Genealogy Project of the British Military Presence in India from 1612 to 1947 (2023)

FAQs

How did British structure their army in India? ›

The first army officially called the "Indian Army" was raised by the government of India in 1895, existing alongside the three long-established presidency armies. However, in 1903 the Indian Army absorbed these three armies.

The main provinces in British India were Madras, Bombay, Central Provinces, Punjab, United Provinces, Bengal, Assam, and Bihar and Orissa. The North West Frontier Province was another significant province.

Hint: The Sepoys were Indian troops recruited by European colonial powers from India's native population. The sepoys were organised into battalions led by European officers and were trained and armed in European fashion. The units were referred to as "native sepoys" until 1885 when the phrase was abandoned.

On 2 June 1947, the last Viceroy of India, Admiral Lord Louis Mountbatten, announced that Britain had accepted that the country should be divided into a mainly Hindu India and a mainly Muslim Pakistan, encompassing the geographically separate territories of West Pakistan (now Pakistan) and East Pakistan (now Bangladesh ...

World War II had severely damaged the British Empire in terms of economy. To cut their losses they were forced to relinquish many of their colonies.

As it grew, it needed to secure its Indian settlements from European rivals and hostile locals. It purchased land from Indian rulers and recruited troops to protect these 'Presidencies'. Eventually, these forces evolved into the Bengal, Bombay and Madras Armies.

The British needed a large army to secure their interests and fulfill their objective of achieving territorial control over areas where they conducted their trade. They needed to defend their factories and trading posts and expand their trade. Achieving political control was necessary to fulfill this aim.

India lost its independence not even to a government but to a private company: the notorious British East India Company, which extended its control over a sizable share of the country through both manipulation and brutality — and conducted its theft by taxing the natives and forcibly extracting their resources.

After the Revolt of 1857 in India, the British recruited the soldiers in the British Indian Army from Punjabi, Gurkha and Pathan communities on a large scale and declared them as martial communities.

British Troops in India, moved to Bombay on zznd December, and on 1st January, 1948, General Whistler took over responsibility for the final withdrawal of British personnel from the country.

When did British came to India? ›

The British landed on the Indian Subcontinent at the port of Surat on August 24, 1608 AD for the purpose of trade, but after 7 years British got royal order (i.e. Farman) to establish a factory at Surat under the leadership of Sir Thomas Roe (Ambassador of James I).

The Indians were racially discriminated by the British. The Indian sepoys had lesser salary when compared to their British counterparts. For promotions too, British soldiers were always given preference.

Mangal Pandey, (born July 19, 1827, Akbarpur, India—died April 8, 1857, Barrackpore), Indian soldier whose attack on British officers on March 29, 1857, was the first major incident of what came to be known as the Indian, or Sepoy, Mutiny (in India the uprising is often called the First War of Independence or other ...

Sepoy | Indian soldier | Britannica.

In August, 1947, when, after three hundred years in India, the British finally left, the subcontinent was partitioned into two independent nation states: Hindu-majority India and Muslim-majority Pakistan.

Answer and Explanation: The main reason that the British granted independence to India was the decades-long protest movement lead by Mahatma Gandhi. The second reason was the weakening of British military and economic power that occurred after World War II. India was granted independence in 1947.

Crudely, this was a division based upon religious affiliation, with the creation of a Muslim majority in West and East Pakistan and a Hindu majority in India.

On 20 February, 1947, Clement Attlee, the then British Prime Minister, announced in the British Parliament's House of Commons that the British would leave India by 30 June, 1948.

Years of nonviolent resistance to British rule, led by Mohandas GANDHI and Jawaharlal NEHRU, eventually resulted in Indian independence in 1947.

The British did not stay in India because their position had become untenable because World War II had destroyed its economy to such an extent that it did not have the resources to maintain its colonies.

How long did British rule India? ›

The British Raj (/rɑːdʒ/; from Hindi rāj: kingdom, realm, state, or empire) was the rule of the British Crown on the Indian subcontinent; it is also called Crown rule in India, or Direct rule in India, and lasted from 1858 to 1947.

Sepoys were angry with the British because: They were paid low wages. British did not respect their religion. They were asked to open the cartridge with their teeth, which was believed to be made of cow's and pig's flesh which triggered the sepoys.

The Indian soldiers in the British army were unhappy. They were not allowed to wear their traditional and religious symbols and head gears. They were paid a meagre salary and had no promotion options.

Robert Clive, who led the company's 3,000-person army, became Bengal's governor and began collecting taxes and customs, which were then used to purchase Indian goods and export them to England. The company then built on its victory and drove the French and Dutch out of the Indian subcontinent.

India is mentioned in Esther 1:1 and 8:9 as the eastern boundary of the Persian Empire under Ahasuerus (c. fifth century B.C.) and in 1 Maccabees 6:37 in a reference to the Indian mahouts of Antiochus's war elephants (second century B.C.). Otherwise there are no explicit references to India in the Old Testament.

Jambudvīpa (Sanskrit: जम्बुद्वीप, romanized: Jambu-dvīpa, lit. 'berry island') was used in ancient scriptures as a name of India before Bhārata became the official name. The derivative Jambu Dwipa was the historical term for India in many Southeast Asian countries before the introduction of the English word "India".

The British colonialism in India led to the death of over 100 million people in 4 decades from 1880 to 1920, the peak of British imperialism, a new study published in the journal World Development said.

The first biggest strike from the British on India was the defeat of the Nawab of Bengal, Siraj-ud-daulah, at the hands of Robert Clive in the Battle of Plassey in 1757.

A Connected Histories project estimated that the British Indian Army amounted to 1.4 million troops, with 430,000 Muslims serving alongside more than 800,000 Hindus and 100,000 Sikhs, as well as Christians and others. The Muslim soldiers were recruited from regions such as the Punjab, Bengal and Kashmir.

Age. You must be at least 17 years and 9 months when you apply. You can apply to join the Army until the day before your 50th birthday (for Reserve Soldier) and 48 years and 9 months for Officer Roles. There are higher age limits for some specialist roles, and ex-Regular Rejoiners.

Did India exist before the British? ›

It was argued that India was previously not one country at all, but a thoroughly divided land mass. It was the British empire, so the claim goes, that welded India into a nation. Winston Churchill even remarked that before the British came, there was no Indian nation. “India is a geographical term.

In the meantime, demobilization had commenced with vigour, and by June 1947 the active strength of the Army stood at some 500,000. Finally, 400,000 men, and countrywide movable and immovable assets were shared under a complicated scheme supervised by a British presence in the form of a Supreme Headquarters.

By the early 19th century, the Company's army was 250,000-strong, larger than that of many nations. The officers were British and there were several regiments composed only of Europeans.

In 1939 the British Indian Army numbered 205,000 men. It took in volunteers and by 1945 was the largest all-volunteer force in history, rising to over 3.35 million men.

The number of British troops in India was never very large with the British in the ratio as low as four thousand. The ratio of British to Indian troops was fixed roughly one ratio two (1:2) instead of One ratio five (1:5).

British Troops in India, moved to Bombay on zznd December, and on 1st January, 1948, General Whistler took over responsibility for the final withdrawal of British personnel from the country.

The British Raj (/rɑːdʒ/; from Hindi rāj: kingdom, realm, state, or empire) was the rule of the British Crown on the Indian subcontinent; it is also called Crown rule in India, or Direct rule in India, and lasted from 1858 to 1947.

India was the one of the largest economies in the world, for about two and a half millennia starting around the end of 1st millennium BC and ending around the beginning of British rule in India.

Somewhere between 6,000 and 40,000 British soldiers and civilians were killed in the violence and an estimated 800,000 Indians were killed in the quelling of the rebellion and its aftermath.

The lieutenant formed part of the largest volunteer army in the world, 2.5m men from undivided India – what is today India, Pakistan and Bangladesh – who served the British during World War II. They were fighting for Britain at a time when the struggle for India's freedom from British rule was at its most incendiary.

Is Indian military stronger than British? ›

Indian military strength lags China, US but better than UK, Japan.

The British first landed in India in Surat for the purpose of trade. Here's how and why a simple trading company, the British East India Company, became one of the biggest challenges the subcontinent had ever dealt with. By India Today Web Desk: The British landed in India in Surat on August 24, 1608.

At its height in 1947, the British population in India (including their descendents) numbered ~800,000. This community dwindled rapidly after India's Independence.

The British Army unit, '39th Regiment of Foot' was given the motto 'Primus in Indis' because it was the first to serve in India.

Population. According to the 2021 Census, Indians in England & Wales enumerated 1,864,318, or 3.1% of the population. The 2011 United Kingdom census recorded 1,451,862 residents of Indian ethnicity, accounting for 2.3 per cent of the total UK population (not including those of mixed ethnic backgrounds).