Military Digest | Echoes of late 19th-century Jat Sikh hiring crisis in today’s Sikh Regiment shortage

Among the reasons cited by the commanding officers were the lack of physical fitness of Jat Sikhs, an increase in agricultural opportunities, preference for civil life, diversion of recruits towards new Sikh regiments, and manpower drain to Myanmar and China. Another key reason highlighted in the archives is the “decrease of the Gobind Sikhs and backwardness of the rising generation to take the ‘pahul’ (religious pledge of Sikh fraternity)”. Taking ‘pahul’ and being a baptised Sikh, so to speak, was a requirement in the regiments with Sikh troops. The commander-in-chief of the Army advised several measures to improve the situation…