Military Digest: Single-class versus mixed regiments in Indian Army: a decades-old debate

The lines in the debate are drawn between those who have served in mixed-class regiments and those from single-class regiments though there is a fair bit of cross-pollination of opinion from both sides.

Interestingly, the subject was debated exactly 60 years ago on similar lines in Lok Sabha by parliamentarians, many of whom wanted to know why the colonial era single-class regiments were being continued in Independent India. This debate took place just 17 years after Independence. Even after 77 years of Independence, the debate continues.

Archival records show Vibhuti Mishra, a Congress MP from Bihar, raised the issue in Lok Sabha on March 30, 1964. This was a time when the reverses suffered in the war with China in 1962 still rankled and fierce debates were taking place in both Houses of Parliament on matters concerning the armed forces.

Mishra demanded to know from the then defence minister Y B Chavan whether it was a fact that much recruitment in the Army took place from Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Punjab. He went on to comment that Bihar was being discriminated against in recruitment to the defence services because Biharis had played a major role in the First War of Independence in 1857.

Replying on behalf of the Defence Minister, Minister of State for Defence D R Chavan negated the assertion on discrimination with Bihar. However, the reply which he gave on the issue of single-class regiments is remarkably similar to what is said in official statements of the Ministry of Defence even today.

“The Army used to have a class composition in which recruits from particular areas predominated. It is the Government’s policy that the rigid class composition in the Army should be gradually removed subject of course to the condition that it should in no way impair the fighting qualities of the Army and this should be done in a phased programme spread over a number of years. This is being done by throwing open new recruitment in greater proprietary categories from areas from which recruitment was limited in the past. The actual recruitment will however depend on the response to the opportunities so offered from the recruits in those areas,” the MoS Defence said.

Another Congress MP, C R Basappa, demanded to know why recruitment from Karnataka was very poor. “Although Generals like General Thimayya and Cariappa hail from Mysore State, why is recruitment from Karnataka State very poor—recruitment of officers and jawans? Was there any representation from the Mysore Government? Was there something wrong with the recruiting officers,” he wanted to know.

To which Y B Chavan replied that there was nothing wrong with the recruiting officers or with the people. “These things are carefully examined. From the Coorg area, really speaking, there is a good response for officers’ cadres. Certainly, the Mysore Government is also aware of it,” he said.

Sarju Pandey, a Communist Party MP from Uttar Pradesh, wanted to know if the government proposed to do away with names of regiments like the Rajput Regiment and Sikh Regiment since the minister said there was a move to do away with such regiments based on caste and regions.

Defence minister Y B Chavan replied, “We do not propose to change the nomenclature as such but there is no exclusive confinement of recruitment of these people; other people are also recruited in these regiments”.

Shiromani Akali Dal MP from Punjab Kapur Singh asked whether the post-Independent experience of the country justifies any fundamental changes in the traditional recruitment policies.

The defence minister said this idea of class composition has to be changed and agreed to the further suggestion of Kapur Singh that these changes align with the experience in the post-independence era.

Jagdev Singh Sidhanti, an MP from Jhajjar, Haryana, representing the Haryana Lok Samiti, demanded to know whether people who have a tradition of soldiering for generations also have some qualities in them and whether the government was seized of this too. The defence minister replied, “Those who have a traditional aptitude for joining the Army respond very well and certainly their qualities are something which should be given some recognition”.