Martial race

"Rajputs" (anonymous, c.1860)
From the collection of the British Library

Martial Race is a term based on the assumption that certain ethnic races were more martially inclined as opposed to the general populace or other races. This was a term originally used by the British Empire who observed that the Scottish Highlanders were more fierce in battle than the others on the British Isles. Lord Robert Clyve in his book Historical Essays observed a similar concept in India. He divided the entire Indian ethnic groups into two categories: Martial and Non Martial. Of late, this concept has been dismissed as an Imperialistic thought based on racial stereotypes and laced with Gender bias.

Criteria

Martial Race was a designation created by officials of British India. The British officials described these races as naturally warlike and aggressive in battle, and to possess qualities like courage, loyalty, self sufficiency, physical strength, resilience, orderliness, hard working, fighting tenacity and military strategy. The British recruited heavily from these Martial Races for service in the colonial army. Critics of this theory state that the First War of Indian Independence may have played a role in reinforcing the British belief in Martial races. During this Sepoy Mutiny of 1857, the "loyal" Sikhs, Punjabi Muslims, Dogras, Gurkas, and Pakhtuns (Pathans) did not join the mutiny and fought on the side of the British Army. From then on, this theory was used to the hilt to accelerate recruitment from among these races, whilst discouraging enlistment of "disloyal" Bengalis and high-caste Hindus who had sided with the rebel army during the war.

The geography and culture of these martial races had common marks, such as hilly and mountainous terrain, a basis as hunting or agricultural societies, and a history of conflict, whether internally or with external groups. A case in point are the Gurkhas, who challenged British imperial expansion and gained the respect of their enemies for their fighting prowess and tenacity, thus earning them their reputation and their continued employment in the British Army. Some authors like Heather Streets rebuff this Martial Races Ideology stating that the military authorities puffed up the images of the martial soldiers by writing regimental histories, and by extolling the kilted Scots, kukri-wielding Gurkhas and turbaned Sikhs in numerous paintings. The Martial Race theory has also been described as a clever British effort to divide the people of India for their own political ends."

Races designated by the British as martial races

• Balochs
• Cheema
• Jats
• Rajputs
• Awans
• Gujars
• Pashtuns
• Marathas
• Gurkhas

Unlike the martial races, the inhabitants of the hot, flat plains of the country were supposedly unwarlike, flabby, dark-skinned and therefore unfit for military services. Still others were excluded due to their "ease of living" or branded as seditious agitators. The Dravidian people were called non-martial with many derogatory remarks about their looks, ethnicity and history. However, the nature of this is debatable, as a large number of Indian martial arts, such as Adithada and Kalaripayat originated from the the southern regions of the Indian subcontinent. Further, one of the greatest Kingdoms in India to rule across the seas and capture kingdoms in Sri Lanka and Indonesia was the Chola dynasty, a dravidian race. The Chola Military, and their naval power was seldom matched by any of the other Kingdoms ruled by "martial races" until many centuries later. The people of Eastern India were also not considered "martial races", despite the fact that the most powerful empire in ancient India, the Maurya Empire, originated in Eastern India from the kingdom of Magadha (in modern Bihar and Bengal).

Modern usage

Though seldom used in today's context, it was used until the early 1970s, especially by the Pakistan Military which believed that since the Pakistan Army comprised soldiers of the "martial races", they should easily defeat India in a war, especially prior to the Second Kashmir War Based on this belief in the martial races theory, it was popularly hyped that one Pakistani was equal to four to ten hindus, and thus numerical superiority of the foe could be overcome. However, the Indo-Pakistan Wars of 1947 and 1965 proved otherwise as Pakistan Army lost more men than India in its many attempts to gain the whole of Kashmir.

The Pakistan Army was also accused of bias and racism by the Bengalis of East Pakistan who felt humiliated by this dubious theory that was being floated West Pakistan, that they were not "martially inclined" compared to the Pathans, Balochs and Punjabis. Pakistan author Hasan-Askari Rizvi notes that the limited recruitment of Bengali personnel in the Pakistan Army was because, the West Pakistanis "could not overcome the hangover of the martial race theory". This was to be one of the factors for the Bangladesh Liberation War, where Bengalis aided by the Indian Military handed them the worst military drubbing in recent times by defeating the Pakistan Army in just a fortnight taking nearly 1 lakh Pakistani soldiers as Prisoners of War - the largest surrender since WWII. Since then, the "martial race" theory was rarely, if ever, used at all by Pakistan.