Origins The Bengal Army originated with the establishment of a European Regiment in 1756. While the East India Company had previously maintained a small force of Dutch and Eurasian mercenaries in Bengal, this was destroyed when
Calcutta was captured by the Nawab of Bengal on 30 June that year.
East India Company and grenadier In 1757, the first locally recruited unit of Bengal
sepoys was created in the form of the
Lal Paltan battalion. It was recruited from soldiers that had served in the Nawab's Army from Bihar and the Awadh (
Oudh) who were collectively called
Purbiyas. Drilled and armed along British army lines this force served well at the
Battle of Plassey in 1757 and 20 more Indian battalions were raised by 1764. In 1766, the
Monghyr Mutiny, quelled by
Robert Clive, affected many of the white officers of the Bengal Army. In his deposition,
Lieutenant General Jasper Nicolls, who was an army commander stationed in India, stated of the Bengal Army's recruitment that: The East India Company steadily expanded its Bengal Army and by 1796 the establishment was set at three battalions of European artillery, three regiments of European infantry, ten regiments of Indian cavalry and twelve regiments (each of two battalions) of Indian infantry. In 1824 the Bengal Army underwent reorganisation, with the regular infantry being grouped into 68 single battalion regiments numbered according to their date of establishment. Nine additional infantry regiments were subsequently raised, though several existing units were disbanded between 1826 and 1843. On the eve of the
First Afghan War (1839–42) the Bengal Army had achieved a dominant role in the forces of the HEIC. There were 74 battalions of Bengal regular infantry against only 52 from Madras, 26 from Bombay and 24 British (Queen's and Company). On average an inch and a half taller and a stone heavier than the southern Indian troops, the Bengal sepoy was highly regarded by a military establishment that tended to evaluate its soldiers by physical appearance. A new feature in the Bengal Army was the creation of irregular infantry and cavalry regiments during the 1840s. Originally designated as "Local Infantry" these were permanently established units but with less formal drill and fewer British officers than the regular Bengal line regiments. The main source of recruitment continued to be high caste Brahmins, Bhumihars and Rajputs from Bihar and Oudh, although the eight regular cavalry regiments consisted mainly of Muslim
sowars from the Indian Muslim
biradaris such as the
Ranghar,
Sheikhs,
Sayyids,
Mughals, and
Hindustani Pathans. Another innovation introduced prior to 1845 was to designate specific regiments as "Volunteers" – that is recruited for general service, with sepoys who had accepted a commitment for possible overseas duty. Recruits for the Bengal Army who were prepared to travel by ship if required, received a special allowance or
batta. Two of these BNI regiments were serving in China in 1857 and so escaped any involvement in the great rebellion of that year. The East India Company's Bengal Army in 1857 consisted of 151,361 men of all ranks, of whom the great majority - 128,663 - were Indians.
Indian Rebellion 1857 A total of 64 Bengal Army regular infantry and cavalry regiments rebelled during the
Indian Rebellion of 1857, or were disbanded after their continued loyalty was considered doubtful. and the actual high-caste Awadhi and Bihari Hindu presence in the Bengal Army was reduced because of their perceived primary role as "mutineers" in the 1857 rebellion. The new and less homogeneous Bengal Army was essentially drawn from Punjabi Muslims, Sikhs, Gurkhas, Baluchis and Pathans, although twelve of the pre-mutiny Bengal line infantry regiments continued in service with the same basis of recruitment, traditions and uniform colours as before. A largely unspoken rationale was that an army of diverse origins was unlikely to unite in rebellion.
Demise in 1850 sepoy In 1895 the three separate Presidency Armies began a process of unification which was not to be concluded until the Kitchener reforms of eight years later. As an initial step the Army of India was divided into four commands, each commanded by a lieutenant-general. These comprised Bengal, Bombay (including
Aden), Madras (including
Burma) and
Punjab (including the
North West Frontier). In 1903 the separately numbered regiments of the Bombay, Madras and Bengal Armies were unified in a single organisational sequence and the presidency affiliations disappeared. The Bengal infantry units in existence at the end of the Presidency era continued as the senior regiments (
1st Brahmans to 48th Pioneers) of the newly unified Indian Army. ==Ethnic composition==