A sepoy () was the designation given to an Indian infantryman armed with a musket in the armies of the Mughal Empire and the British East India Company.
In the 18th century, the French East India Company and its European counterparts employed locally recruited soldiers within India, mainly consisting of infantry designated as "sepoys". The largest sepoy force, trained along European lines, served the British East India Company.[Presidency armies]
The term "sipahi" (or sometimes "sepoy") continues in use in the Indian Army, Pakistan Army and Nepalese Army armies, where it denotes the rank of private.
Etymology
In Persian اسپ (Aspa) means horse and Ispahai is also the word for cavalrymen.
The term sepoy is the Anglicisation form of the Persian language word sepāhī (), meaning the traditional "infantry soldier" in the Mughal Empire.
In the Ottoman Empire the term sipahi was used to refer to cavalrymen.
Historical usage
The term
sepoy came into common use in the forces of the British East India Company in the eighteenth century, where it was one of a number of names, such as
peons,
gentoos,
mestees and
, used for various categories of native soldier. Initially it referred to Hindu or Muslim soldiers without regular uniforms or discipline. It later generically referred to all native soldiers in the service of the European powers in India.
Close to ninety-six percent of the British East India Company's army of 300,000 men were native to India and these sepoys played a crucial role in securing the subcontinent for the company.
Equipment
The earliest sepoys used
matchlock muskets and operated bulky and inefficient cannons to a limited extent during the reigns of
Babur Akbar when archery and fighting from horseback was more common. By the time of
Aurangzeb the Mughal armies had advanced significantly and utilized a wider range of weapons to win battles.
During the Carnatic Wars and Anglo-Mysore Wars the sepoys of the Mughal Empire employed more advanced types of musket, as well as blunderbuss and rocket weapons.
History
Mughal Empire 16th–18th centuries
A Mughal Infantryman.jpg|A Mughal Empire sepoy, under the command of Mirza Najaf Khan.
Bhavanidas. The Emperor Aurangzeb Carried on a Palanquin ca. 1705–20 Metripolitan Museum of Art..jpg|The Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb leads his final expedition (1705), (sepoy column visible in the lower right).
A Sipahi or a sepoy was an infantryman armed with a musket in the army of the Mughal Empire.
The earliest sepoys were armed with daggers, and matchlocks.
By the 18th century individual Nawabs employed their own sepoy units as did the European merchant companies established in parts of India.
Sepoys became more visible when they gained European arms and fought for various fragmented polities of the Mughal Empire during the Carnatic Wars and the Bengal War, after which the importance of the local sepoy diminished and they were replaced by the "European hired Sepoy".
Sepoys in British service
Two miniatures. ‘Kala with Saber Drawn’ and ‘Kala in Uniform’.jpg|Kala, the Sepoy, with Saber Drawn and in Uniform. Two miniatures from the Fraser Album. Delhi, 1815–1816. The David Collection
Sepoy of the Indian Infantry, 1900 (c)..jpg|Sepoy of the Indian infantry, circa 1900
Awan Sepoy (30th Punjabis).jpg|An early 20th century sepoy in the Indian Army, wearing a kurta.
The East India Company initially recruited sepoys from the local communities in the Madras and Bombay Presidencies. The emphasis here favoured tall and soldierly recruits, broadly defined as being "of a proper caste and of sufficient size".
In the
Bengal Army however, recruitment was only amongst high caste
Brahmin and
Rajput communities, mainly from the present day
Uttar Pradesh and
Bihar regions. Recruitment was undertaken locally by battalions or regiments often from the same community, village and even family. The commanding officer of a battalion became a form of substitute for the village chief or
gaon bura. He was the
mai-baap or the "father and mother" of the sepoys making up the
paltan (from "platoon"). There were many family and community ties amongst the troops and numerous instances where family members enlisted in the same battalion or regiment. The
izzat ("honour") of the unit was represented by the regimental colours; the new sepoy having to swear an oath in front of them on enlistment. These colours were stored in honour in the
quarter guard and frequently paraded before the men. They formed a rallying point in battle. The oath of fealty by the sepoy was given to the East India Company and included a pledge of faithfulness to the salt that one has eaten.
The salary of the sepoys employed by the East India Company, while not substantially greater than that paid by the rulers of Indian states, was usually paid regularly. Advances could be given and family allotments from pay due were permitted when the troops served abroad. There was a commissariat and regular rations were provided. Weapons, clothing and ammunition were provided centrally, in contrast to the soldiers of local kings whose pay was often in arrears. In addition local rulers usually expected their sepoys to arm themselves and to sustain themselves through plunder.
This combination of factors led to the development of a sense of shared honour and ethos amongst the well drilled and disciplined Indian soldiery who formed the key to the success of European feats of arms in India and abroad.
In 1858 following the Indian Rebellion of 1857 the surviving East India Company regiments continued as the armies of the three presidencies until they were merged into a new Indian Army under the direct control of the British Crown in 1895. (The Company had come under the control of the Crown but in 1874 it was abolished.) The designation of "sepoy" was retained for Indian soldiers below the rank of lance naik, except in cavalry where the equivalent ranks were sowar or "trooper".
Sepoys in French service
Following the formation of the French East India Company (
Compagnie des Indes) in 1719, companies of Indian sepoys () were raised to augment the French regulars and Swiss mercenary troops available. By 1720 the sepoys in French service numbered about 10,000.
[Rene Chartrand, Louis XV's Army – Colonial and Naval Troops, ] Although much reduced in numbers after their decisive defeat in India at the Battle of Wandewash in 1760, France continued to maintain a Military Corps of Indian Sepoys (
corps militaire des cipayes de l'Inde) in Pondicherry until it was disbanded and replaced by a locally recruited gendarmerie in 1898.
[ Les Troupes de Marine 1622–1984, , pp. 50–51]
The 19th century diplomat Sir
Justin Sheil commented about the British East India Company copying the French Indian army in raising an army of Indians:
Sepoys in Portuguese service
Sepoys were also recruited in
Portuguese India. The term
cipaio (sepoy) was also applied by the Portuguese to African soldiers in
Angola,
Mozambique and Portuguese Guinea, plus African rural police officers.
Cipaios from Angola provided part of the garrison of
Goa during the final years of Portuguese rule of that Indian territory.
Contemporary sepoys
The title of "sepoy" is still retained in the modern
Nepali Army,
Indian Army and
Pakistan Army. In each of these it designates the rank of private.
[John Keegan, Armies of the World, , pp. 312, 545.]
Other usages
The same Persian word reached English via another route in the forms of
sipahi and
spahi.
Zipaio, the Basque version of the word, is used by
Abertzale as an insult for members of the
Ertzaintza,
[ La AN condena a dos años de cárcel al autor de los destrozos en el "bosque de Oma", Deia, 12 January 2005. Quoting a sentence from the Audiencia Nacional: «siendo público y notorio que el término "zipaio" es el que se da a los miembros de la Policía» vasca.] implying that they are not a national police of the Basque Country due to their connection with the Spanish government.
In countries, especially in Argentina, the word cipayo has historically been used as a pejorative colloquial expression referring to individuals considered as serving foreign interests, as opposed to serving their own country.[ Qué significan cipayo, gorila fondos bruite y otras palabras que todos repiten y pocos conocen. Apertura.com]
See also
-
Askari, African troops in service to colonial powers similar to the Sepoys.
-
Indian Rebellion of 1857 (termed by some The Sepoy Mutiny)
-
Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, known in Persian as Sepah
-
Jawan, a contemporary soldier of the armies of Indian Army and Pakistan Army.
-
Lascar, Indian sailors in European service
-
Maharajah and the Sepoys
-
Sowar, meaning "the one who rides" in Persian; was originally a rank during the Mughal period.
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