The 11th Rajputs was an infantry regiment of the Bengal Army and later of the British Indian Army. They could trace their origins to 1825, when they were the 2nd Extra Battalion,

Bengal Native Infantry The regiments of Bengal Native Infantry, alongside the regiments of Bengal European Infantry, were the regular infantry components of the East India Company's Bengal Army from the raising of the first Native battalion in 1757 to the passing int ...

. In 1828, they were renamed the 70th Bengal Native Infantry and a number of changes in name followed - the 11th Bengal Native Infantry 1861–1885, the 11th Bengal Infantry 1885–1897, the 11th (Rajput) Bengal Infantry 1897–1901, the 11th Rajput Infantry 1901–1903. Finally in 1903, after the

Kitchener reforms 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 ...

of the Indian Army - the 11th Rajputs.Barthorpe p.22 During this time, the regiment took part in the

Second Anglo-Sikh War The Second Anglo-Sikh War was a military conflict between the Sikh Empire and the British East India Company that took place in 1848 and 1849. It resulted in the fall of the Sikh Empire, and the annexation of the Punjab and what subsequently ...

in the Battle of Chillianwala and the

Battle of Goojerat A battle is an occurrence of combat in warfare between opposing military units of any number or size. A war usually consists of multiple battles. In general, a battle is a military engagement that is well defined in duration, area, and force ...

(or Gujrat, Gujerat), the Second Opium War in China, the

Third Afghan War The Third Anglo-Afghan War; fa, جنگ سوم افغان-انگلیس), also known as the Third Afghan War, the British-Afghan War of 1919, or in Afghanistan as the War of Independence, began on 6 May 1919 when the Emirate of Afghanistan inv ...

, the

Third Anglo-Burmese War The Third Anglo-Burmese War ( my, တတိယ အင်္ဂလိပ် – မြန်မာစစ်, Tatiya Anggalip–Mran cac), also known as the Third Burma War, took place during 7–29 November 1885, with sporadic resistance conti ...

and

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 ...

. During World War I the regiment was first assigned to the Presidency Brigade,

8th Lucknow Division The 8th (Lucknow) Division was a formation of the British Indian Army's Northern Army that was first formed as a result of the Kitchener reforms of the Indian Army in 1903. The Division remained in India on internal security duties during World ...

on internal security duties. They then served in the 33rd Indian Brigade, 12th Indian Division during the Mesopotamia Campaign. After World War I the Indian government reformed the army again moving from single battalion regiments to multi battalion regiments. The 11th Rajputs now became the 5th Battalion,

7th Rajput Regiment 7 (seven) is the natural number following 6 and preceding 8. It is the only prime number preceding a cube. As an early prime number in the series of positive integers, the number seven has greatly symbolic associations in religion, mythology, 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- ...

Notes

Sources

* *{{cite book, last=Sumner, first=Ian, title=The Indian Army 1914-1947, year=2001, publisher=Osprey Publishing, isbn=1-84176-196-6 British Indian Army infantry regiments Honourable East India Company regiments Military units and formations established in 1825 Military units and formations disestablished in 1922 Bengal Presidency