The JCO evolved from the native commissioned officers of the
Presidency armies, who held commissions from the
Governor General. The native commissioned officers developed into the
viceroy's commissioned officers (VCOs), established in the
British Indian Army during the
British Raj in 1885.
Gurkha regiments in British service had also their set of 'native officers' resp. VCOs, although their homeland
Nepal was never a British colony. Under the British, there was a clear colonial context, with the VCOs being the highest ranks an Indian could attain. The full commissioned officers were British, from the 18th century to the beginning of the 20th century. However, that changed slowly under the principles of
Indianisation. In 1905, a special form of a king’s Commission in His Majesty’s Native Land Forces was instituted. Indians who had qualified through the
Imperial Cadet Corps would earn a commission that was limited to having authority over Indian troops only. Its holders could not rise above
major. From 1917, in the midst of
World War I, Indians 'with good family background' became eligible to study at the
Royal Military College, Sandhurst and earn a commission as
King's Commissioned Indian Officer (KCIO). By the time of independence in 1947, there were many Indian (and Pakistani) officers who had graduated from Sandhurst or the
Indian Military Academy. In 1945 the Willcox Committee Report recommended that VCOs be phased out, though this never occurred. The
Indian Army has recruited
Gurkha soldiers from Nepal since the 19th century and separate Gurkha regiments were created for them, the Gurkha soldiers got same ranks as other Indian soldiers; the modern
Nepal Army officially used the Indian Army rank system for their soldiers in the 1960s through a series of reorganizations and the
JCO term has been used by them from then. After the secession of
East Pakistan in 1971, the
Bangladesh Army inherited the JCO rank system from the
Pakistan Army. ==Current ranks==