Kate Imy. Faithful Fighters: Identity and Power in the British Indian Army.

Abstract

The British gained their empire by the sword, expanded it by the sword, and held on to it by the sword. Over the last two decades the vibrant field of “new” military history has explored the manifold ramifications of British imperialism enabled by Indian soldiers. Faithful Fighters: Identity and Power in the British Indian Army belongs to this expanding genre. However, the book is not solely a study of the army. It also examines “the Indian Army’s attempt to racialize and militarize South Asian identities” (1) and “the cultural legacies of the British Indian Army from 1900 to 1940” (2) to evaluate “how the army shaped colonial society in times of “peace” (7). Faithful Fighters is divided into six chapters. The first three consider three distinct and highly recruited religious communities, the Sikhs, “Muslims,” and Nepali Gurkhas, respectively. The fourth considers food and the military, and the fifth looks at education and the army. The final chapter discusses the political consequences of military desegregation. Each of the individual chapters adds, in varying degrees, to our knowledge of the connections between military and society. While the breadth of Faithful Fighters is impressive, its diverse topics do not coalesce around a consistent thesis encompassing all its parts. The one clear thread that runs through the book is the role and impact of religion.