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I served in the Indian Army and my Great Great Grandmother was Indian. I served with the Indian Artillery during World War Two in India and Burma. My unit was not drawn from the 'Warrior Tribes' but from the so-called 'Sloth Belt' of Southern India. The troops were mainly from Madras, and they included Tamils, Telagu, Malayalam, Singalese, Goalese, Gurkha, Pathan, Baluchis and several whose race was not really determined. And of course they practiced several different religions. The unit was deployed in the southern Burma area on airfield defence at Cox's Bazaar, Akyab and Ramree Island, and were in action against Japanese attacks.

I have many stories and anecdotes about the men I commanded - some good, very few bad. These men were mostly village people whom the sophisticated Indian might call 'Jungle Wallahs'. We also had with us Indian Officers with the same ranking and position as British Officers, VCOs (Viceroy Commissioned Officers), ranks that were special to the Indian Army. They were all regular Indian soldiers and were the backbone of the Indian Army. They acted as guides and mentors to British and Indian officers of all ranks and were fiercely loyal to the service.

All these people were volunteers in some way or another and worked together with very few problems. The major problem was language so the decision was taken to teach everybody English thus making a common language, which would be useful for them in the future. Also included in the unit were a small number of British Other Ranks who were NCOs from LAA units. Very few knew Urdu, but I picked up a certain amount of Tamil as well as Urdu.

The pay was low and there was no great obligation for Indian servicemen to enlist except in loyalty to the British Raj. Some of the northern peoples joined because it was traditional in their families, and through some disablement or other they could not join an infantry unit. For the Madrassi there was no such tradition. This intrigued me as to why they joined and I spent some time finding out. Why did so many volunteer? Nobody forced them to join, there were no penalties for not joining, little financial gain was offered, and they faced a lot of hardship and possible death if they did. Why then did over 1.5 million people of a subjected nation rally to their 'Opressors and Overlords', who instead could have been overthrown?

I started by asking my runner whose name was Ramisaminaidu (a Tamil who came from a village and was from a farming family), 'Why did you join the Indian Army?' His reply, which may astound you, went something like this: 'When the war broke out with Japan the family decided that it should pay back the Raj for being ma-bap and one of the family should serve. After a long discussion they decided that I could be best spared from the farm, so I came and joined up.' 'But why you?' 'Well,' explained Rami, 'I was running the farm and did no work on it, so the work on the farm would not suffer if I wasn’t there. I receive regular letters about the work and give instructions by post to my younger brothers and wives how the farm should be run.'

The important thing was that they, as lowly agriculturists and villagers living far from the centre of things, felt they had an obligation. I investigated further and found that in the unit there were men who had given up caste to join. Caste is of prime importance in the Hindu religion. A man is born to a caste and that is his station in life, but he lowers his caste by doing something representative of a lower caste. If, for example, he becomes an 'untouchable' he can never regain his higher caste like go back to an agricultural caste. In the unit were men who couldn’t join except as 'sweepers' (an untouchable caste) even though they were of higher caste. They joined because there was no other way of serving the Raj.

As I said before there was no obligation except pressure from their peer group to join the Indian Army. These men had neither political leanings nor very much knowledge of the world outside their villages. All they knew was that the Raj needed them and they responded. Was this then the reaction of an oppressed nation? Was the Raj in India so hated after all? I know that the standards they expected from me as a member of the 'hated' Raj was so high that it was extremely difficult to live up to their expectations. I can only hope that I did.

Indian veterans have left very little information about what they did in those years for many reasons. The first of course is that very few could either read or write. Secondly, their life expectancy was short - in fact, I doubt if there are any left now. As the politicians wanted they got their Swaraj [a sacred word, Vedic word, meaning self-rule and self-restraint] but my feeling at the time was that these country people were not really looking forward to it.

Although lots has been written about the Indian Army in World War Two, I very much doubt if anybody will write a story on this website and tell about Great Grandfather Ramisaminaidu, a runner in the 11th Indian LAA in Burma - but he was there along with hundreds of thousands of others. His efforts for the country will never be forgotten.

Not for one moment do I regret my services, as small as they were, to India and, I hope, that the peoples of the Indian sub-continent - be they Hindu, Moslem, Sikh, Buddhist or whatever — will be well remembered for their part in World War Two.

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