The Nonmartial Origins of the ‘‘Martial Races’’: Ethnicity and Military Service in Ex-British Colonies (original) (raw)
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Patterns of Prejudice 46, No. 3-4, 2012
British rule in India was entirely reliant on local troops, and the mobilization and recruitment of Indian communities gave rise to a multiplicity of discourses, traditions and identities reflecting the peculiar relationship between colonial power and indigenous military labour. Through the late nineteenth century, these discourses became increasingly racialized: only certain native communities were deemed to possess the 'spirit' necessary for military service. These so-called 'martial races'* including Nepalese Gurkhas, Punjabi Sikhs and Muslims from the northern and frontier provinces* provided the backbone of the imperial military and played a vital role in defending and extending colonial authority. By the early twentieth century, the racialized nature of soldiering in India was invoked to explain the composition of imperial forces and to legitimize the preservation of colonial rule. While the theory of 'martial races' is the subject of an increasingly diverse literature, relatively little attention has been paid to the practice* and practical origins* of restricted recruitment. In this article Rand and Wagner seek to re-examine the role of martial-race theories in British recruitment policies and practices in colonial India, drawing attention to the incoherence and complexity that marked the relationship between ideas of race and the practicalities of colonial military administration. They focus in particular on long-term patterns of continuities, rather than neat periodizations, and suggest that racialized discourses regarding soldiering have to be considered within the context of mutually advantageous relationships between the colonial state and its indigenous allies.
MARTIAL RACE AND INDIGENOUS FORCES: A LEGACY OF THE INDIAN ARMY MANIFEST?
In the early twentieth century, martial race theories were challenged on many fronts by broader 'scientific' and eugenic racial theories based more on physical characteristics, traditional racial prejudices, and those who believed that racial theories were far less significant than experience. This paper examines two areas, the Levant and the Horn of Africa during the Second World War, in which the British drew on the support of local forces, in order to test the relative prevalence and impact of martial race traditions in British Imperial activities. In doing so, it will consider how martial race, a legacy of the Indian army, operated in the broader context of the Second World War and how preconceived racial beliefs or ethnic stereotyping affect the employment of local forces. This paper is by no means an exhaustive or conclusive study. Rather, it serves to note some apparent emergent trends and suggest findings for further consideration.
Who Does The Dying?: 'Martial Races' and War Time Unit Deployment in the Indian Army
2019
During the Second World War, the Indian Army held back units and soldiers that were not from the so-called “martial races” from frontline combat service. The British “martial races” theory held that only a small number of communities in India were fit for military service and people from all “non-martial” communities should be excluded from the Army. Has the Indian Army, after gaining independence from British leadership, contended the Second World War practice of deploying “martial” units in combat while assigning “non-martial” units to noncombat roles? It has been conclusively demonstrated that “martial race” groups have contended to be overrepresented in the post-colonial Indian Army. However, there has been little study into how the “martial races” theory has continued to affect the Indian Army outside the matter of the recruitment of soldiers. The Indian Army, while being forced by political leadership to open up recruitment to “non-martial” communities, contended the Second Wo...
Ethnic 'Ferociousness' in Colonial Wars
Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde 177 (2021) 491–523, 2021
This article explores the myths and evidence surrounding extreme violence and the framing of 'ethnic soldiers' as loyal and indispensable Moluccan soldiers in the Dutch army in the Indonesian War of Independence, 1945-1949. In this article, we first interrogate the origins of this framing in the Dutch-Indonesian case and the type of sources underlying this perspective. Next, we present the results of our research, which combines a study of Dutch veterans' ego documents and oral-history projects. Based on this analysis, we reconsider both the framing and the evidence, after which we conclude with some comparative observations on 'ethnic soldiers' and the sources and perspectives underlying the ambivalent, but increasingly critical, framing of these men. Our methodology includes the use of digital-humanities techniques.
This work discusses the emergence and problems of cohesion as the Nigerian army. The fact that the Nigerian army emerged from an inherited colonial army, which also emerged from a band of military expeditors. The army was introduced into various patterns of cohesion. Described in this work is partitioned cohesion, a situation in which a group although seen as one, is subtly separated into units in which some are shown certain preferences. This partitioning, in the case of Nigeria saw the North being first preferred for its martial peoples, while at later stages the South, showing promise in terms of education, gained prominence in the corps of the NCO and officer cadre. This transitory preferences, although advantageous to the British colonialists, was of gross disadvantage to the new Nigerian army. With different perceptions about themselves, a gunpowder keg was left, just waiting to be lighted to blow. The different officer types created with time between 1946 and 1966 also saw a salient but obvious partition due to the fact that they were created in different ways, this differentiation in officer types, was worsened by the fact that they were a newly created group. The officer corps was not only new, but inadvertently immature to the process and so they exuded varying traits.