The Mahar Regiment

The Pillar at Koregaon

The memorial pillar at Koregaon, put up in 1821, lists 22 Mahars among the dead of the battle fought there on 1 January 1818, when East India Company troops held off the forces of the Peshwa. Mahars had been soldiering long before that, in Deccan Sultanate, Mughal and Maratha service, and from about 1750 they enlisted with the Company, making up a large share of the Bombay Army.

Recruitment of Mahars stopped in 1892. They were allowed back during the First World War, and the 111th Mahars was raised in June 1917. It saw no action and was disbanded in March 1921.

Ambedkar's Letter

On 18 June 1941 The Times of India published a letter from Dr B.R. Ambedkar, whose own father had been a soldier in the British Indian Army, and who joined the Viceroy's Defence Advisory Committee that year. He wrote about Koregaon and pressed for wider recruitment: "There can be no doubt that without the help of the untouchables the British would never have been able to conquer India." He noted that the Governor of Bombay had agreed to raise a Mahar battalion, urged Mahars to come forward, and asked the government not to disband them after the war.

The 1st Battalion was raised at Belgaum on 1 October 1941 under Lieutenant Colonel H.J.R. Jackson. The 2nd followed at Kamptee in June 1942, the 3rd at Nowshera, and the 25th at Belgaum in August 1942. That last battalion was disbanded in 1946. During the war, Mahar units served in Burma, Persia and Iraq, and on the North-West Frontier.

Crossed Vickers

In October 1946 the regiment was converted to medium machine guns, and it kept that role for 17 years. The cap badge showed crossed Vickers guns over the Koregaon pillar. In 1947 a katar replaced the pillar. The regiment's official history records that during Partition it helped move lakhs of refugees.

The training centre began as a company at Kamptee on 1 October 1942 and became the Mahar Machine Gun Regimental Centre four years later. It moved to Arangaon, and on 1 December 1948 to Saugor, where it has stayed.

Two changes followed. In 1956 three battalions of Border Scouts, raised to guard the Punjab border, were absorbed into the regiment, and recruitment opened to all classes. In 1963 its battalions became standard infantry. The regiment's 1965 battle honours are Asal Uttar, Kalidhar, Jaurian Kalit and Tilakpur-Muhadipur. For 1971 they include Parbat Ali, Sehjra, Thanpir and Harar Kalan in the west, and Shamsher Nagar in the east.

8 Mahar in Jaffna

8 Mahar went to Sri Lanka with the Indian Peace Keeping Force in 1987. On 16 October, near Manipay, a company of the battalion was surrounded during the attempt to link up with Jaffna Fort. Sepoy Prabhakar Bayaji Patre volunteered for a party carrying ammunition to it. The party was ambushed and he was wounded. He then led the push through the encirclement and was shot in the chest, but kept going until he reached the company. He died of his wounds and received the Vir Chakra.

The battalion's best-known action came on the night of 25 November 1987. Major Ramaswamy Parameswaran, born on 13 September 1946 and commissioned in January 1972, was returning with his column from a search operation in the Jaffna peninsula when militants ambushed it. One detailed account places this at Kantharodai, near Uduvil, and describes it as a search for a weapons consignment. He took a party round through a coconut grove to reach the ambushers from the rear, then charged.

He was shot in the chest. He seized the rifle of the militant who had shot him and killed the man with it. His citation records: "Gravely wounded, he continued to give orders and inspired his command till he breathed his last." Five militants were killed, and three rifles and two rocket launchers were recovered. He was 41. He remains the only recipient of the Param Vir Chakra from the Sri Lanka operations, and the regiment's only one.

Two Chiefs and a Stamp

The regiment has given the Army two Chiefs: General K.V. Krishna Rao, from 1981 to 1983, and General Krishnaswamy Sundarji, from 1986 to 1988. Subedar Suresh Chand Yadav of 13 Mahar received the Ashok Chakra while with the National Security Guard. Colours were presented to the regiment by the President on 3 February 1970.

Rao, as Chief and Colonel of the Regiment, presented Colours to the 17th and 18th Battalions at Saugor on 9 November 1981. A 35 paise postage stamp marking the 40th anniversary of the regiment was issued the same day, with 20 lakh copies printed.

At a glance

• Raised: 1st Battalion, 1 October 1941, Belgaum
• Regimental centre: Saugor (Sagar), Madhya Pradesh
• Motto: Yash Sidhi (Success and Attainment)
• War cry: Bolo Hindustan Ki Jai