A proposal to create a dedicated Sikh regiment within the British Army has resurfaced in the House of Lords, with Defence Minister Lord Coaker signalling openness to further discussions on the matter.
Raising the issue on Monday, Labour peer Lord Sahota asked whether any progress had been made on long-standing calls for such a regiment, citing the loyalty and contributions of Sikh soldiers in both world wars.
“Given the loyalty of Sikh soldiers in both world wars, there has been talk of having a Sikh regiment in the British Army for a number of years,” he said. “Governments of both parties have talked about it. Is there any progress on that?”
Lord Coaker responded that he was willing to explore the idea further. “I am quite happy to meet him to see what more we can do to recognise the contribution of soldiers such as Sikhs, and those of many other faiths as well,” he said.
He noted the upcoming VJ Day commemorations on 15 August, suggesting it as an appropriate moment to reflect on global wartime sacrifices. “Not least among that were the Sikhs of the world, who played a valiant part,” he added.
While no specific commitment was made regarding the formation of a regiment, the exchange signals renewed interest in formally recognising the historic role of Sikh soldiers in the British Armed Forces.
Background
Sikhs have served in the British Army since the mid-19th century, beginning with their incorporation into the British Indian Army following the annexation of the Sikh Empire in 1849. Recognised for their martial tradition and military discipline, Sikhs were recruited in large numbers, particularly after the Indian Rebellion of 1857, when the British shifted recruitment toward communities deemed loyal to the Crown.
The Punjab region, home to most Sikhs, became a major recruiting ground. By the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Sikhs were overrepresented in the Indian Army relative to their population, forming a key component of regiments such as the Sikh Regiment and the Punjab Regiment.
During the First World War, over 100,000 Sikhs served in various theatres including France, East Africa, Mesopotamia, and Gallipoli. They fought in major engagements such as the Battle of Neuve Chapelle and the Somme, earning numerous gallantry awards, including Victoria Crosses. Sikh soldiers made up roughly 20% of the Indian contingent in the war, despite comprising less than 2% of the population of British India. Their service continued in the Second World War, where more than 300,000 Sikhs took part in campaigns in North Africa, Italy, and Southeast Asia. Again, their contributions were disproportionately high, both in combat roles and in logistical support.
Following Indian independence and the partition of 1947, Sikh recruitment into the British military declined sharply, as the majority of Sikh soldiers became part of the Indian Army. Nonetheless, individual Sikhs continued to serve in the British Armed Forces, and in recent decades, the UK has taken steps to commemorate their historical contribution.
Does anyone know how many Sikhs we have now in the Army?
265 according to Google, I’d assume the vast majority, if not all, are British or are seeking to become British.
Empire is over, before we raise all these regiments of foreign nationals and increase the Gurkhas to a couple of divisions and replace the RFA with Kiwis and the RAF Regiment with Canadian hillbillies, can we not do the hard graft and sort British recruitment out?
I know it’s not proper to say these days, but foreign nationals are not usually as loyal as the local population (in 1947 the majority of Sikhs understandably chose India over the UK), nor would some fight for the same ideals. There are exceptions of course like choosing service as a path to citizenship, but those individuals want to be a part of the UK and its military, not a separate, expendable section of it, one often with a poorer employment deal.
Also, some foreign nationals carry with them very backward-thinking opinions, traditions and social norms that are not acceptable in the UK (and haven’t been for a long time). Unless we want some good old-fashioned segregation in place of cohesion “keep X away from the women”, “keep Y away from the homosexuals”, “keep everyone away from the Welsh” then maybe it’s not a path best traveled.
If the world was all unicorns and rainbows without a hint of “tribalism” there’d be no issue but then we wouldn’t need a military anyway.
Great idea.
Also given the current recruitment issues, has anyone asked the question – can Gurkas sail? Might be an idea to get some for the navy.
Part of me goes, well, they have the brigade of Gurkhas, but another part of me feels like we’re drifting into segregation territory.
I know there’s more context behind it.
I remember watching TV around 6 years back listening with a lot of interest to a Sikh community leader, he said there would be no problem in raising a regiment of Sikh soldiers within the British Army.. I thought at the time what a great idea. I noticed a Sikh soldier during the recent Trooping the colour, made me think about what the Community leader had said those years back. Hope they look into the idea seriously.
The problem with specific X regiments is that it generates a need to safeguard those pids and places limits on career streams. The RGR already has this problem where Gurkhas can not post outside of Gurkha pids and non Gurkha’s can’t post into their pids, which has corresponding impacts on career progression for Gurkhas often (if there are no Pids available in RGR for example it’s much harder for a Gurkha to transfer to the Rifles than it would be for someone to post into a Fusilier Pid from PWRR), but can also create dramas for other units (A Gurkha signals Squadron can’t take Royal Signals personnel into it’s orbat, even if it’s in a Royal Signals regiment for example, because those pids have to be Gurkha’s). Plus what Coll said about segregation.
I’m open to that too. Lord knows how many times over they’ve proved themselves
Can we just NOT form a Muslim regiment !
You know it’s coming. And yes, I’m shaking my head.
Dern makes valid points and I think you might need to go back to old style RAEC and get language proficiency into the Gurkhas by perhaps using some of that FCDO cash to deliver English lessons into all Nepal schools, thereby giving them fluency and the ability to move around the plot.
Heavens, if out of 36 former senior Slovak officers, I got 30, reluctantly, through the STANAG exam, starting off with children has to be a winner.
Just pointing out that it’s not an English fluency thing that prevents Gurkhas from moving around. They already have to pass an English Language assesment before joining. It’s a legal and international agreement issue around their citizenship and the guaranteeing of their pids for Nepali citizens.
Thank you Dern.
seems outdated. India is no longer a colony.
instead just create a British Foreign Legion, which can have Sikhs and others. it’s also a good and legal pathway for citizenship
hang on, wont many of the sikh soldiers be UK born and bred?
no idea, but why does it matter? just limiting to Sikhs seems a bit racist and a niche selection. why not include people from Hong Kong, or wherever … seems like a bigger pool to recruit from while allowing stricter selection criteria than just to fill some arbitrary profile numbers.
FYI there have been plenty of french citizens who have joined the French Foreign Legion. it was a way to get a new start for some who wanted to clear their criminal record (not for serious crimes) or for others the opportunity to join a prestigious unit who wanted to see action in deployments (since Foreign Legion is deployed more often than other regular army units)
That’s what I was thinking, comments on here as though these would be foreigners looking for citizenship. This is for British Sikhs and this would not be like the Gurkhas, these are Brits.
i seriously doubt you would fill a regiment with UK born Sikhs
there are just over 500k Sikhs in the UK, of which only 300k are UK born (57%)
the UK aged 18 to 30 population is 20% of UK population (ie 12 milliom / 68 million)
the UK armed forces are about 140k personnel, or 0.02% of the population and the UK is having recruitment problems
apply these figures to Sikh UK born population
-> 60k UK born Sikhs aged 18 to 30 (ie 300k x 20%)
-> then apply 0.2% armed forces as part of overall UK population and you get 120 UK born Sikh recruits (ie 60k x 0.2%)
seem highly unrealistic that UK born Sikhs would be enough to form a regiment, unless there is conscription
my 2 cents
oops got my maths wrong ie 300k UK born Sikhs × 0.2% = 600 recruits
double oops 0.2% is for all UK armed forces incl RN and RAF. but Army is just half that total number.
so in fact 600 needs to be divided by 2 = 300, since Sikh regiment would be an infantry unitand not have an RAF or RN role.
If they are UK citizens there literally is no point raising a “Sikh” regiment. They can already apply through the normal channels just as easily as any other UK citizen, and zero point creating a specific Sikh regiment.
Admin wise, it would be a nightmare. Contrary to popular belief, Regiments aren’t insular, and there is considerable movement of personnel between them. Suddenly you have a single Battalion regiment that can’t post people out, and can only recruit from a relatively small pool of UK recruits? Or are postings open to other people from whatever Division the Sikh Regiment ends up in, in which case why bother having it be a Sikh Regiment?
I’m was 50/50 on the idea but reading your points I agree it would end up being unsustainable. If we were at war and the army was 5 times bigger, then it might work.
The army is already fully open to British Citizens. What’s the advantage of segregating based on ethnic and/or religious grounds? Just numbers? We could probably get a few more Glaswegians signed up if we promised them Catholic and Protestant only units, would it be a good idea? Would they be the types you’d want? What about whites’ only units, or take even further with a US term WASPs? There’s a segment that would be all over those, definitely not a good idea.
Nothing in the article suggests it’s for British Sikhs only. Maybe it was touted in the past (exactly where the idea of segregated units should stay) as British Sikhs only?
Also this. Even the existing regiments that have regional or ethnicity based names, like the Royal Irish, Royal Welsh, RRoS, and various Guards, are not in fact limited to those groups in their recruitment. The R. Irish is open to anyone to join, they just happen to concentrate their recruitment efforts on Northern Ireland and the ROI. Hell the RRoS is sometimes jokingly referred to as the Royal Fijian Regiment, due to the number of Commonwealth Recruits that serve in it.
just a question.
who will they be loyal to, if ever the need arose ,[Britain.][India ]
a fair question.
depends whether they are british sikhs or indian sikhs
I would trust a Brit Sikh anytime over the semi Iranians we’ve had in the army who were found to be spying, or any of the home grown morons who sabotage RAF aircraft.
They’ve got them on RAF fast jet squadrons already. They specialise on maintaining the gas turban engines.
Too few to form a Regiment I’d think.
And why the segregation? If they’re British, they can join any Regiment.
We have had Gurkhas in the SAS and the SBS, no need for a separate unit.
The Gurkhas are a different situation.
I think Sikh people like any other UK citizen should be able to join any part of the armed forces, but if a battalion of Sikh soldiers was formed – I really don’t see a problem with that. But it would be up to that particular individual, so nobody would be forced, it’s a choice decision.
Seems like every option should be explored.
I would welcome a Sikh/Punjab regiment, based on what I know of the history, but what’s more important is what the Sikh population in the UK feels about it. Do we know if there is a desire for it within the Sikh community? I wouldn’t want Sikhs to feel segregated in any way, although I would believe the nepalese community in he UK are rightly proud of their unique regimental status with the Gurkas.
Colin’s islamiphobia clearly shows he is ignorant of the muslim contribution to the world wars.
The army size needs to be much larger so if it means more troops make it happen , its criminal
that are MPs are doing nothing about it.
Any regiments along sectarian, ethnic/religious lines make me really uneasy.
Perhaps better to say all regiments are for anyone that wants to serve and encourage them to foster camaraderie with others of different backgrounds.
The most loyal of people are the British Sikhs..a British Army Brigade of Sikhs is an idea that had been floated before, but alas the concept of a Sikh Regiment was thwarted by the DEI brigade. What an asset a Brigade of Sikhs would be to our fighting ability.
I am very much in favour of raising a Sikh ‘regiment’. The Sikh community has been a great servant of Britain for 150+ years and they are a renowned martial class. Those living in the UK are the proud legacy of that tradition, with many of the original Sikh immigrants ex-service personnel.
I would arrange that ‘regiment’ differently. The infantry is set at 25% of army strength. So form a Sikh training battalion of 500 recruits, of which 100+ form a Sikh infantry company and the rest jo8n the other 10 army corps as signalmen, drivers, gunners, etc.
Attach the infantry company to one of the line regiments, as we will need to increase the number of line battalions in line with the increase to 3.5% of GDP. So 2 Lancs, 2 Mercian or whichever future unit gets a formed and valuable Sikh company, that will be an asset rather than a problem.
We have Scots, Welsh, Irish and Ghurka battalions, don’t see a
problem with a Sikh company joining the parade of loyal Brit units.
Would be equally happy to see a similar British Bengal Rifles unit – Muslims Nigel, but loyal Brit ones! – formed, or a British Jat one, great soldiers and would encourage these minority communities in the UK to play their part in national defence, which outmoded racist views have long hindered.
This structure would cause SO many issues.
The idea that giving an infantry Battalion a single Sikh company would be an asset, not a problem, is just not true (believe me I see this first hand). Everything I said above about Battalions? Now multiply it.
Imagine your Battalion has the following:
Z (HQ) Coy
A Coy
B Coy
S (Sikh) Coy
X (Support Coy)
A Coy is going to deploy to Cabrit as part of the Battlegroup, and is short a Platoon Sgt. Cpl Singh in S Coy has just completed SCBC and is due to promote but there are no spaces for a Platoon Sgt in S coy. But he can’t now not post into A Coy because he’s a Sikh, so the Pid goes unfilled, the operational effectiveness of the unit is decreased and Cpl Singh doesn’t get a promotion. Meanwhile LCpl Kapoor has shown an aptitude for Recce, he asks his chain of command to go on Recce commanders so that he can go down that pipeline. Sorry LCpl Kapoor, but Recce Platoon is part of X (Support) Coy, and therefore a standard British Army pid, not a Sikh Pid. That’s the day to day reality of what you are suggesting.
Scots, Welsh, Irish are a different kettle of fish, as noted above, as membership to those units is not actually based on any ethnic requirements. There is nothing stopping an Englishman joining the Royal Regiment of Scotland (in fact because SCOTS, R. Welsh and R. Irish all sit under the Union Divison (along with the R. Yorks) there is a considerable amount of moving back and forth between those Battalions once you get beyond Sgt). If you are English and walk into a recruiting office and say “I want to join the Royal Welsh” nothing is stopping you.