Publisher's Synopsis
This short book deals with political consequences of soldiers from various ethnicities on the recruitment policy of the British in India.This scribe is of the view that political loyalty was the ultimate factor in British recruitment policy in India starting from 1858.This book deals with First World War in particular.We will start by examining each infantry unit of the British Army in 1914 and post first world war.Firstly there are nonsense myths that have been repeated and persist.Major General Fazal Muqeem Khan of Pakistan Army fallaciously claimed that there were no all Muslim units in British Indian Army.This was totally false. There were many all Muslim units between 1890 and 1914 and some till 1947.What Fazal Muqeem was trying to imply was that Muslims were regarded as most dangerous and untrustworthy by the British.Interestingly the opposite is true. For example Sikhs dominated fighting arms like infantry as late as end of first world war but were reduced after 1918 as they exhibited politically defiant anti British behavior in some units in first world war.On the other hand Punjabi Muslim were most loyal in first world war and thus Punjabi Muslims quota in infantry was increased and exceeded Sikh quota only after first world war ended.This was not due to any fighting qualities but pure political loyalty.Such was British mistrust of Sikhs that all Sikh units were mixed with Punjabi Muslim companies.Two Pakistani origin authors are in lead in holding Guinness book records of making false claims .Thus Major General Shaukat Riza on page-101 of Pakistan Army-1947-1949 published in 1989 makes an absolutely false and unsubstantiated claim that "In 1939 about 70 % of the rank and file of Indian Army was from Muslim tribes" . Shuja Nawaz on page-3 of his book "Crossed Swords" falsely claims that Punjabi Muslims dominated British Indian Army.Thus makes the factually false claim that "Punjabi Mussulmans dominated recruitment during British period".The correct position was from 1757 till 1885 the British Indian Army was Hindustani majority.From 1885 till 1921 Sikhs were in the highest numbers in infantry, the main fighting arm of the British Indian Army.Kaushik Roy in an article in Journal of Military History of USA makes a false and unsubstantiated assertion that Muslims were 45 % of the Bengal Army that rebelled in 1857.
