ABSTRACT
General accounts of British-Indian military tend to focus on the role of sahibs and to an extent on the sepoys and the sowars; Indian VCOs and the NCOs remain in limbo in such accounts. This chapter contextualizes the important roles played by the Indian VCOs and NCOs, attempts to redress the historiographical slip. In 1683, the Bombay Garrison enrolled two Rajput companies. Each company consisted of 100 men commanded by Rajput officers. They formed the nucleus of the Indian component of the Bombay Army. Marine Battalion was exceptional in having a large number of low caste personnel during the time of high caste 'mutiny'. As a reaction to the 1857 'Mutiny', in the second half of the nineteenth century, there was an attempt to curtail the entry of the Indians in the scientific branches of the army. This in turn created a contradiction when the Army in India engaged in the two World Wars.
