Sahib: The British Soldier in India

by Richard Holmes

From bestselling author of ‘Tommy’ and ‘Redcoat’, the rich history of the British soldier in India from Clive to the end of empire considered to be the jewel in Britain’s imperial crown. ‘Sahib’ is a broad and sweeping military history of the British soldier in India, but its focus, like that of Tommy and Redcoat before it, will be on the men who served in India and the women who followed them across that vast and dusty continent, bore their children, and, all too often, mopped their brows as they died. The book begins with the remarkable story of India's rise from commercial enclave to great Empire, from Clive’s victory of Plassey, through the imperial wars of the 18th-century and the Afghan and Sikh Wars of the 1840s, through the bloody turmoil of the Mutiny, and the frontier campaigns at the century’s end. With its focus on the experience of ordinary soldiers, ‘Sahib’ explains to us why soldiers of the Raj had joined the army, how they got to India and what they made of it when they arrived. The book examines Indian soldiering in peace and war, from Kipling’s ‘snoring barrack room’ to storming parties assaulting mighty fortresses, cavalry swirling across open plains, and khaki columns inching their way between louring hills. Making full use of extensive and often neglected archive material in the India Office Library and National Army Museum, ‘Sahib’ will do for the British soldier in India – whether serving a local ruler, forming part of the Indian army, or soldiering with a British regiment – what ‘Tommy’ has done for the ordinary soldier in World War I.

Genres: History, India, Military History, Nonfiction, 19th Century, Military Fiction, 20th Century

416 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2005

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name.
See this thread for more information.

Edward Richard Holmes was Professor of Military and Security Studies at Cranfield University and the Royal Military College of Science. He was educated at Cambridge, Northern Illinois, and Reading Universities, and carried out his doctoral research on the French army of the Second Empire. For many years he taught military history at the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst.

A celebrated military historian, Holmes is the author of the best-selling and widely acclaimed Tommy and Redcoat: The British Soldier in the Age of Horse and Musket. His dozen other books include Dusty Warriors, Sahib, The Western Front, The Little Field Marshal: Sir John French, The Road to Sedan, Firing Line, The Second World War in Photographs and Fatal Avenue: A Traveller’s History of Northern France and Flanders (also published by Pimlico).

He was general editor of The Oxford Companion to Military History and has presented eight BBC TV series, including ‘War Walks’, ‘The Western Front’ and ‘Battlefields’, and is famous for his hugely successful series ‘Wellington: The Iron Duke’ and ‘Rebels and Redcoats’.

Reviews

[Chris · Rating 5 out of 5]

Extraordinary coverage of all facets of life of the British soldier in India up to World War I.

[Julie Bozza · Rating 5 out of 5]

Huuuge and well worth reading. Many insights into the daily lives of the British soldiers in India, and glimpses at all that surrounded them. Just the sort of thing I need for researching a novel!

[Ian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read this primarily because a number of my ancestors served in India - Richard Holmes is an excellent military historian. A good history of the British soldier in India from the 18th century to WWI. The sources are mainly the writings of officers - as you might expect - but he makes good use of letters & diaries by NCOs and ORs.

[Neil · Rating 3 out of 5]

Exhaustive and exhausting. The writer has clearly decided to tell us everything...and yet leaves questions unanswered. I would say it's over-researched, in fact.
On the other hand, I'd recommend it to anyone who is TRULY interested in the period and the subject. The biggest problem is sorting out a timeline. The subjects flit from decade to decade constantly, which rather spoils any sense of continuation, or gradual change.

[Leonid · Rating 4 out of 5]

Based on thousands of contemporary accounts, this book is a comprehensive overview of British military history in India. The book also explores various interactions between officers, soldiers, natives, and civilians.

[Gareth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting for the first 1/2 but became repetitive and restricted in its sources after that.

[Mark Baines · Rating 4 out of 5]

A huge undertaking completed and what a treat..
There is masses of information here, quotation, observations, interpretation and better yet analysis pf what life must have been like for officer and soldier alike.
The book covers the alliance and companionship of British and Indian troops and the gradual decline of this relationship in latter years through bigotry coming from Mother England.
In addition the manner in which officers were appointed and able to sell their commissions, the differential between British regular and Indian Army (East India Company) officers is most insightfil and reflective on attitudes generally.
The initial chapters are almost swamping with details of the various conflicts over a 200 year period touching on Boer war and leading to WW1. A map would have been useful to assist in understanding the distances covered and related logistics, as well as mention of a series of 3 Afghan Wars - all of which resulted in defeat and which are generally skimmed over in British History.
Closing sections related to family, wives, other. relationships, drunkenness, ill discipline etc and also Cholera - descriptions of which reinforce how lucky we are today and why care should be taken when travelling!
Heavy going at times (due to volume of info), this remains an enlightening, well written and useful record, summarising history and keeping it real.

[Ishmael Soledad · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a deep, and at times frustrating, read. Attempting any sort of history that spans nearly a hundred and sixty-five years, let alone one about the British Military in India, is a mammoth task that simply cannot be reduced to six hundred pages. Holmes' effort is a good one and provides what could best be described as broad sweep across history, but the depth that the topis deserves is simply not there.

On the plus side it is accessible and the use of actual soldier's commentary (and that of their wives) makes the narrative strike home that little more. Having the text arranged topically, rather than chronologically, helps as well, although keeping track of the 'who, what and where' to the uninitiated will be a bit tricky.

On the down side this is, entirely, a British perspective of the period and some readers my find it challenging (or potentially offensive) reading history from the 'occupier's' perspective. Of more concern is that there is no natural conclusion to the book. It ends with the onset of World War One but does not have a clear end-point either thematically or for the people who's lives are described. It's a small fault, and one that the author himself seeks to address in his opening remarks, but remains nonetheless.

A good, long, read.

[Anil Dhingra · Rating 4 out of 5]

I always enjoy reading about the British soldiers in India. This book is yet another addition to narrative based on the diaries and letters of the soldiers and ends at the time of the first world war. it's not as good as the other books I have read like sahibs and memsahibs and similar. However it's authentic, informative and goes to the psyche behind the decision of the British to travel to India. It was purely a decision made for monetary reasons to rise from the poverty of the lives in England, in the case of the officers for faster promotions and career prospects.
Unless you are a fan of this genre, like me, I wouldn't recommend to buy it for reading.

[Hitesh Doshi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quite a nice book giving idea about the internal going on in the East India company forces & British military service in India. It covers in good detail about the military structure & the differences & tension points of both the kind of British forces during the period from 17th to 19th century. You get some good sense how the various campaigns were organised & soldiers kept motivated. It provide a good picture of the hardships being faced by the common soldier not only of the constant wars but also of the various diseases that one has to encounter while going thru the length & the breadth of the Indian sub-contient

[Ralph Burton · Rating 3 out of 5]

A considerable study of British soldiers in India yet the lack of political perspective is something of an oddity: the invasion of another sovereign country, its, often times, oppressive maintenance, and colonial rule, is by nature political. At the end, Holmes makes a casual statement about the heroes of Empire. There were no heroes. Only villains. The cause for which they fought one of the worst causes anyone ever fought for. Surely, this is a much more interesting book, and not necessarily unsympathetic one, about the soldiers whose lives were sacrificed not entirely wittingly for this Great Evil.

[Suhas Katti · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fascinating read !! The book give an interesting narrative about the British soldier who came ; often one way ticket to India ; with significant amassing large fortunes and respectability among the gentry in England. Worth a read !! suhaskatti

[Sue Law · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lots of interesting material not available elsewhere (hence 4 stars) but a bit disorganised in that it is sorted by topic (nice), but there's often no date given for various bits of material about matters which changed with time..

[Adil Khan · Rating 2 out of 5]

The British era of Indian history fascinates me, but this is not the best work on the subject that I've read. For a more comprehensive (albeit longer, and equally dry) coverage, I recommend Lawrence James's Raj instead.

[Harish · Rating 4 out of 5]

A first class account of the British soldier's mentality.

[Everett Sharp · Rating 4 out of 5]

A view of Britain's Imperial Army, warts and all

[Lauren Albert · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found the book a bit scattered. The beginning was difficult because it started out as "military history" rather than "history of the military" (if you know what I mean). Though Holmes returns to battle scenes, one does get more of a sense of the lives of the soldiers later in the book. But it doesn't seem clearly organized.

[Stephen · Rating 3 out of 5]

interesting book by the late richard holmes looking at the british solider in india from the time of the east india company through to the outbreak of ww1 on par with his book tommy

[Jbondandrews · Rating 4 out of 5]

A well written book, containing some interesting information to do with my ancestors time in India.