Ayo Gorkhali

Title: Ayo Gorkhali – A History of the Gurkhas

Author: Tim I. Gurung

Publisher: Westland Publications, 2020 (First)

ISBN: 9789389648706

Pages: 320

 

The British empire in India was mostly built by native hands and financed mostly by native funds. Apart from a core of white soldiers, the East India Company’s army consisted of local people trained in modern warfare and paid by the company. Its finances were often arranged from local moneylenders at an interest. Even though the company’s army started with troops available around the presidency towns, eventually they hit upon the idea of martial races in which the members were supposed to be more aggressive and overbearing than the average Indian. What was in fact true is that the members of these so called martial races exhibited a fierce loyalty to their white masters, had little nationalistic spirit illuminating their inner selves and Daniel Marston suggests in his book The Indian Army and the End of the Raj (reviewed earlier) that the martial races were intellectually dumb and ‘did not exhibit the greatest accomplishments of mind in an examination’. The Gorkhas originate from Nepal and are known for their commitment, loyalty, tenacity, adjustability, discipline, respect and honour in their duty as well as to their superiors. They were part of the British force from 1815 and continue to be so. They have fought in all battles of the British including the 1982 Falklands War. However, the books written on them are mainly from the western point of view with military backgrounds. These one-sided perspectives usually flatter the bravery of Gorkhas and are designed for self-aggrandizement of the British military who made them world-famous. The author sneers at these oft-repeated clichés and narrates the story as well as grievances of the Gorkhas, especially the grave racial abuse in the British army which they have to endure wordlessly. Tim I. Gurung was born in a Nepali village and enrolled in the British army as a Gorkha. He was posted in Hong Kong and sent to other countries on duty. After serving thirteen years, he quit the army and worked as a businessman in China for twenty years. Before his fiftieth birthday, Gurung made a life-changing decision and became a fulltime writer. He is a fiction writer who has fifteen novels to his credit. The title ‘Ayo Gorkhali’ denote the battle cry of the Gorkhas which means ‘the Gorkhas are coming’.

 

Gurung succinctly describes the special relationship of Britain with Nepal. Gorkha kings had annexed neighbouring principalities and consolidated the territory of Nepal by the latter half of the eighteenth century. This includes regions in present-day India. Naturally, they came into conflict with the East India Company which was also expanding at the expense of Indian princes. This led to the 1814-16 Anglo-Nepal war in which the Gorkhas were defeated after a brave fight. The British were impressed by Gorkha valour and offered them positions in the company’s army. Since they were offered higher pay as compared to what they got in Nepal, many Gorkhas surreptitiously slid into India and enlisted without the consent of Nepal’s rulers. It was only in 1886 that Nepal granted the British the right to visit the country and directly recruit Gorkhas. Britain never annexed Nepal, but recruited Gorkhas in large numbers. This somewhat depleted the country of its youth and workforce. Gurung claims that the soul of the country was thus lost. This book provides the curious information that there is no particular group or people called the Gorkhas in Nepal. The name implies a province, but regarding a person it denotes one who has enrolled in the armed services of India, Britain, Singapore, Brunei or Myanmar.  Locally, they were known earlier as Lahures, to imply the people who had joined the army of Maharaja Ranjit Singh at Lahore. Britain originally enrolled the four major castes of Gurung, Magar, Rai and Limbu. But as the demand grew, people of other castes were also accepted. The author laments that one’s talent, preference or opportunity did not matter and only the accident of birth determined one’s future. However, these four castes belonged to the Vaishya order of the four-fold division of Hinduism rather than Kshatriyas. Farming was the traditional career of a Gorkha who was not conscripted into the military.

 

The Gorkhas sided with the British against Indians in the 1857 Rebellion. Of course, the Gorkhas belonged to Nepal and nurtured no affiliation to Indian nationalism. In that sense, they did the most natural thing in supporting the power that recruited, trained, clothed and paid them. Gorkhas, Pathans, Sikhs and Dogras were the scourges of the British on the bare backs of Indian sepoys in 1857. However, the British did not trust the Gorkhas at first. They were placed at the farthest end of the Delhi ridge within the range of British artillery so as to finish them off in case they changed sides. But the Nepalese quickly earned the trust of their masters by sheer valour. Delhi’s Mughal monarch offered Rs. 10 for every Gorkha’s head. Nepal’s then-serving prime minister Jang Bahadur Rana came to Delhi and personally led the troops in battle. In the end, 327 out of the 490 Gorkhas were killed. Great honours were bestowed on them and more Gorkha battalions were instituted in the army. As a further reward to the Nepali king, Lord Canning agreed to return the fertile plains of the Terai between Mahakali and Rapti rivers which Nepal had lost in the 1814 war. Gurung makes no attempt to obfuscate Gorkha support to the British to please his Indian neighbours. But he mentions that prime minister Rana was friendly to the vanquished rebel leaders who sought asylum in Nepal and protected them.

 

In the twentieth century, the Gorkhas were noted for their vigorous fight in the two world wars. Their bravery persuaded the British to engage them in every battle the empire fought. More battalions were constituted before the world wars but dismissed most of them when peace prevailed again without adequate compensation. Out of a population of five million, Nepal sent 200,000 soldiers for World War I. 6168 were killed as per official records while 20,000 were missing. In World War II, 7544 were killed and 1441 were missing. When India was granted independence in 1947, the Gorkha regiments were also partitioned. Four out of the ten regiments were taken over by Britain and the remaining six regiments stayed back in India. The author claims that the Andaman and Nicobar Islands were handed over to India in return for India’s acceptance of the proposal for dividing Gorkha troops. The Gorkhas who followed the British fought in the Malayan Emergency and Borneo Confrontation in Southeast Asia. By 1970, they were relocated to Hong Kong and stayed there till the city was returned to China in 1997. Now there are only 2500 Gorkhas in active service and they are stationed in the UK.

 

Even though Gorkhas serve in the armed forces of several countries, Gurung provides convincing proof that they are grossly exploited. None of the states granted them citizenship till 2009 when all Gorkhas who had served the British Crown for at least four years prior to 1997 were granted the right of abode in the UK. Thousands from Nepal migrated as a result. Singapore unceremoniously bundle ex-service Gorkhas out of the country and even in the case of serving soldiers, force their children to leave the country on attaining 21 years of age. Gorkhas were not provided equal pay or pension as were given to their white colleagues serving in the same front. A Gorkha who was killed during clearing landmines in Kosovo in the 1990s received only 7.5% of what a British soldier killed in the same incident received as compensation. The author also mentions two personal incidents of racial abuse he had suffered from British officers and declares that ‘words like equality and fairness did not exist in the Gorkha-British relationship’ (p.237). However, the readers can witness an undesirable trait in the Gorkha character unintentionally mentioned in a comment. After the actual signing of the agreement between the Chinese and British in 1984, the return of Hong Kong to China was finalized. And Gurung goes on to write: “A dark cloud hovered over the future of the Gorkha brigade stationed in Hong Kong and even the occurrence of the First Gulf War which destabilized the world’s peace couldn’t clear that cloud” (p.128). Even though the author vehemently denies that the Gorkhas were not mercenaries, such sentiment which rejoices when war occurs and reflected in this reverie is clearly mercenary.

 

This book also examines the social implications on the Nepali society of a large number of its youth serving in foreign armies. Every boy aspires to be a British Gorkha because of the large conversion rate of the pound sterling to Nepali rupee. The second choice is for India due to the welfare measures and equality with other troops. Those youths who could not join either the British or Indian armies are to some extent stigmatized as failures and experienced humiliation. Other marginalized communities in Nepal harbour a deep-rooted resentment to the Gorkha communities because they are thought to monopolize the job market. Gurung estimates that around 100,000 Gorkhas are currently enrolled in the Indian army, but not all of them are from Nepal. Many Gorkhas who have settled in India and become Indian citizens are also included in the figure. However, he claims that the ratio is 80-20 in favour of the Nepalese.

 

Each chapter in the book begins with a short note and picture of world war veterans who are still living. Most of them are nearing a hundred years of age and many of them complain about no or inadequate pension or awards for their bravery. This seems to be a universal refrain of ex-soldiers in any country. The author’s observation that besides the Himalayas and Buddha, the other thing Nepal is famous for is the Gorkhas (p.161) may appear to be a little audacious. A chapter on Gorkha women who were left behind in Nepal records their tears and sacrifices without which there wouldn’t have been any Gorkha legacy. The author also mentions the budding intellectual activity in the hardy but otherwise philistine Gorkha society. We read about the literary efforts from several promising members. The book is not a scintillating piece of literary skill in any of the parameters like content, structure, depth or diction. But, this is a genuine effort by a committed individual fully dedicated to the welfare of the community to which he belongs. Readers may suffer some discomfort due to content repeating many-times – especially nineteenth century Gorkha history – in several chapters.

 

The book is highly recommended.

Rating: 3 Star