About Gorkhas
* Contrary to popular belief that the British East India Company was the first to recruit Gorkhas as soldiers, Army officers contend it was, in fact, Maharaja Ranjit Singh who raised a battalion of Gorkhas to serve in the Sikh Army around 1809-1814 * There are about 32,000 Nepalese Gorkhas currently serving in the Indian Army's seven Gorkha Rifle regiments (1st, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 8th, 9th and 11th), each of which has five to six battalions (around 800 soldiers each). * The 2nd, 6th, 7th and 10th regiments went to the British Army after Independence in 1947. These have now been consolidated into one Gorkha regiment in the British army. * The current Army chief Bipin Rawat is from the Gorkha Rifles. In fact, several Army chiefs have been officers in on of the Gorkha regiments. * The Gorkha Rifles war cry is "Jai Maha Kali, Aayo Gorkhali! (Hail Goddess Kali, the Gorkhas are here!)", or simply "Aayo Gorkhali Charge!" All the Gorkha regiment soldiers carry a 'khukri', which is a long knife that curves inward. The insignia of all the Gorkha Rifles regiments is a pair of crossed 'khukris'. * All the non-Gorkhas in the Gorkha Rifles have to learn Nepali so they can communicate with their regiments. * The Gurkhas took part in the two world wars, the Falklands conflict and British operations in Bosnia, Kosovo, Afghanistan, East Timor and Sierra Leone, according to Reuters. * The Gorkha Rifles regiments had a tradition of sacrificing a male buffalo on the festival of Dussehra. The defence ministry in 2015 put an end to that tradition.
Since partition, the Gurkha regiments that were transferred to the Indian Army have established themselves as a permanent and vital part of the newly independent Indian Army. Indeed, while Britain has reduced its Gurkha contingent, India has continued to recruit Gorkhas of Nepal into Gorkha regiments in large numbers, as well as Indian Gorkhas.[42] In 2009 the Indian Army had a Gorkha contingent that numbered around 42,000 men in 46 battalions, spread across seven regiments.
Although their deployment is still governed by the 1947 Tripartite Agreement, in the post-1947 conflicts India has fought in, Gorkhas have served in almost all of them, including the wars with Pakistan in 1947, 1965, 1971 and 1999 and also against China in 1962.[51] They have also been used in peacekeeping operations around the world.[50] They have also served in Sri Lanka conducting operations against the Tamil Tigers.[52]
