Thread by @reportersujan

Arguably the most diverse regiment of the Indian Army is the Assam Regiment, drawing recruits from nearly 40 different ethnicities/tribes/communities. You may have heard their song:

At its regimental centre in Shillong, everyone attends Church on Sundays.

The tune of the Assam Regiment song has traces to 'John Brown's Body', going back to the American Civil War.

In post-colonial societies such as India, there is such a thing called "historical exceptionalism."

The Bihar Regiment of the Indian Army was raised with recruits who were from the erstwhile zone of the Bengal Native Infantry. It was disbanded after the 1857 uprising was defeated. It's best known historical figure was Mangal Pandey.

In 1858, after the uprising was put down and power passed from the East India Company to the British Crown, elements of the armies of the Bengal, Bombay and Madras Presidencies constituted what came to be called the British Indian Army.

The Assam Regiment was raised much later, as the second world war (1939-1945) was breaking out and the Japanese were threatening to attack.

There are some regiments of the Indian Army, that have retained regional names. Some, like the Grenadiers (originally traced to the Bombay Presidency Army), have not.

Again, for reasons of "historical exceptionalism".

Regional identification for regiments in the Indian Army has two notable purposes, among others
1) Increase the cohesiveness of troops
2) Raise morale.
They fight as the Indian Army.

In contrast, the historical trajectory of China's military is markedly different. China was never fully colonised like India. It has had to contend with ethnic differentiation with the Han outnumbering by far other groups.

The above thread is just a historical-academic context to the debate on Bihari or not Bihari that has been stoked.

Like the Indian Army, the context is not making a political statement.

But it risks being tweaked as one.

That is all.

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