The Indian Army

New Zealand Listener, Volume 10, Issue 238, 14 January 1944, Page 9

The Indian Army

NBS Talks Will Explain VERY week, and sometimes daily, we hear about the Indian Army in our war news. It has recruited two million men, and is the largest voluntary army in the war. We have heard about its

deeds in Burma, Abyssinia, Libya and Italy. It has been as gallant in retreat as in advance. What is the Indian Army? Most of us have only a vague idea. We know something about the Mutiny, and fighting on the North-West Frontier. We know ‘that peoples whd once fought against the British have become soldiers of the King-Emperor. We may be able to distinguish betimes a Sikh, a Gurkha, and a Pathan. Those who have read Younghusband’s "Story of the Guides" know that Kipling’s "Ballad of East and West," in which the borderthief’s son becomes a trooper in the Guides, can be paralleled in the history of that corps. But there is a great deal to learn. The history of the Indian Army is long, honourable and highly picturesque. How British officers have recruited men from the fighting peoples of India and shaped them into splendid regiments makes a thrilling story. Now the replacement of British officers by native officers is going on. There are all sorts of curious things about the Indian Army, such as the survival in regimental titles-contrary to the practice of the British Army-of the names of officers who founded these corps: If you read of the exploits of these pioneers, you will say they deserved this memorial. The NBS is to. broadcast shortly a series of talks that will give listeners a survey of the history of the Indian Army from the Company days. These talks, which have been prépared by Mr, J. J. W. Pollard, will be rich in human interest. They are to begin at 2YA on Monday, January 17, at 7.15 p.m.