitment was the cheap and quality manpower Britain needed. Britain itself is not a big country. Around the 1800s they didn’t even have a considerable number of soldiers of British origin. To suppress the nations they had conquered, and to fight the wars they were in they used the soldiers of local origin. But this wasn’t of course a reliable thing to do. Because of this, Nepalese were constantly in their mind. They themselves had experienced war skills of Nepalese in Sindhuli Gadhi. But the most beneficial subject for them was the young farmers in rural places of Nepal, who were unaware of politics like these. And were straightforward, honest, and hardworking. When the Anglo-Nepal war ended after the Sugauli treaty in 1816 AD, Nepal was in economic trouble due to war. Affected by this were Nepalese farmers. When the British began calling Nepalese villagers for recruitment, Some farmers joined for economic relief. And many were forced to enroll during the Rana period. In the meantime, due to these troops, Britain succeeded in capturing other independent states like Punjab and suppressing the insurgency.

Rana’s role in Gurkha Army Recruitment

Although the British Gurkha recruitment started after 1815, it wasn’t going as well as they wanted it to. They wanted a strong presence in Nepal in order to run it according to their will. But British residential officer in Kathmandu was still forced to live like a prisoner. There was a state ban on the recruitment of Gurkhas. The public was discouraged from entering the British army.

Those who joined were even forbidden to return back. But after the death of Bhimsen Thapa in the 1839 AD, conspiracies and power struggles began to grow within the court. Jung Bahadur, while doing the Kot massacre a few years later, had the support of the British. Because of this Jung Bahadur remained under British control. But even Jung Bahadur was anti-British Gurkha recruitment. Despite the British’s repeated request to open Gurkha recruitment, he would simply refuse and say- “We love our independence. If you feel happy forcing us you can do so. But this is a matter related to our self-esteem. So our policy on this topic will not change.” Even so, when Indian soldiers of the East India Company rebelled in 1857 besides the British Gurkha brigade Jung Bahadur himself went to suppress the rebellion by leading a large number of Nepalese soldiers. From then onwards, Gurkhas became a very trusted soldier of the Britians. And they realized that their strategy of recruiting Nepalese in their army is the right one. And they began to work in it more seriously.

There was another chaos when Junga Bahadur died. With the support of British, Bir Shumsher and his 17 brothers killed Junga Bahadur’s descendants and made Bir Shumsher the Prime Minister. Thus the Ranas that came in power like this was very dependent on the British to sustain their power. Bir Shumsher opened up Nepalese recruitment in the British army by issuing an ordinance in 1885. Not satisfied with even this, an ordinance which was drafted by the British themselves was again issued by Bir Shumsher in 1888 AD. Points like- ‘Enrollment in British Army can be done directly by meeting British officials without meeting Nepali officers’ and ‘Government will be happy with those who enroll’ were added in it. After this, in Bir Shumsher’s reign period itself, the recruitment number was doubled.

After selling its citizens to the British like this Ranas received a royalty of 10 Lakhs(1 million) every year. This money didn’t go anywhere but directly to Rana’s pockets. In this greed of this money, a campaign for recruitment was started. The leaders of villages who were called ‘Talukdar’ Number of people that they should compulsorily recruit were announced. If the designated number could not be met, they would be removed from the post of talukdar while for every 10 youth they recruit, they would be given a reward of Rs. 5. Like this, in the first world war alone 150,000 Nepalese were recruited. 250,000 Nepalese were used in the second world war. As the country had a relatively small population, youths got drained. Nevertheless, as Britain was in need of more troops during the War, 12,000 troops were recruited from remote parts of the country. In order to prevent the lack of youth for recruitment, with the agreement of Ranas, Nepalese were also barred from doing non-military jobs in India by the British. Additionally, in order to evade royalty, they needed to pay to Ranas. 48,000 Nepalese were recruited without knowledge of Nepalese officials. Because of this drain of workforce previously prosperous Nepal plunged into extreme poverty.

Gurkha Army in First and Second World War

The first world war was very frightening for the Nepalese. They were sailing across the sea for the first time to fight a war in Europe. This was unfamiliar territory for them and here they faced modern weapons for the first time. 35% of British soldiers died in this war Just based on this 50,000 Nepalese must have died But, as Nepalese were primarily kept in the front lines this number reached more than 70.000 But the number British embassy gave to the Nepalese government is only 8,000. Whereas, 17,000 Nepalese died in just one day in France in the Battle of Loos. Similarly more than 400,000 Nepalese fought in WW2 and 146,000 died. But according to numbers given by British only 6,000 Nepalese are said to have died. But we know 10,000 Nepalese died in Burma in The Battle of Sittang Bridge in just one day. Apart from death, there is no account of Nepali’s suffering in the war. Even letters written by the Gurkha soldier to the family were censored. So that Youth’s being recruited back in Nepal, would be unaware of the pain and suffering of the war. Hiding the painful aspect of the war and spreading the stories of bravery, is propaganda that is still used.

Another propaganda that the British used, was to present Nepalese as a poor and military race. By claiming to provide employment to the poor Nepalese, Britain presented itself as the savior. But Nepal, which was a country full of farmers with fertile land was neither poor before Gurkha recruitment started nor was there any other purpose except to use them in war by the British. On the contrary, it was the Gurkha soldiers that rescued Britain. Had the Gurkha soldiers not fought, Britain would have lost to Germany and Japan in WW2. Even then, after the war was over Britain sent Gurkha soldiers back empty-handed. Without any pension or other facilities, given to war veterans.

Beginning of Indian Gorkha Brigade

In 1947, when Britain was leaving India, It proposed to Pandit Nehru of India to keep Gurkha soldiers. Hindu Muslim violence was rampant in India at the time and it was during Partition. Whether it was to control violence or to secure borders, India needed a strong military force. So in 1947 with a three-party treaty out of 10 battalions of Gurkha soldiers that British India had 6 were kept in India and the remaining 4 were taken by the British. After this, the Gurkha soldiers started fighting for India as well.

After the Treaty of Sugauli, Balbhadra Kunwar and some other Nepalese went to Punjab to fight against British imperialism. Nepalese were fighting from the British side as well. It didn’t matter who won Nepalese were going to die. Again both the world wars were not Nepal’s war, but more than 200,000 Nepalese lost their lives in them. And 90% of Nepalese returned empty-handed. From Indonesia, Argentina, Afghanistan to Africa Gurkha soldiers have fought many wars for the British. But Gurkha soldiers have not received the same rights as their native soldiers. To this day, British Gurkha soldiers are still in the movement against this injustice. We have heard many stories about their bravery, but the stories about their pain have been left untold. The reality behind the start of this practice and the resulting loss our country faced in History due to this is also not discussed. Unless we study our history and learn from it we will keep repeating the same mistake.

Watch the video explaining the untold history of Gurkha Brigade

References:

• Dr. Yubaraj Sangraula, A Tradition of Bartering and Selling Nepalese Youths
• Gurkha’s Blues (Documentary)
• Padam Bahadur Gurung (Interviews)
• Book: Gurkha Brigade (1814-2014) by Dr. Yubraj Sangraula
• E.D. Smith, Valor: History of Gurkhas