Gurkhas

Origins

The Gurkhas are Nepalese soldiers in British and Indian service, an institution born of respect. The name comes from Gorkha, the hill kingdom whose rulers unified Nepal in the eighteenth century. From 1814 to 1816 the British East India Company fought a hard war against Nepal. The Company won, but its officers were deeply impressed by the soldiers they faced, and in 1815, before the peace was even settled, they began enlisting Nepalese hillmen into their own battalions. The Treaty of Sugauli of 1816 ended the war and opened the way for regular recruitment.

Organization & Training

Most Gurkhas have come from the hill peoples of central and eastern Nepal, such as the Magar, Gurung, Rai and Limbu. For over a century they served in Gurkha regiments of the British Indian Army, commanded by British officers. When India became independent in 1947, an agreement between Britain, India and Nepal split the ten regiments: four went to the British Army and six to the new Indian Army. Today the British Brigade of Gurkhas is a few thousand strong, while India's Gorkha regiments are much larger.

Selection in the Nepal hills remains among the most competitive in any army. Each year many thousands of young men compete for a few hundred British places, with tests that include carrying a basket of rocks uphill against the clock.

Weapons & Equipment

The Kukri is their signature: a forward-curved Nepalese blade, tool and weapon at once, carried by every soldier and wrapped in more stories than almost any knife on earth. Otherwise Gurkhas have always carried the standard arms of the British and Indian armies. In the late nineteenth century that meant the Martini-Henry Rifle. Through both World Wars and after, they used the Lee-Enfield Rifle with its Pattern 1907 Bayonet, and the Bren light machine gun. Modern British Gurkhas carry the same rifles and equipment as the rest of the British infantry.

Notable Actions

Gurkhas fought for the British in the Anglo-Sikh Wars and in the Indian Rebellion of 1857, when the Sirmoor Battalion held a key position during the siege of Delhi. Roughly 200,000 Gurkhas served in World War I, on the Western Front, at Gallipoli and in the Middle East. In 1915 Rifleman Kulbir Thapa became the first Gurkha soldier to win the Victoria Cross. In World War II around a quarter of a million served, in North Africa, Italy and above all Burma. Later campaigns included Malaya, Borneo, the Falklands in 1982, and Afghanistan.

The Brigade of Gurkhas counts twenty-six Victoria Crosses: thirteen won by Gurkha soldiers and thirteen by their British officers. The British scholar Ralph Turner, who had served with Gurkhas, called them "bravest of the brave" in a tribute that is still quoted.

Legacy

The bargain first struck in 1815, Nepalese hillmen in British service with fierce loyalty on both sides, has outlasted almost every other military institution of the British Empire. It has not always been fair to the soldiers: for decades Gurkhas received lower pensions than British troops, and only after a public campaign in 2009 did most retired Gurkhas win the right to settle in Britain / United Kingdom. Gurkha service remains a source of pride and income for many families in Nepal, and the kukri remains one of the most recognized military symbols in the world.

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