Colonial Soldiers, Race, and Military Masculinities during and beyond World Wars I and II

Millions of colonial soldiers served the empires during World Wars I and II. Until the end of the twentieth century their history and memory received little attention. This chapter shows how martial-race theory, notions of mental capacity, and pre–world war experiences impacted the deployment of colonial troops. These factors included fear of arming colonial subjects, anxieties about the apparent mental and physical incapacity of some white soldiers, and pragmatic strategic considerations. The chapter takes a comparative approach to explore how the imperial military service of colonial soldiers contributed to masculine visions of independent nationhood and citizenship following the First and Second World Wars. Visions of heroic masculine sacrifice were appropriated by emerging nations, even where war service involved discrimination and deployment as military labor. The chapter also evaluates the extent to which imperial loyalty and the hope of postwar political patronage motivated colonial troops.

‘It Gives Us a Power and Strength which We Do Not Possess’: Martiality, manliness, and India's Great War enlistment drive

This article studies the extraordinarily broad advocacy of military enlistment by India's political and intellectual elites during the First World War. Though often interpreted as politically motivated, it shows above all a preoccupation with the enlivening effects of military experience—in particular its development of courage and manliness. In this it followed an established pattern of Indian elite concern with martiality. It also reflected anxieties of Indian weakness and effeminacy—something elites indicted themselves for, but which, importantly, they assumed to be more generally prevalent. Sampling calls for enlistment in the public space throughout the war, the article focuses on Bombay Presidency—a region that gave rise to such prominent Indian voices for enlistment as M. K. Gandhi, B. G. Tilak, and M. A. Jinnah. Bombay's recent experience of relative exclusion from military recruitment, and from membership of the ‘martial races’, was representative of much of India. This article enables us to view the effects of such ‘demartialization’ away from the classic case of Bengal. It suggests that it helped to inspire the call to enlist, especially as public spokesmen for the ‘martial race’ ideology explicitly linked martiality with manliness. The concern for enlistment ultimately superseded political calculation even for so hard-nosed a politician as Tilak. And though elites were most obviously concerned for their own martial vigour and leadership, they were also concerned with the manliness of the bulk of India's population, especially in Gandhi's conception of war as a preparation forsatyagraha.

The Gurkhas and Great Inequalities in Their Lives

The Nepalese Gurkhas have been in military service for the British more than 200 years and played an important role not only in helping the British exert its control over its colonials or protectorates, but also in securing some countries or keeping the world peace. However, these Gurkhas have not enjoyed their rights because of their unique identity. Therefore, this paper begins with the history of the Gurkha regiment, the martial race theory as well as the racist ideas on the Gurkhas. Then it turns to the great inequalities that the Gurkhas have experienced during their military service and after their retirement as well as in law & British court. Finally, it briefly covers reasons for Gurkhas’ inequalities and ways to eliminate the inequalities.