Military Digest | Demand for Ahir Regiment: Military history of Ahirs and their evolution in Indian Army

In January 2023, replying to a question by MP Giridhari Yadav in Lok Sabha, Minister of State for Defence Ajay Bhatt denied that various caste-based regiments exist in the Indian Army.

Regarding the raising of an Ahir Regiment, the MoS said, “Proposal for the raising of Ahir Regiment is not under consideration. As per Government Policy on the subject, all citizens irrespective of their class, creed, region or religion are eligible for recruitment in the Indian Army. After Independence, it has been the policy of the Government not to raise any new Regiment for a particular class/community/religion or region. Adequate vacancies are being provided to all classes to ensure equitable opportunity for recruitment into the Indian Army”.

While that is strictly not true as caste and class-based regiments are a reality, nonetheless this has been the official stand for at least the past 60 years in Parliament.

Military history of Ahirs

The Yaduvanshi Ahirs of Ahirwal along with Jats, Gujars, and Rajputs were initially identified as a ‘martial race’ by the British. However, the military history of the Ahirs goes beyond the British era.

In her seminal work, The Vernacularisation of Democracy: Politics, Caste and Religion in India, Lucia Michelutti, a professor of anthropology, University College London, has traced the military lineage of the Ahirs. According to the research cited by her, the Rewari kingdom was established by an Ahir military chief, Rao Nandaram at the beginning of the 18th century. Nandaram is said to have received a jagir of 360 villages around Rewari. Mughal emperor Farrukhsiyar (1713-19) conferred on him the title of ‘Chaudhary’.

Michelutti says the Mughals constantly acknowledged the distinctiveness of the clans which claimed to be Rajput by birth and blood and that the Aphariya, the Kausaliya, and the Kosa were the major Ahir aristocratic clans who had direct contact with the Mughal state representatives.

With the advent of the British in India, the martial lineage of the Ahirs was reshaped. The famous Cavalry officer James Skinner, who raised the Skinner’s Horse (now 1 Horse), is said to have granted Jagirs to groups of Jats, Gujars, and Ahirs.

Michelutti quotes British writer A H Bingley, who wrote a recruitment handbook on Jats, Gujars, and Ahirs in 1937. Bingley often stressed that distinctions amongst the Ahirs were social and historical rather than ethnic and described some of the subdivisions within the Ahirs as ‘martial’.

“Ahirs make excellent soldiers. They are manly, without false pride, independent without insolence, with reserved manners but good nature, light-hearted and industrious. They are always cheerful and are the sort of people who habitually make the best of things. They are reliable, steady and of uniformly excellent character. After ten years of experience with them, I emphatically endorse the opinion that Ahirs are eminently fitted for the profession of arms… When you come over the names of the martial races of India and think of the Gurkha, Rajput, Sikh, Brahmins, Dogra, Jat, Pathan, Punjabi Muhammadan, do not forget the Jadubansi Ahirs,” writes Bingley.

Thus, it is clear that Bingley considered the Yaduvanshi Ahirs of Ahirwal as suitable for recruitment but not the Nandavanshi Ahirs and the Goallavanshi Ahirs of other localities in the Gangetic plains. However, this perception changed over the years.

Michelutti says the Nandavanshi Ahirs of the Central Doab and the Goallavanshi Ahirs of Oudh (Awadh) were not recruited by the British at the time. She adds the British recruitment officers regarded the Yaduvanshi Ahirs as the authentic ‘martial’ Ahirs both based on their socio-economic status and their presumed Rajput ancestry, whereas the Nandavanshi and Goallavanshi Ahirs were hardly enlisted in the army, except as bullock-drivers in the artillery. “This recruitment policy, which aimed at keeping a relation between clan status and army rank, remained popular up until the First World War,” says Michelutti.

Ahirs gain importance in Indian Army

However, the formation of a united all-India Yadav community was cemented by the demand to the British Indian army for an increase in the quota of Ahirs recruited. In this, the Rewari royal family played an important role in representing the interests of Ahirs in the Army.

Michelutti notes that in 1898, Rao Yudhister Singh (the head of the former Rewari royal family) sent a petition to the viceroy requesting an increment in the quota of Ahirs in the Hyderabad Regiment (present Kumaon Regiment).

Before the Afghan War (1878-80), the Ahirs were enlisted in the Bengal and Bombay armies. However, by the late 19th century, their military history had been strictly linked with that of the Hyderabad Regiment (renamed Kumaon Regiment). The recruitment of the Ahirs increased after 1904 and during the First World War. During the first decade of the 20th century, Ahir recruitment was further increased by Rao Balbir Singh, son of Rao Yudhishter Singh. He was an Honourary Captain in the army and was granted the title of Rao Bahadur for his services as a recruitment agent.

With time, the British recruited Nandvanshi Ahirs too in the Army and Michelutti says this change in recruitment policy acknowledged that the Ahirs of the Gangetic plains shared the same martial essence and it indirectly contributed to the formation of a Yadav community. “This transformation can be viewed as a perfect example of a response to colonial essentialising practices and shows how state policies can refashion social groupings,” writes Michelutti.

Genesis of the demand for an Ahir Regiment

The bravery of the Ahir troops of Haryana, of the 13th Battalion of Kumaon Regiment, in the 1962 war, where the majority of the troops fighting the Chinese onslaught perished but did not budge from their positions, brought the demand into the national limelight. The community members argued that the Ahirs deserved a full-fledged Infantry Regiment named after them and not a few battalions in the Kumaon Regiment and a fixed percentage in other regiments.

The 50th anniversary of the 1962 War in 2012 gave a boost to this demand when the saga of Ahir troops of 13 Kumaon was recounted widely, and with the 60th anniversary of the Battle of Rezangla in 2022, the demand became more vocal.

History of Ahirs in Indian Army and Kumaon Regiment

Ahirs are recruited in the Indian Army in various regiments including fixed class regiments (one or more caste in fixed numbers) like Kumaon, Jat, and Rajput and mixed class regiments (of all castes) like the Brigade of the Guards or The Parachute Regiment in the Infantry and various other regiments and Corps like Artillery, Engineers, Signals, Army Service Corps etc.

In the modern Indian Army, in the 20th century, Ahirs were initially recruited in sizable numbers in the 19th Hyderabad Regiment. This regiment had earlier mainly recruited Rajputs from Uttar Pradesh and Muslims from the Deccan plateau among other castes. In 1902, the regiment’s links with the Nizam of Hyderabad were severed with Berar being converted into a permanent base for the British.

In 1922, in another reorganisation of The Indian Army, the class composition of the 19th Hyderabad Regiment was changed and Deccan Muslims were removed from it.

In 1930, the class composition was changed to one company each of Kumaonis, Jats, Ahirs, and Mixed Class. It was on October 27, 1945, that the permission to change the name of the regiment was given when it became the 19th Kumaon Regiment. After Independence, it was named the Kumaon Regiment.

The 13th Battalion of the Kumaon Regiment, which gained fame in the 1962 Battle of Rezang La against the Chinese, has the distinction of being the first battalion of the regiment to have been raised after Independence in 1947. It was raised in October 1948 with Kumaonis and Ahirs in equal proportion. Later, with the transfer of Ahirs from 2 Kumaon and 6 Kumaon, 13 Kumaon became the first pure Ahir battalion in the Kumaon Regiment in 1960.