Caste and the Modern Indian Army

Abstract

This article takes a look at the role caste has played in the functioning and ethos of the Indian Army over the colonial and postcolonial period. For the British, conventionally understood as the forerunner of the modern Indian Army, caste was one of the pivots around which Indian society revolved. By exploring this relationship between caste and the modern Indian Army present essay will argue that part of the reason for the dynamics of caste continuing to play a role in the affairs of the army is the fact that the army for all its denials does rely on religious and caste traditions to indoctrinate recruits, particularly in single class regiments such as the Sikh Regiment. The recruit in such regiments is not to merely undergo training in arms, he is also to imbibe the doctrines and the supposedly true traditions of his faith for his martial qualities are seemingly linked to his religious ethos. Thereby religious sentiments, ethos, and traditions, are consciously encouraged and propagated. Thus such traditions become very much part of the regimental heritage and matrix.