In 1895 all three presidency armies were merged into the
Indian Army.
History
Origins
The Bengal Army originated with the establishment of a European Regiment in 1756.[3] While the East India Company had previously maintained a small force of Dutch and Eurasian mercenaries in Bengal, this was destroyed when
Calcutta was captured by the Nawab of Bengal on 30 June that year.[4]
Under East India Company
In 1757 the first locally recruited unit of Bengal
sepoys was created in the form of the Lal Paltan battalion. It was recruited from soldiers that had served in the Nawab's Army from Bihar and the Awadh (
Oudh) who were collectively called
Purbiyas. Drilled and armed along British army lines this force served well at the
Battle of Plassey in 1757 and 20 more Indian battalions were raised by 1764. In 1766, the
Monghyr Mutiny, quelled by
Robert Clive, affected many of the white officers of the Bengal Army.[5]
"It may well be said that the whole sepoy army of Bengal is drawn from the Company's province of Bihar and Oudh, with very few exceptions".
The East India Company steadily expanded its Bengal Army and by 1796 the establishment was set at three battalions of European artillery, three regiments of European infantry, ten regiments of Indian cavalry and twelve regiments (each of two battalions) of Indian infantry.[8]
In 1824 the Bengal Army underwent reorganisation, with the regular infantry being grouped into 68 single battalion regiments numbered according to their date of establishment. Nine additional infantry regiments were subsequently raised, though several existing units were disbanded between 1826 and 1843. On the eve of the
First Afghan War (1839–42) the Bengal Army had achieved a dominant role in the forces of the HEIC. There were 74 battalions of Bengal regular infantry against only 52 from Madras, 26 from Bombay and 24 British (Queen's and Company). On average an inch and a half taller and a stone heavier than the southern Indian troops, the Bengal sepoy was highly regarded by a military establishment that tended to evaluate its soldiers by physical appearance.[9]
A new feature in the Bengal Army was the creation of irregular infantry and cavalry regiments during the 1840s.[10] Originally designated as "Local Infantry" these were permanently established units but with less formal drill and fewer British officers than the regular Bengal line regiments.[11]
Another innovation introduced prior to 1845 was to designate specific regiments as "Volunteers" – that is recruited for general service, with sepoys who had accepted a commitment for possible overseas duty. Recruits for the Bengal Army who were prepared to travel by ship if required, received a special allowance or batta.[17] Two of these BNI regiments were serving in China in 1857 and so escaped any involvement in the great rebellion of that year.[18]
The East India Company's Bengal Army in 1857 consisted of 151,361 men of all ranks, of whom the great majority - 128,663 - were Indians.[19]
1857
A total of 64 Bengal Army regular infantry and cavalry regiments rebelled during the
Indian Rebellion of 1857, or were disbanded after their continued loyalty was considered doubtful.[1] From 1858 onwards the
Chamars(Outcaste)[20] and the actual high-caste Awadhi and Bihari Hindu presence in the Bengal Army was reduced[21] because of their perceived primary role as "mutineers" in the 1857 rebellion.[22] The new and less homogeneous Bengal Army was essentially drawn from Punjabi Muslims, Sikhs, Gurkhas, Baluchis and Pathans, although twelve of the pre-mutiny Bengal line infantry regiments continued in service with the same basis of recruitment, traditions and uniform colours as before.[23]
A largely unspoken rationale was that an army of diverse origins was unlikely to unite in rebellion.[24]
Post 1857
End of the separate Bengal Army
In 1895 the three separate Presidency Armies began a process of unification which was not to be concluded until the Kitchener reforms of eight years later.[25]
As an initial step the Army of India was divided into four commands, each commanded by a lieutenant-general. These comprised Bengal, Bombay (including Aden), Madras (including Burma) and Punjab (including the North West Frontier).[26] In 1903 the separately numbered regiments of the Bombay, Madras and Bengal Armies were unified in a single organisational sequence and the presidency affiliations disappeared.[27]
The Bengal infantry units in existence at the end of the Presidency era continued as the senior regiments (
1st Brahmans to 48th Pioneers) of the newly unified Indian Army.[28]
Ethnic composition
The Bengal Army of the East India Company was mainly recruited from high castes living in Bihar and the Awadh.[29]
Prior to 1857, company military service was most popular in the zamindaris of North and South Bihar with the East India Company signing contracts to raise levies of troops from them.[30] Recruits from the
Rajput and
Bhumihar caste were common and they would use service in the Bengal Army as an opportunity to raise their wealth and status and for this reason, the Bhumihar zamindaris of Bihar became "prime recruiting grounds" for the Army.[30]
In the 1780s, the Company maintained a major recruiting station in
Buxar with six companies under a Captain Eaton. These recruiting stations in Bihar were kept as "nurseries" which supplied battalions when drafts were made. Other recruiting centres were located in
Bhagalpur,
Shahabad,
Monghyr,
Saran and
Hajipur.[30]
Brigadier Troup, who served as the commander of
Bareilly, stated of recruitment that the ‘Bengal native Infantry came chiefly from the province of Awadh, Buxar, Bhojpur and Arrah.’[30]
In 1810,
Francis Buchanan-Hamilton noted in his account of the districts of Bihar, that the number of men absent from
Shahabad to serve in the Army was 4680. The
Ujjainiya zamindar of Bhojpur also informed him that 12000 recruits from his district had joined the Bengal Army.[30]
Writing in The Indian Army (1834),
Sir John Malcolm, who had a lifetime's experience of Indian soldiering, wrote: "They consist largely of Rajpoots (
Rajput), who are a distinguished race. We may judge the size of these men when we are told that the height below which no recruit is taken is five feet six inches. The great proportion of the Grenadiers are six feet and upwards."[19]
Both prior to and following 1857, the Bengal Army included what were to become some of the most famous units in India:
Skinner's Horse, the
Gurkhas from the
Himalayas and the
Corps of Guides on the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.[31]
1st to 10th Bengal Light Cavalry Regiments (see
3rd and
5th Regiments). Eight of these regular regiments mutinied and two were disbanded during 1857–58. None were carried over into the post-Mutiny army.[32]
1st to
4th Bengal European Light Cavalry Regiments. Recruited hastily in Britain in November 1857 to replace the eight regiments of Bengal Light Cavalry which had mutinied. The mention of "European" in the name indicated that it consisted of white soldiers rather than Indian
sowars. In 1861, all four European regiments were transferred to the British Army as the 19th, 20th and 21st Hussars.[33]
1st to 5th Regiments of Cavalry of the Punjab Irregular Force
Artillery
The Bengal Artillery was divided into three 'sections', the Bengal Horse Artillery (affiliated with the
Royal Horse Artillery), Bengal European Foot Artillery (European/white members), and the Bengal Native Foot Artillery (native Indians). Below is the list of those that were formed/active before their disbandment/absorption into the
Royal Artillery and
RHA. Units below will have their formation designation and then designation after joining the
British Army.[34]
1st to 74th Regiments of
Bengal Native Infantry (including
Goorkha 66th Regiment of Bengal Native Infantry). Of these regular regiments only twelve (the 21st, 31st, 32nd 33rd, 42nd, 43rd, 47th 59th, 63rd, 65th, 66th and 70th BNI) escaped mutiny or disbandment to survive into the post-Mutiny army.[36] As such they retained a number of features and traditions of the "old" Bengal Army, such as the wearing of
red coats. The remainder of the regiments making up the "new" Bengal Army were derived from a mixture of irregular units already in existence before the Mutiny, plus Punjabis, Sikhs and Gurkhas. Local corps, levies and even police battalions raised for the suppression of the Mutiny were in some cases transformed into new regular infantry regiments, which brought the total number up to 49.[36]
Because the Bengal Army was the largest of the three Presidency Armies, its Commander-in-Chief was, from 1853 to 1895, also
Commander-in-Chief, India.[37] Commander-in-Chief, Bengal Command
^Creese, Michael (2015). Swords Trembling in Their Scabbards. The Changing Status of Indian Officers in the Indian Army 1757–1947. Helion Limited. pp. 26–27.
ISBN9-781909-982819.
Bickers, Robert A.; Tiedemann, R. G. (2007). The Boxers, China, and the World. Rowman & Littlefield.
ISBN978-0-7425-5395-8.
Carmen (1969). Indian Army Uniforms under the British from the 18th century to 1947. Artillery, Engineers and Infantry. Morgan-Grampian Books Ltd.
ISBN978-0-249-43956-4.
Mollo, Boris (1981). The Indian Army. Littlehampton Book Services Ltd.
ISBN978-0-7137-1074-8.
Stubbs, Francis W. Major-General., History of the Organization, Equipment, And War Services of the Regiment of Bengal Artillery, Compiled From Published Works, Official Records, And Various Private Sources (London. Volumes 1 & 2. Henry S. King, 1877. Volume 3. W.H. Allen, 1895). A full detailed history with maps, appendices, etc.
Cardew, F. G., Sketch of the Services of the Bengal Native Army: To the Year 1895 (Calcutta: Office of the Superintendent of Government Printing, 1903, reprinted by Naval and Military Press Ltd., 2005,
ISBN1-84574-186-2) Contents: Chapter I: 1599–1767; II. 1767–1796; III. 1797–1814; IV. 1814–1824; V. 1824–1838; VI. 1838–1845; VII. 1845–1857; VIII. 1857–1861; IX. 1862–1979; X. 1878–1881; XI. 1882–1890; XII. 1891–1895; Appendix: I. A Chronological List of the Corps of the Bengal Army, Showing particulars of their origin and their subsequent history; II. Existing Corps of the Bengal Army, Showing Dates of Raising and Changes in their Titles; III. Commanders-in-chief of the Bengal Army; IV. Chronology list of the Services of the Bengal Native Army; Index.