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Indian Contribution to the Western Front
While the French had a reinforcement strategy that called for nearly 100,000 colonial soldiers to take up second line duties in France, freeing second-line units to serve on the front lines, the British did not have plans in place to bring any colonial units into the main theatres of war. Instead most of the units they received were "found unit." Forces that were promised by various colonial and commonwealth leaders for the emergency and forces whose duties nominally required they stay in their garrisons were scooped up, and in the case of India, officers from all units were quickly transferred to the homeland to make good some of the horrendous losses incurred by these ranks in the Western Front.
The main issue of Indian soldiers being used on the western front came down to a confrontatioin between Kitchner, the former head of the British military forces in India, and Beauchamp Duff who had replaced Kitchener in that position when the later had been promoted to his new position in England and was a result of a longstanding distrust of the Indian soldier's qualities. British commanders in 1914 had a surprising awareness both of the complexities of the Indian indepdendence movemeny, and a belief that Indian soldiers were basically unreliable even in garrison - a lingering effect of the 1857 revolt. Unlike the French - whose foriegn military establishments were considered loyal enough to perform even military police roles, the British establishment of 1914 saw the Indian soldier with extreme diffidence.
The second issue, one that consumed a great deal of correspondence between Duff and Kitchner, was the ability of India to survive in British hands if British soldiers were removed from their garrisons and sent to the Western front. While territorial units were rushing to replace regular army battalions on a 1 for 1 basis, these territorial units tended to have a heavy hand when policing native populations. They often lacked the language skills, the easy hand, and the cultural understanding of various Indian populations, and they were nervous living in a sea of people from a different culture. If India revolted en masse during the Great War it might be impossible to bring under control, and could see a fatal disruption in British commerce and lines of communication.
In the end a compromise was struck. About 3/4 of the British Indian army would be returned to England amounting to 3 divisions of troops. Of the 9 experienced native Indian divisions only 3 would be sent to the British Army in 1914, the 3rd (Lahore) and 7th (Meerut) going to Europe. Any addition divisions required would be raised in the diferent theatres (primarily Persia and Egypt) and would not affect the ground strength of the Indian Army.
The caution the British showed proved both founded and unfounded. Indian divisions proved to be reliable and useful in both the western front, and more particularly, in secondary fronts. At the same time the units left behind in India proved essential not so much to put down revolts, Indian nationalists did not engage in major violence during the Great War, but to defend India from border raids by Muslim combatants in the pay of the German foriegn office.
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