Indigenous Mercenaries in the Service of European Imperialists: The Case of the Sepoys in the Early British Indian Army,1750-1800

Abstract

When the British got drawn into a series of wars against the French and a variety of Indian princes in south-east India (the Carnatic) in the latter half of the eighteenth century, they were short of men to fight them because few lower-class Europeans could be enticed to the East. So they had to turn to the large indigenous Indian military labour market and found many willing to serve for the regular pay which, unusually for India, the East India company offered them. The British had to overcome their own initial scepticism that the Indian troops (sepoys) who fought for them, with their very different cultural values and military traditions, could be trained and disciplined to fight as well as Europeans in the European manner. However, as the company's imperial attitude grew, it had no choice but to rely on its sepoys. A way was eventually found to raise the sepoy battalions' performance by partially replacing their Indian officers with British ones. This solution also to some extent allayed growing fears that, as the sepoys became more tactically competent and disciplined, they might one day turn on their employers. It did however blight the career prospects of the company's Indian officers and this was one of the elements of the great mutiny eight years later which challenged the integrity of the mighty Raj.