Neither East nor West: Some Aspects of Religion and Ritual in the Indian Army of the Raj
✍ Scribed by Catherine Robinson
- Publisher
- Elsevier Science
- Year
- 1996
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 113 KB
- Volume
- 26
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0048-721X
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
✦ Synopsis
This article examines the conversion of the Royal Pavilion estate, Brighton, Sussex, into a military hospital for Indian casualties of the Great War (1914-1918) in order to suggest how the religious beliefs and practices of Hindu, Sikh and Muslim soldiers were provided for in the Indian Army of the Raj. The military hospital not only made arrangements for worship but also for the observance of caste rules and the performance of funeral rites. These arrangements are discussed with reference to the series of Handbooks for the Indian Army and to other contemporary sources. Furthermore, this article locates the Indian Army in the context of imperial ideology both in terms of the concept of the 'martial classes' and the brotherhood of all soldiers of the Empire.