While the First Opium War awarded Jamsetjee Jeejeebhoy, David Sassoon & Co. and Jardine Matheson & Co. virtually a monopoly over the right to distribute opium in China’s port cities, the period between the end of the First Opium War and the beginning of the Second Opium War witnessed the use of opium, which spread like wildfire through Chinese society. It was taken by all manner and class of persons, from the nobles to the literati and, of most concern to the State, the peasants. By 1860, opium shops had already outnumbered other establishments that were essential to the Chinese way of life. In other words, opium had become an essential part of Chinese life. It had entered the bloodstream of Chinese society.
The Government of India was firmly dependent on the trade. The 1895 Royal Commission on Opium reported that opium provided 14 percent of the net revenue of the Government of India between 1889 and 1894 on an annual basis. There was also a much wider impact as well. Even 10 years after the report was published, opium remained the third largest component of the Government of India’s revenue on an annual basis.
New specialised corps of Indian military and paramilitary personnel were raised in Hong Kong. One of these was the Gun Lascars, an artillery support unit. By 1898, it had transitioned into the impressive-sounding Royal Garrison Artillery. Earlier in 1890, the British raised the Hong Kong Regiment consisting of 1,000 Indian troops recruited from the Jhelum district in Punjab. It was led by eight British officers. This regiment arrived in Hong Kong in May 1892.
In April 1899, a serious Sino-British clash took place when the British moved in to take possession of the New Territories that they had obtained on a 99-year-lease from the Qing government. Several thousand Chinese bombarded the Hong Kong Regiment’s camp at Tai Po in the New Territories. However, despite their advantage of being greater in numbers and controlling the heights, the Qing forces were eventually defeated yet again by Indian troops led by their British officers.
The sentiment against the continuing presence of foreigners in China was also accentuated by the British use of Sikh policemen in British-led police forces across China. In Hong Kong, Shanghai, Gulangsu (in Xiamen), Tientsin, Shamian (in Canton) and at Hankou, the Sikh cop on the beat became a visible and popular fixture. However, when Sikh cops were introduced in the city of Zhenjiang in 1889, tensions were generated and a serious riot took place. This resulted in the destruction of the police station and the British Consulate. As a result, Sikh cops were withdrawn from that place.
At this point, one cannot help but emphasise the importance of British Indian military power on the ground in China. Unquestionably, the British wars in China were British Indian wars in China. The face of British military would be an Indian face. The first detachment of Indian troops sent into the conflict in North China was the 7th Bengal Infantry that landed in Dagu (Taku) in mid-July 1900. This was followed by the Hong Kong Regiment. Another detachment of 3,000 troops comprising the 2nd Brigade remained in Shanghai throughout the northern operations.
But what was different this time around was the British ability to rope in Indian rulers from the princely states into actively participating in this conflict. The establishment of the Imperial Service Troops scheme in 1885 by the Government of India enabled some of the forces of the princely states to be trained and equipped by the government itself. These troops had to be readily available for mobilisation by the government whenever required. A senior British officer was appointed as the Inspector General of Imperial Service Troops, and his secretariat decided which troops would be requisitioned as the need arose.
Consequently, unlike in the two opium wars, the British expanded the scope of Indian participation in the Boxer Rebellion. Prominent in this participatory effort were the maharajas of Gwalior and Bikaner. Both these rulers had benefited from the revenues gleaned from dozens of years of Malwa opium trail traversing through their principalities en route to China. It was now time to discharge their obligations. From among the participating troops, one cavalry regiment from Jodhpur, the Camel Corps from Bikaner, one infantry regiment from Alwar and a company of engineers from the Malerkotla Sappers were not only sent to the Chinese theatre but also granted Battle Honours for their contribution to the war effort.
The 19-year-old, Mayo College-educated Maharaja Ganga Singh of Bikaner earned his battle spurs in China during the Boxer Rebellion. He was one of two maharajas who went to China. He was accompanied by the 24-year-old Maharaja Sir Madho Rao Scindia of Gwalior. The latter presented the Government of India with a hospital ship to take care of the wounded.
The Imperial Service Troops were primarily engaged in garrison and escort duty and patrolling the lines of communication, namely telegraph and postal communications between units engaged in fighting. The Malerkotla Sappers were employed in building stables, temporary bridges and laying roads. The Jodhpur Lancers were led into battle near the Great Wall of China in January 1901 by their Lt Col of Cavalry, Sir Pratap Singh of Idar. Until Sir Pratap personally killed the first Chinese soldier in a battle, the Jodhpur Lancers only used the blunt end of their lances to mark the regiment’s tradition of honouring the commanding officer to draw first blood.
On August 4, 1900, the allied forces, including Indian troops, advanced towards Peking in order to relieve the Legations that were under siege. In the eight-nation alliance force of 18,000 troops, there were 3,000 Indian troops. The Indian Army’s 1st Horse, also known as Skinner’s Horse, saw action on August 5, 1900 in the Battle of Beicang when they clashed with Mongol cavalry and served alongside the US Army’s 6th Cavalry Regiment. This was the first time that American, British and Indian troops served together.
The Indian forces consisting of Skinner’s Horse, the 24th Punjab Regiment, the 7th Bengal Regiment and the 1st Sikh Regiment were the first allied forces to enter the Legation Quarter in the evening of August 14, 1900. Empress Dowager Cixi retreated into exile in the province of Xian. The final push was provided when the 7th Rajput Regiment joined in as much needed reinforcements. More Indian troops continued to pour in through September.
These were the 16th Bengal Lancers, the Poona Horse, the 34th Pioneers, the 20th Punjab Regiment and the Bengal Sappers. These latter troops took part in the mopping-up operations against the remaining pickets of Chinese resistance in and around Peking. This included the burning down and complete destruction of several towns and villages in the surrounding countryside. It also included the punitive expedition in the city of Paoting Fu in Hebei Province. This city was the provincial capital and was at a distance of 85 miles southwest of Peking. It had served as a fallback position for retreating imperial troops.
On October 12, 1900, a large force of 6,000 allied troops set out from Tientsin and Peking on a mission to subdue the Boxers holed up in Paoting Fu, liberate the captive foreigners and punish the city for having been a haven for the Boxers. The force was under the command of Maj Gen Alfred Gaselee. Maj Gen Gaselee was a Punjabi speaking British officer from the 4th Punjab Regiment of the Indian Army. On July 3, 1900, he was promoted to the rank of Maj Gen and chosen to command British and
Indian forces in the International Expeditionary Force in China. Maj Gen Gaselee eventually retired as Army Commander of Northern Army in India in November 1908. All his Indian troops were his devoted followers. He was also the Colonel of the 54th Sikhs.
The General recognised the desire for looting among his troops and permitted organised loot parties of British and Indian troops that were sent out from house to house to appropriate loot, which was then sold at public auctions in the British Legation in Peking under the supervision of a prize committee. The proceeds collected were divided among his troops into shares by rank. Indian soldiers were given a prize share equivalent to a British soldier of one rank lower while Indian officers were considered on par with British NCOs. No one complained!
Indian soldiers were very enterprising in collecting all kinds of arms and ammunition during this campaign. The Bikaner detachment collected 30,900 rounds of Lee Metford ammunition. Maj Gen Gaselee very generously permitted his Indian troops to take back to India the arms they had individually acquired.
After the defeat in the Boxer Rebellion, the Qing court was terrified of foreign powers, particularly the British based in Calcutta. They feared that the British would partition China. This fear has to be viewed in terms of Lord Curzon’s ill-concealed contempt for defeated Qing China. With the signing of the Boxer Protocol in September 1901 and the consequent gradual withdrawal of some Indian Army forces from China, the Government of India could now focus on other issues that required attention
By the end of 1902, the British government had come around to Curzon’s view that the Political Officer in Sikkim should immediately tour the Sikkim-Tibet boundary, accompanied by an armed escort, to demarcate it and evict all Tibetan guards and officials from this side of the border.
It took some time to organise the Tibet Frontier Commission. When it was ready, its first stop was at Gangtok, Sikkim, on July 19, 1903. Thereafter, the force proceeded to Khampa Dzong where Younghusband’s escort commander, Lt Col H Brander, tried to provoke the Tibetans into an unsuccessful armed confrontation. There were 3,000 troops in the British force. These included six companies of the 23rd Sikh Pioneers and four companies of the 8th Gurkha Rifles. When no Tibetans or Chinese showed up for talks at Khampa Dzong, Younghusband advanced deep into Tibet. The first major military confrontation between the Tibet Frontier Commission and the Tibetans took place on March 31, 1904, and is famously known as the Massacre of Chumik Shenko. The Tibetan defenders were mowed down by the Indian Army’s Maxim machine guns as they fled. The incident left around 700 dead and 168 wounded.
Meanwhile, on May 5, 1904, Changlo Manor came under attack by a Tibetan force of 800 men. The attack was repulsed but, while 160 Tibetans were killed, three Indian soldiers lost their lives. Even though the Tibetans suffered heavy losses during the initial battle of Changlo Manor, they continued to engage the Manor garrison with daily firing. For several weeks following the May 5, 1904 attack, the garrison remained under Tibetan fire, during which twelve more Indian soldiers were killed. The Tibetan belligerence spurred Whitehall and Simla (the summer capital of the Raj) to send further reinforcements.
Meanwhile, during the Chinese Revolution of 1911, Indian troops constituting the Hong Kong Regiment saw action again. The fall of the Qing court had a collateral impact in Hong Kong as well. Alarmed, the British urgently dispatched the 25th and 26th Punjab regiments from India and the 24th Hazara Mountain Battery from Burma. This was to prevent the new Chinese republic from trying to retake the New Territories in the melee that followed the collapse of Qing rule. Repeated flag marches by Indian troops helped keep the Chinese at bay. The demands to Indian soldiers by the British Empire to keep the belligerent Chinese in check just never ceased.