‘Hostages in our camp’

The history of the Imperial Service Troops (IST) offers a valuable opportunity to explore the considerations that compelled the British and the princely states to collaborate in the execution of coercive action in the British Imperial cause. Such an analysis holds invaluable insights into the history of the military in colonial south Asia, the history of the relationship between the British and the princely states, and the importance of the coercive arm for a colonial state that was never sure of loyalties within the shifting terrain of the rise of nationalism. Precisely for such reasons of overlapping historiographical concerns, the IST appear to have been ignored in scholarly literature on the military, princely states and histories of South Asian participation in the First World War. ¹