FIGHTING RACES THE INDIAN CONTINGENT

Evening Post, Volume LXXXVIII, Issue 72, 22 September 1914, Page 2

FIGHTING RACES THE INDIAN CONTINGENT

THEIR CHANCE HAS COME More than a century and a-half has passed since Indian troops, under British officers, faced a European enemy in the field, and India has seen many changes, since Olive drove out the French with an army largely composed of native soldiers (writes' "A Soldier" in the Melbourne Age). The Indian forces have undergone many reorganisations as the Empire extended its boundaries, but the last, under Lord Kitchener, when Com-mander-in-Cliief, finally eliminated tho tribes, which had become effete and- lost their military qualities, and ensured that the Indian regiments should be recruited only from the " fighting races." Of these, the Rajputs, the oldest fighting race in India, whoso name means " sons of princes," and whose chiefs claim descent from the old gods, will probably not be drawn upon for the present war, as the hot climate in which they live would unfit them for service in the snow and wet of a German winter. The same may be said of the Marathas, Jats, and Deccanis, and we ,may conclude that the expeditionary force will' consist mainly of Sikhs, Pathans, and Gurkhas. Of these the Pathans and Gurkhas are mountaineers, and used to intense cold, while the Sikhs inhabit the Punjab, where the winters are ati least as cold as in France or Southern Germany. THE SIKHS. The Sikhs, who number about 3,000,000, were originally a religious sect, under strict military discipline, which arose in the 15th century, and by the end of the 18th had become a powerful nation, ! under the famous "Lion of the Punjab," Ranjit Singh. Tall, powerful men, living chiefly on the land, they are good horsemen and make magnificent infantry. They fought two wars against •the -British — in 1846 and 1849 — and were finally subdued by Lord Gough after many desperate battles. Gough was much censured at the time for his love of close-quarter fighting ' and the bayonet, which led to very heavy losses, but since then the Sikh's have always said that we beat them fairly, man to man, with the cold steel, and that they would stick to us while the sun shone in the heavens. i The Sikh soldier is one of the finest men to bo seen on earth. Fully 6 feet high, broad-shouldered, deep-chested, and with a most stately bearing, he looks the ideal of a fighting man. His huge black beard is parted on the chin and carried back in two rolls, fastened behind his, ears, and surmounted by an immense pagri (usually miscalled "puggaree") or turban, into which is folded, a thin, • flat, sharp steel ring, the "throwing quoit," an ancient weapon, with which an expert can kill a man at 50 yards. Nowadays it is no longer used for fighting, but is good to ward off a cut from the head. The Sikh is an excellont bayonet fighter, and loves a hand-to-hand combat. Those who saw the Indian contingent which visited Australia in ISOO, when the present King came out as Prince of Wales, will not forget the martial bearing of the Sikh soldiers who formed part of it. A DIFFERENT TYPE. The Pathans are of a different type. Tall, spare, and wiry, inured to hard ' living, cold and fatigue, in a country so 'poor that> it hardly supports its tion> they can stand extremes of hardship and privation. They are not, as a rule, fond of hand-to-hand fighting, but when ■ worked up to a pitoh of excitement they ! will charge home with the most desperate courage, *and will take as much killing as a wild beast. Fanatical Mahometans to a man, their sole thought when fighting against "unbelievers" is to kill an many as possible before they go down, secure in the belief that this gives them a direct passport to heaven. They live habitually in a state of war, in the 800 miles of rugged mountain range which form the north-west frontier of India. Every" tribe is at war with every other, j often village with village, and blood feuds are as common and as bitter as tho vendetta in Corsica. Every man carries a rifle, and his reaching the age of manhood is proof that ho can use it. The Pathans are, without doubt, the finest rifle shots in the world, and the man who exposes himself within 400 yards of a Pathan has a small chance of life. { Many of them are also born horsemen, and, although the sword is less used than in the days before rifles were known, they make light cavalry second to none. Their eyesight is very keen, and ithe training of their whole life has made them perfect in scouting and in every trick and artifice of war. ambushes ana night attacks being perhaps their favourite mode of fighting. THE GURKHA. The Gurkha again differs widely from Sikh or Pathan. He is of mixed Hindu and Mongol stock, small, dark, and very muscular. He loves sport, where sport consists in the lulling of any wild animal, and looks on fighting as the highest form of sport. He is a fair rifle shot, but as a rule better at game or at an enemy than on the rifle range. Each man carries, in addition to rifle and bayonet, the kukri, or kookree, the national weapon, a curved knife with a Wade about 18in long, a very heavy bade, and a convex cutting edge. Tins weapon he much prefers to rifle or bayonet, and a Gurkha charge driven home is a terrible thing, for the Gurkha fairly revels in a hand-to-hand scrimmage, and the kukri will lop off a, head or an arm with the greatest ease. Indeed, armed with his ,beloyed kukri, the Gurkha fears nothing living, and will cheerfully attack a . wounded tiger or a hostile battery. He is by nature a most bloodthirsty little man, aud his great festival, the feast of Durga, goddess of death, is a wild orgy of blood. In a Gurkha regiment all tho British officers who can take leave during this festival, and tlwse who are left keep well away from tlie men's lines while* the slaughter is going on. $ The Indian cavalry are the pick of the Indian army, and are perhaps the most aristocratic service in the world, every trooper being a gentleman of land-own-ing stock. Each man on joining pays; a considerable sum of money to purchase his horse and arms, and receives mor* than tliree times the pay of an infantry soldier, out of which lie has to keep his horse. Direct commissions are often given to men of good family, especially those who can bring a number of their tenants or retainers as recruits. Other. wise all promotion is through the rank*. The moral effect on the Germans of being faced in the field by such troops as these will be great. In* past years various Germans have expressed to me their horror and dismay at the idea of France using her African troops, Algerians and Senegalese, against Germany it war should break out between the two countries. The Indian troops are far better than any Africans, and will' without doubt strike terror into the enemy. Ira the coalition wax* in China in 19001901 the Indian soMters developed a profound contempt for the Germans, who were then acting as their allies, and now these same soldiers, led by British officers, to whom they are devoted, and' whom they love and admire beyond measure, will face with the greatest confidence and W} unlimited scuse $I.eups!i'

ority the best troops of the Kaiser. For years they have been madly keen to join with their British comrades in a great Imperial war, and now their chance has come.