by Dev Kumar Vasudevan
As published in Mhow Diary on July 12 2007; Free Press, Indore edition
Troops under the command of a Captain Hunt had defeated the Holkars at Mahidpur on December 21 1817. It was after this defeat that the treaty of Mandsaur was signed on the 6th of January 1818 and Mhow was handed over to the British. The Scotsman Sir John Malcolm was the seniormost British official in Malwa at that time. Mhow had remained the headquarters of Sir John Malcolm till 1821 – they year the Mhow Fort was built. Prior to 1818 the Holkar Maharaja had stationed some of his troops at Badgonda village in Mhow. This was the original Bombay track and was also the way used by Devi Ahilya Bai Holkar on her way up from Maheshwar in the Nimar plains to Indore in Malwa. The Mhow Fort was used by the Ordnance Corps to store arms and ammunition. This was later transferred to Kharki, near Pune in 1907. The Headquarters of the 5th Mhow Division was in Mhow from 1913 onwards. This Division was part of the Bombay Corps. The other two divisions in this Corps were the 4th and 6th Divisions whose headquarters were at Quetta (now in Pakistan) and Poona (now Pune) respectively. The 4th Indian Division (the famous Red Eagles) was under the command of Montgomery in the African deserts and had contributed immensely in defeating the combined German and Italian Armies there.
The period 1940-48 was one of unprecedented change in Mhow. Many institutions came into existence. Prisoner of war camps were built. The Chindits who specialised in jungle warfare against the Japanese in the jungles of Burma were trained in Mhow. And the Officers Training School here did its best to make up for the shortage of officers which the Indian Army was facing at that time. It was during this time that the Infantry School and the Signals School (later the MCTE or Military College of Telecommunication Engineering ) came into existence.
Army Units Stationed in Mhow During the British Raj
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This is a fascinating list of Army Units and Army Establishments which were stationed in Mhow during the days of the Raj. The names of the Regiments which were in Mhow before 1840 are not known. This list was given to me by an Infantry Officer in handwritten form in the eighties. I was able to tally it with a booklet brought out by Infantry School Mhow during the mid-eighties a xerox copy of which I found in the collection of my friend Denzil Lobo whose ancestors had arrived in Mhow during the late nineteenth century from Goa. I was also able to cross check this list with a coffee table book on the Army War College Mhow which was published a few years ago a copy of which is in the reference section of MCTE Library. Of the British regiments stationed in Mhow the 6th Inniskilling Dragoons had fought under the Duke of Wellington at Waterloo in 1815. They were part of the Union Brigade under the command of a Major General Sir William Posonby who was killed in this battle due to his own foolishness. The Brigade was destroyed by the French and it took no further part in the battle. It is interesting to note that this list does not contain the name of any Indian unit in Mhow in 1891. It was in 1891 that Dr B.R.Ambedkar was born in Mhow and his father Ramji Maloji Sakpal was a Subedar in a Mahar Infantry Battalion. Given below, in chronological order are the units and establishments which were present in Mhow during the pre-independence era. I must add that I have stopped the list in 1948, the year after independence.
Year: Unit/Establishment
1840: 2 Native Cavalry
1843: 26 Bombay Native Infantry
1857: 4 Scindhia’s Contingent
23 Bengal Native Infantry
14 Bombay Native Infantry
The Bengal Artillery
14 Light Dragoons
25 Native Infantry
1858: 5 Madras Cavalry
1859: 19 Bombay Native Infantry
92 Highlanders
1860: 17 Bombay Native Infantry
23 Bombay Native Infantry
Bombay Artillery
Dragoon Guards
1861: 72 Highlanders
Malwa Division Army
Bombay Rifles
6 Inniskilling Dragoons
1863: 6 Dragoons
1864-65: 45 Foot
103 Foot
28 Foot
1866: Royal Engineers
1867: 11 Hussars
95 Foot
1868: Dragoon Guards
2 Dragoons
95 Royal Artillery
1869: 8 King’s Regiment
1870: 15 Hussars
1873: Royal Horse Artillery
3 King’s Own (Hussars)
49 Royal Artillery
1875: 68 Light Infantry (Hussars)
1876: 108 Royal Artillery
2/17 Royal Artillery
1881: 5/11 Royal Artillery
1882: 2 Lancashire Fusilliers
1883: 17 Lancers
1884: 7 Dragoon Guards
1888-89: 5 Royal Irish Lancers
1890: 17 Hussars
1892: 7 Hussars
2 Durham Light Infantry
Royal Horse Artillery
1895-98: Brecknockshire Battalion
20 Hussars
The Royal Fusiliers
1902: 11 Yorkshire Lancers
10 Royal Hussars
1904: 104 Bengal Native Infantry
Yorkshire Regiment
6 Dragoons
Royal Horse Artillery
1907: 2 East Surrey Regiment
1911: East Lancashire Regiment
14 King’s Hussars
1913: 5 (Northumberland) Fusiliers
HQ 5 Mhow Division
1914: 125 Napiers Regiment
124 Rajputana Regiment
The Hampshire Regiment
14 Kings Hussars
1915- 19: 1 Brecknockshire Batallion
104 Rajputana Rifles
Durham Light Infantry
102 King Edward’s Own Grenadiers
1 South Wales Borderers
13 Hussars
128 Outram Rifles (4th Rajputana Rifles)
1920: 3 King’s Royal Rifles
3/60 Rifles
7 Queen’s Own Hussars
107 Battery, Royal Field Artillery
100 Battery, Royal Field Artillery
1922: South Wales Borderers
3 KK RC
1923: 3 Prince of Wales
2 Bedfordshire Battalion
13 Pack Battery
Battery Royal Artillery
1926: 2 Battalion West Yorkshire Regiment
1931: 1 Bedfordshire Regiment
16 Field Bengal Artillery
1933: 8 Field Bengal Artillery
28 Field Artillery
1934: 1 Battalion Gloucestershire Regiment
28 Foot
6 Bengal Cavalry
1936: 3/6 Rajputana Rifles
2 Suffolk Regiment
77 Field Battery
1940: 3/57 Field Battery Royal Artillery
52 Light Infantry
25 Field Artillery
Officer’s Training School
1941: Signals’ School
1944: 2/19 Hyderabad Royal Artillery
Detachment of the Intelligence Corps Burma Armed Forces (BAF)
1945: 1 Northamptonshire Regiment
Burma Intelligence Corps
Royal Indian Army Service Corps
Army Physical Training Corps
1946: Infantry School
1948: 5 Royal Maratha Light Infantry
72 Highlanders
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