From sepoy to commander

There is something profoundly poignant about the story of the Indian soldier under British rule. For nearly two centuries, he was trusted with the musket but denied the baton of command. He marched across continents, fought distant wars and helped build and defend an empire, yet the highest offices of the profession of arms remained beyond his reach. The journey from sepoy to commissioned officer was painfully slow, shaped by courage, prejudice and political necessity. Winston Churchill's reported remark to the British War Committee on 27 July 1942 captures the racial prejudice behind this system: "It will be abhorrent to oblige white men to suffer the humiliation of being ordered about by a brown man."

The military establishment that became the British Indian Army may be traced to the Battle of Plassey in 1757. The East India Company's victory transformed it from a trading corporation into a territorial power, with locally recruited sepoys becoming the principal instrument of expansion. The Bengal, Madras and Bombay Presidency Armies formed the military foundation of British rule.

The early history also proves that courage recognised neither religion nor race. Hindu and Muslim sepoys fought together, Gurkhas were recruited after the Anglo-Nepal War, and Sikhs who had fought the British were soon recruited into Company service. Military necessity proved stronger than old enmities.

Recognition for gallantry came slowly. In 1837, the British instituted the Indian Order of Merit, the first decoration for conspicuous bravery open to Indian soldiers of every faith, almost two decades before the Victoria Cross. Yet recognition stopped short of equality. Indian soldiers could win medals for courage but remained excluded from positions of real command; the officer corps remained overwhelmingly British.

The upheaval of 1857 transformed the military establishment. The East India Company disappeared, administration passed to the British Crown, and in 1895 the three Presidency Armies were formally amalgamated into the Indian Army. Field Marshal Lord Kitchener's reforms further reorganised the force and created a unified command structure.

Recruitment increasingly favoured the Punjab, the North-West Frontier and Nepal, giving rise to the controversial doctrine of the "martial races". Yet the position of the Indian soldier seeking commissioned rank remained largely unchanged.

The highest rank normally attainable through the Viceroy's Commission was Subedar Major in the infantry or Risaldar Major in the cavalry. These experienced soldiers commanded respect after decades of service, yet remained subordinate to the youngest British King's Commissioned Officer.

The First World War exposed the injustice of this arrangement. More than a million Indian soldiers served overseas and earned admiration for their courage, but returned to find the doors to commissioned rank only partially open.

In 1918, the British Government announced that Indians would be eligible for the King's Commission. The following year, five Indian cadets proceeded to Sandhurst: Iqbal Ali Baig, Iskander Mirza, Lolit Kumar Roy, Madanjit Singh and Turan Kumar Sinha. Two died before completing the course, and aside from Iskander Mirza, who successfully obtained the King's Commission, the others failed, withdrew, or did not ultimately enter service. Mirza was commissioned on 16 July 1920 as the first of this group to enter the Indian Army as a King's Commissioned Indian Officer. He later became Pakistan's first President.

An important milestone came with the Indian Sandhurst Committee, headed by Lieutenant General Sir Andrew Skeen in 1925, whose members included Muhammad Ali Jinnah. Its deliberations strengthened the demand for an Indian military academy, resulting in the Indian Military Academy at Dehradun in 1932. Yet Indianisation remained restricted and questions of status, command and promotion continued to cause controversy.

The Second World War transformed the Indian Army. From a relatively small pre-war force, it expanded into a bulging army of over two million men. Emergency officer-training arrangements were established, and Indians entered the commissioned ranks in unprecedented numbers. Wartime expansion finally began to break many of the barriers that had constrained Indianisation.

The war also produced the controversial Indian National Army under Subhas Chandra Bose, formed largely from Indian prisoners of war who chose to fight alongside Japan. Its military contribution was limited, but its political and psychological impact on the final phase of British rule was considerable.

At Partition in 1947, the legacy of restricted advancement was painfully evident. Among the senior Muslim officers who opted for Pakistan, substantive seniority remained remarkably low, reflecting decades of colonial restrictions on the advancement of Indians to higher ranks.

Foremost among them was Lieutenant Colonel Muhammad Akbar Khan, PA-1, who served in the acting rank of Major General and was the senior-most native officer of the Pakistan Army. His younger brother, Muhammad Iftikhar Khan, was regarded as one of the most promising officers of his generation and was expected by many to become Pakistan's first native Commander-in-Chief. Ayub Khan was PA-10 on the same seniority list.

Tragedy altered this course. On 12 December 1949, a DC-3 Dakota carrying Major General Muhammad Iftikhar Khan crashed near Jungshahi, killing all aboard, including his family and Brigadier Sher Khan. Iftikhar Khan had been a strong contender to succeed General Sir Douglas Gracey. The official explanation was navigational error, although speculation persisted for decades.

Ayub Khan subsequently succeeded General Sir Douglas Gracey, assuming command in January 1951 as Pakistan's first native Commander-in-Chief. Within a decade, he had moved from command of the Army to the Presidency, profoundly influencing the political course of the new nation.

The evolution of the Indian officer corps is ultimately the story of capable men waiting for long-denied opportunities. From the Indian Order of Merit in 1837 to Iskander Mirza's King's Commission in 1920, more than eight decades elapsed before an Indian officer from the regular Indianisation process stood on equal professional footing with a British counterpart. That these men eventually assumed responsibility for defending two newly independent states remains one of the ironies of South Asian history. Leadership was never absent; the opportunity to exercise it had simply been withheld.

Yet the bane of slavery still persists, as reflected in this couplet by Allama Iqbal from Zarb-e-Kaleem:

Tha jo na-khoob ba-tadreej wohi khoob hua

Ke ghulami mein badal jata hai qaumon ka zameer