Re: Hina Rabbani Khar reminds the Brits of her family’s services to them
In addition to my previous post, till the 1900’s I am not sure how many muslims were in the British Indian Army, after 1920’s to the creation of Pakistan some muslims got inducted into the army. The British coined a term called martial races, which included Northern Punjabis (Attock, Rawalpindi etc), Pakhtuns, some Baloch and Sindhis and inducted them in bigger numbers. Similarly from India they recruited Sikhs, Gurkhas etc.
The Role of Muslims Martial Races of Todays Pakistan in British-Indian Army in World War-II*
But these figures do not represent Muslim races of present day Pakistan only. On the eve of World War II almost 34,000 Punjabi Muslims were in the army (29 per cent) and during World War-II over 380,000 joined (about 14% of the total). No other class came close to these figures: Sikhs: 116,000, Gurkhas: 109,000, Muslims of other classes from UP, Deccan, Madras, Bengal, NWFP, etc 274,000, were recruited during 1939-1945. Muslims as a whole constituted a quarter of the Indian Army as of 1947 9…
Almost 70 per cent of the wartime recruitment was from what became Pakistan had been from the undivided Punjab, 19.5 per cent from NWFP, 2.2 per cent from Sindh, and 0.06 per cent from Baluchistan.10 The three semi-arid districts of Punjab-Rawalpindi, Jhelum, Attock (Campbellpur) and two districts of NWFP-Kohat and Mardan pre-dominated in supplying recruit volunteers in World War II.
http://asianhistory.about.com/od/colonialisminasia/p/profbritraj.htm
British India in World War I:During World War I, Britain declared war on German on India’s behalf.
More than 1.3 million Indian soldiers and laborers were serving in the British Indian Army by the time of the Armistice. 43,000 Indian and Gurkha soldiers died.
**Although most of India rallied to the British flag, Bengal and Punjab were restive. Many Indians were eager for independence; they were led by a political new-comer called Mohandas Gandhi.
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In April, 1919, more than 5,000 unarmed protestors gathered at Amritsar, in the Punjab. British troops fired on the crowd, killing an estimated 1,500 men, women and children. The official death toll was 379.
British India in World War II:**When World War II broke out, once again, India contributed hugely to the British war effort. In addition to troops, the princely states donated substantial amounts of cash.
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**By the end of the war, India had an incredible 2.5 million-man volunteer army. 87,000 Indian soldiers had died in combat.
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The Indian independence movement was very strong by this time, though, and British rule was widely resented. Some 30,000 Indian POWs were recruited by the Germans and Japanese to fight against the Allies, in exchange for their freedom. Most, however, remained loyal.
Indian troops fought in Burma, North Africa, Italy, and elsewhere.
