A Dismal Story? Britain, the Gurkhas and the Partition of India, 1945-1948

Omissi, David

Abstract

Broadly speaking this is indeed what happened, with one striking exception – the Gurkhas. No Gurkha regiments were ‘transferred’ to the Indian Army in 1947, for the simple reason that they already were part of the Indian Army. Instead, four of the Indian Army’s ten Gurkha regiments were transferred from the Indian Army to the British Army, which had hitherto possessed no Gurkha regiments of its own. The ‘British’ Gurkha regiments had always previously belonged to the Indian Army, or, before 1858, to its predecessor, the army of the East India Company. The partition of the Indian Army in 1947 was therefore not a two-way, but a three-way process – between Pakistan, India and Britain.

Citation

Omissi, D. (2012). A Dismal Story? Britain, the Gurkhas and the Partition of India, 1945-1948. In A. Jeffreys, & P. Rose (Eds.), The Indian Army, 1939–47: Experience and Development (195 - 214). Aldershot: Ashgate. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315556772

• Acceptance Date: Aug 1, 2012
• Online Publication Date: Mar 3, 2016
• Publication Date: Jun 28, 2012
• Deposit Date: Oct 2, 2019
• Publisher: Ashgate
• Pages: 195 - 214
• Book Title: The Indian Army, 1939–47: Experience and Development
• Chapter Number: 10
• ISBN: 9781409435532; 9781138110069
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315556772
• Public URL: https://hull-repository.worktribe.com/output/429027