The prospect of the British Army’s Gurkha soldiers fighting fellow Nepalese mercenaries on behalf of Russia in Ukraine seems to be one of the factors why London has decided to drop the idea of sending them to Ukraine as part of a proposed European peacekeeping force if and when that materialises.
However, the British government has decided to proceed for the first time since its association with the Gurkhas for the last 200 years with a fresh scheme that will see the latter take up the Artillery positions in the form of a new unit called the King’s Gurkha Artillery (KGA).
It will consist of 400 of the currently around 4,200 Nepalese personnel that make up the Brigade of Gurkhas.
Apparently, there is an unwritten understanding that Nepalese citizens who are allowed to join as soldiers in the Armies of the United Kingdom and India and as Police personnel in Singapore will not be used by their employing countries to fight against fellow Nepalese.
In fact, there were protests in Nepal when, in the 1980s, India sent the Gurkha soldiers as part of the Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) to Sri Lanka to deal with the Tamil militants, many of whom were Hindus. Gurkhas are Hindus, and mostly from Nepal, the world’s only Hindu country, so they should not fight the Hindus, so the argument went.
Reportedly, there are at least 1,000 Nepali mercenaries in the Russian Army and a few on the Ukrainian side, too. About 70 of them have already been killed, 180 injured, and are being treated in hospitals in Russia. Going by the Nepalese media, dozens of Nepalese in the Russian Army have deserted, and there are four prisoners of war captured by the Ukrainians.
Interestingly, Ukraine is also wooing the Nepalese, who are prepared to fight as mercenaries for money. The British press reported in January that there was a plan to establish a Ukrainian equivalent of the Brigade of Gurkhas.
The point is that almost all the Western nations, including Russia, are having manpower crises to fight wars. On the contrary, in a poor country like Nepal, where joining armed forces of other countries like India and the U.K. legally has always been an option for the Nepalese, a new recruitment scheme in its armed forces by New Delhi in 2022 seems to have become a damper. After all, India maintains the largest Gurkha contingent, totaling approximately 32,000 soldiers.
It may be noted that when India became independent of the U.K. in 1947, London, New Delhi, and Kathmandu reached a tripartite agreement called the “Memorandum of Agreement on Recruitment of Gorkha Troops” by India and the U.K. Therefore, it is not surprising to find three brothers in a Nepali family serving in the British, Indian, and Nepalese armies simultaneously.
Gurkhas have served in the British Army since the two-year Anglo-Nepalese War ended in 1815. In this war, the British East India Company fought the city-state of Gorkha in what is now western Nepal. The British victory resulted in the ‘Treaty of Segowlie’ on 02 December 1815. Following this treaty, the British recruited Gurkhas in 1816 as East India Company combatants.
In fact, before the British, the Sikh emperor Ranjit Singh in Punjab had even employed the Nepalese soldiers. Those Nepalis at Lahore were later identified as ‘Lahure’. Such has been the history of Gurkhas in the Indian military! So much so that even today, Indian and Nepalese Army Chiefs are honorary Generals in each other’s army.
However, in June 2022, India changed the rules of the country’s armed forces recruitment scheme. A new system, called “Agnipath,” was introduced, under which men and women between the ages of 17 and a half and 21 are recruited for a fixed four-year tenure only.
Only about a quarter of the best cadets will be hired for regular service at the end of their tenure. Of course, the remaining cadets will have to leave, with good monetary compensation but without any pension.
The then-Nepalese government, led by the then-prime minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal (now leader of the opposition), argued that the tripartite treaty, which requires that Nepal be consulted about changes to the army hiring scheme, had not been upheld. He said that the Gurkhas, who are used to serving much, much longer—10 to 17 years on average—in the Indian Army with full retirement benefits, had been adversely affected. He, therefore, decided to pause the recruitment of his citizens in the Indian Army.
Though the Indian government has argued that Kathmandu should reconsider its decision and it will welcome the Gorkhas’ recruitment under the new scheme, something that is applicable to all Indians, the Nepalese government, even under the present regime, has not changed its “pausing” decision.
However, this decision has seriously impacted the employment prospects of young boys in Nepal, whose families traditionally love joining the armed forces. Short-staffed European armies, including Russia and the U.K., prove enticing for the Nepalese boys to join them, whether legally or as mercenaries.
Against this background, it is understandable why the British authorities are creating the KGA, a move that will help fill the 700-soldier shortfall within the Royal Regiment of the Artillery.
According to the Daily Telegraph, one-third of the KGA will be new recruits, and the remaining two-thirds will be transfers from the existing Gorkha units to help build the rank structure.
Gurkhas who will join the force over the next four years will be trained on advanced equipment, including the Archer and the Light Gun artillery systems, which have replaced the AS90s gifted to Ukraine. In the future, they will also train on the remote-controlled Howitzer 155 artillery system.
KGA, the U.K.’s Ministry of Defence says, will be an integral part of British artillery capabilities, and the Gurkha soldiers will be offered career development opportunities “in recognition of their years of service to the UK.”
According to Veterans minister Alistair Carns, the Brigade of the Gurkhas ‘has rightly earned a reputation as being amongst the finest soldiers in the world.’
Importantly, for the first time in 14 years, a new, distinctive Gurkha cap badge has also been unveiled to represent the KGA. This badge symbolizes the widening range of skills within the Brigade of Gurkhas and their continued dedication to serving in the UK military.
As Carns has added, ‘Our government is already delivering for defence through our Plan for Change, and this latest development will support retention efforts amongst Gurkhas while protecting and defending UK interests at home and abroad.’
The creation of the KGA is being seen as a move to ease staffing woes within the British Army. This is said to align with the British government’s pledge to raise defence spending to 2.5% of GDP, underscoring a commitment to maintaining military preparedness amidst growing global instability.
All told, the Gurkha soldiers have served the British very well, be it in the two World Wars, the Falklands, Afghanistan, or Iraq. The Brigade of Gurkhas has built ‘a reputation of being amongst the finest and most feared soldiers in the world’. London needs them like never before.
- Author and veteran journalist Prakash Nanda is Chairman of the Editorial Board of the EurAsian Times and has been commenting on politics, foreign policy, and strategic affairs for nearly three decades. He is a former National Fellow of the Indian Council for Historical Research and a recipient of the Seoul Peace Prize Scholarship.
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