04-30-2009, 03:27 AM
surinder wrote:
While there were a *few* Europeans (& Americans) in Indian Armies (especially of Sikhs), that hardly justifies the saying that the entire officer class was European
The officer class were foreigners, and where such foreigners were unavailable, ordinary soldiers deserting from European armies were welcomed by Indian Kingdoms and commissioned to raise modern infantry formations. Matthew Heaney, a common soldier who deserted from the 8th Dragoons, became "Colonel O'Brien" by raising a small force for the faraway hill-state of Kangra.
Even civilians with some European blood or just Indian Christians who dressed up in military uniforms could dupe their way to becoming officers; such was the state of ignorance among our indigenous warrior class. Jadunath Sarkar writes, "Every French or Portuguese half-breed, or even a pure native Christian of Goa, when dressed in a cast-off European military costume, was believed to be a master of the new war, and was commissioned to raise a sepoy battalion for the local Hindu prince..."
There is a short list in European Military Adventurers and many more in various other books covering that period.
While there were a *few* Europeans (& Americans) in Indian Armies (especially of Sikhs), that hardly justifies the saying that the entire officer class was European
The officer class were foreigners, and where such foreigners were unavailable, ordinary soldiers deserting from European armies were welcomed by Indian Kingdoms and commissioned to raise modern infantry formations. Matthew Heaney, a common soldier who deserted from the 8th Dragoons, became "Colonel O'Brien" by raising a small force for the faraway hill-state of Kangra.
Even civilians with some European blood or just Indian Christians who dressed up in military uniforms could dupe their way to becoming officers; such was the state of ignorance among our indigenous warrior class. Jadunath Sarkar writes, "Every French or Portuguese half-breed, or even a pure native Christian of Goa, when dressed in a cast-off European military costume, was believed to be a master of the new war, and was commissioned to raise a sepoy battalion for the local Hindu prince..."
There is a short list in European Military Adventurers and many more in various other books covering that period.