Saturday, November 22, 2008
Gorkhas and Britain
Gorkhas and other non English people have been with the British Army fighting many wars for them. I read with some interest that these soldiers of fortune were mostly from the subcontinent and more of them were killed than the British themselves. The soldiers that survived had to fight the British Government for their rights and entitlement. War offshored one could say. And very convenient too. Fighting for Gorkha soldiers rights, recently, British Actress Joanna Lumley threatened to give up her British Citizenship and take up Indian Citizenship.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
Gurkhas (normally spelled with a "u") have served in the British army for a long time. They're (all?) from Nepal and the positions are highly prized... I believe they have hundreds of applicants for every vacancy.
There are also (or were?) Gurkhas in the Indian army. I believe that one of the issues about pension rights is an agreement between the UK and India to pay pensions at the same rate... which means the lower Indian figure.
IIRC, Gurkhas are also recruited to the Singaporean police and form the riot police. The theory is that if there is ethnic trouble, the Gurkhas can deal with it and aren't seen to be one of the main ethnic groups acting against another.
Oh, and while I'm at it, and in order to add some Darwinian context... I ran in to a big group of them in an electrical shop in Darwin several years ago. They'd been doing peacekeeping in East Timor, were heading back to Nepal, and they had a translator with them buying electrical goods to take home with them. They were all rather short, but a hell of a lot tougher than I am... obviously.
We in the South call them Gurkhas but those in the hill range call themselves Gorkhas. These days with name changes Gorkha seems to be used.
They are not only in the Indian Army, probably in armies around the world. In India security's other name is Gurkha. In fact, security guards in Tamil Nadu, even if the person is a Tamil, are generally called Gurkha.
Gurkhas are in North Bihar, Bengal, probably Assam and of couse, Nepal.
Ethnic trouble - well, Subhas Ghising headed the Gorkha Liberation Front in late 1970s. There was some serious trouble at the time.
I do remember your encounter with the Gorkhas. I vaguely remember you saying that they were from Singapore (?)
Post a Comment