The 36th Sikhs was an infantry regiment in the

British Indian Army The British Indian Army, commonly referred to as the Indian Army, was the main military of the British Raj before its dissolution in 1947. It was responsible for the defence of the British Indian Empire, including the princely states, which co ...

. They could trace their origins to 1887, when they were the 36th (Sikh) Bengal Infantry. Composed of

Jat Sikh Jat Sikh (also known by the more conventional endonym Jatt Sikh) is a sub-group of the Jat people and the Sikh religious group from the Indian subcontinent. They are one of the dominant communities in the Punjab owing to their large land holdin ...

s, it was created by Colonel Jim Cooke and Captain H. R. Holmes. They had one other change in title in 1901, when they became the 36th Sikh Infantry. They finally became the 36th Sikhs in 1903, after the Kitchener reforms of the Indian Army. During this time they fought an action in 1897, in defence of the Samana Ridge against a huge army of

Pathans Pashtuns (, , ; ps, پښتانه, ), also known as Pakhtuns or Pathans, are an Iranian ethnic group who are native to the geographic region of Pashtunistan in the present-day countries of Afghanistan and Pakistan. They were historically re ...

in the

Battle of Saragarhi The Battle of Saragarhi was a last-stand battle fought before the Tirah Campaign between the British Raj and Afghan tribesmen. On 12 September 1897, an estimated 12,00024,000 Orakzai and Afridi tribesmen were seen near Gogra, at Samana Suk, a ...

. To honour the visit of the Prince and Princess of Wales to India they took part in the

Rawalpindi Parade 1905 The Rawalpindi Parade 1905 was a parade by the British Indian Army held in Rawalpindi, India on 8 December 1905 to honour the Prince and Princess of Wales. The troops were under the Command of Horatio Herbert, Viscount Kitchener of Khartoum, G.C.B. ...

. During

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

they were stationed as part of the Garrison of Tianjin in China and took part in the

Siege of Tsingtao The siege of Tsingtao (or Tsingtau) was the attack on the German port of Tsingtao (now Qingdao) in China during World War I by Japan and the United Kingdom. The siege was waged against Imperial Germany between 27 August and 7 November 1914. Th ...

British, Indian and Japanese soldiers in Tsingtao (Qingdao), China, 1914

After World War I the Indian government reformed the army again moving from single battalion regiment to multi battalion regiments.Sumner p.15 The 36th Sikhs became the 4th Battalion

11th Sikh Regiment The 11th Sikh Regiment was an infantry regiment of the British Indian Army. They could trace their origins to 1922, when after World War I the Indian government reformed the army moving from single battalion regiments to multi battalion regiments.S ...

. After independence this was one of the regiments allocated to the new

Indian Army The Indian Army is the land-based branch and the largest component of the Indian Armed Forces. The President of India is the Supreme Commander of the Indian Army, and its professional head is the Chief of Army Staff (COAS), who is a four- ...

In popular culture

The 36th Sikhs and the

are dramatized in the Indian Hindi-language movie Kesari, released in 2019.

References

Sources

* * British Indian Army infantry regiments Military units and formations established in 1887 Military units and formations disestablished in 1922 Bengal Presidency {{Mil-unit-stub