![]() More sepoys were deployed when there was a threat of invasion from the Dutch who were unhappy with Raffles for acquiring Singapore as a British trading post. 18 There were no records of Indians in Singapore prior to 1819. 17 When Stamford Raffles and William Farquhar landed in Singapore in January 1819, their entourage included 120 sepoys from the Bengal Native Infantry as well as a motley crew of washermen, tea-makers (chai wallahs), milkmen and domestic servants. The sepoys were one of the first Indians to arrive in Singapore. Towards the end of 1810, five battalions of sepoys were deployed to Java to recapture the island from the French. 14 Munshi Abdullah noted in his autobiography, the Hikayat Abdullah, that the sepoys from the British forces in Malacca were all Bengalis and Madrassis during the early 19th century. ![]() Later, sepoys from the Madras Infantry began to arrive in the Straits Settlements. In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, sepoys from the Bengal Native Infantry were stationed at Fort Marlborough at Bencoolen in Sumatra, as well as in Penang and Malacca. The British frequently used Indian troops to defend their territories in Southeast Asia. By 1856, sepoys outnumbered European troops in the EIC at a ratio of 10 to 1. 12 Soon, the sepoys outnumbered the British soldiers in India – a pattern that continued until India’s independence in 1947. The British army was made up of three territorial divisions, and based in Madras, Bombay and Bengal. Subsequently, the British also established sepoy regiments in Madras and Bombay. 10 The British believed that these men made better soldiers because of their taller stature. 9 Till 1858, the recruits in the Bengal Native Infantry were primarily from Bengal, Punjab and other northwestern regions in India. 8 The first sepoy regiment, the Bengal Native Infantry, was formed in 1757. 7Īfter this defeat, the British adopted the French model by raising their own sepoy companies and grouping them into battalions that were based in Bengal and Madras. 6 These sepoys, led by the French, defeated the untrained Indian soldiers in the British army and briefly captured Madras. The first battalion of sepoys was formed by the French in 1744. However, these Indian troops were not trained and were treated as irregular auxiliaries. The British East India Company (EIC) recruited Indians into their army for the first time in 1677. The units were called “native sepoys” up till 1885, after which the term "native" was dropped. The sepoys were trained and armed in the European manner, and were organised into battalions led by European officers. ![]() Sepoys were Indian soldiers recruited from the native population of India by the European colonial powers. ![]() 3 Apart from defending the island, the sepoys also helped to clear land for settlements and building batteries for defence. 2 They were one of the first Indians to arrive in the newly established trading port of Singapore. Sepoys played an important role in helping to maintain law and order in the new British settlements. The term “sepoy” is derived from the Persian word sipahi, which had been translated into the Urdu and Hindi languages as a generic term for soldier. Sepoys were Indian soldiers employed within European military garrisons to provide the much-needed manpower for the defence of European colonies in Asia.
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