Sahib: The British Soldier in India 1750-1914

by Richard Holmes

Book Overview

From bestselling author of 'Tommy' and 'Redcoat', the rich history of the British soldier in India from Clive to the end of empire considered to be the jewel in Britain's imperial crown. 'Sahib' is a broad and sweeping military history of the British soldier in India, but its focus, like that of Tommy and Redcoat before it, will be on the men who served in India and the women who followed them across that vast and dusty continent, bore their children,...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0007137540
• ISBN13: 9780007137541
• Release Date: April 2006
• Publisher: Harper Perennial
• Length: 416 Pages
• Weight: 1.02 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.7" x 5.1" x 7.7"

Customer Reviews

A Honest Tribute to Tommy Atkins

BG Richard Holmes takes a good hard look at a subject that he obviously loves - The British Soldier and his history. I frankly enjoyed this book and rate it up there with a comparable book "Mr. Kiplings Army". If you want to know more about the British Army and the Raj that it built & maintained. Then you have come to the right place with this book that is filled with a huge amount of interesting detail and a lively way of telling it. Good to go!

SAHIB

"Sahib" The British Soldier in India by Richard Holmes is a "microscopic view" of British incursion into India from 1750 to 1914. This book will give you two years worth of college courses in British military history and tactics condensed in some 506 pages of print. There is such a great deal of information presented that sometimes; the reader may seem almost overwhelmed at times. There are some areas that may "bog-down" and appear a bit dry and "text-bookish", but these are actually few and far between. Holmes brings the British regiments "a-foot" marching right up to you so close that you can smell the sweat, see the dust of India, and even feel the flies on your face. Many of incidents that occurred are enhanced by numerous letters and diary entries from the actual participants in this magnificent and yet tragic area of history. This is a history of not only Nations in conflict but, the very real dramas of life and death of literally thousands of human beings who met their fate with the same determination and toughness... as the land in which they lived and died.

A great start to understanding the army of the Raj

An entertaining read from Richard Holmes. It was not a heavy history but anecdotes divided along themes. The edition I have was a paperback and was 572 pages with the reading stopping on page 506. Richard Holmes has not attempted to provide a blow by blow history of the Raj but rather a read about what soldiering was like in British India for both the British East India Company soldiers as well as those from the British Army. He did, however, provide a quick history at the start to give the reader the context of the anecdotes that come afterward. He has chosen his anecdotes well, although sometimes it seemed to be a case of cut and paste with minimal thread from him. That said, the anecdotes did carry the book and they were generally just right for the point that he was making. The book was divided up into five sections based on themes and then the chapters brought out points within the themes. While it was interesting reading about the life of soldiers and officers, especially how they were supposed to outfit themselves, it was the parts about fighting that sold the book for me. Mr Holmes does not always give great detail about the fight but lets the participants tell what they saw. It worked. Understandably, he weighted his book more towards the pre-1900 India where most people see the real romance of British India. If you have read books about the British Raj and want to find out how the Army worked in India then this book is the perfect place to start.

A Long Deployment....

2005's "Sahib" is the third volume of British military historian Richard Holmes' remarkable narrative of the British soldier, along with "Redcoat" and "Tommy." This volume is the story of the British soldier in India, 1750-1914. The British conquest of its Eastern Empire of India, Burma, and Ceylon would not have been possible without the British Army, which performed remarkable feats of arms in defeating a variety of numerically superior native armies across a huge subcontinent. The long British domination of that subcontinent also would not have been possible without the adaptation of the British soldier to a variety of military and political tasks and to a complex mixture of cultures very different from the British Isles. The British Army in India in fact took on its own unique existance there, the story here celebrated in Richard Holmes' extensive narrative. British infantry, cavalry, and artillery units of the era generally did well in combat, especially under commanders who understood its unique opponents in India, whether the mass armies of various rajas or the wild and tough tribesmen of the Northwest Frontier. The British Army interacted, usually successfully, with the hired soldiers of the East India Company who were first on the ground, and with the Sepoys, the Indian units seconded to the Army who actually made up the bulk of British forces. The company soldiers were eventually absorbed into the regular forces. The Indian contingents, despite the painful exception of the 1857 Sepoy Mutiny which forms a key part of Holmes's narrative, generally performed well under British leadership and training. "Sahib" is less a chronological history of battle than a series of vignettes in which Holmes examines how the British soldier adapted to local circumstances. British regiments were often stationed in India for years to decades, following a six month deployment by sea. The individual soldiers and officers often went native to one degree or another during their long stays. Holmes explores the resulting customs in marriage, recreation, living arrangements, promotions, discipline and indiscipline. Holmes quotes extensively from letter, diaries and memoirs to provide individual perspective on various customs. India was a land of opportunity for the British Army. For the average soldier, increased pay and the chance for prize money meant a opportunity for personal betterment. Officers who might have been overlooked in Britain found opportunities to shine in the tough, unforgiving military climate. Those who mastered India's unique logistical, combat, and political challenges, such as Arthur Wellesley, Fred Roberts, and Garnet Wolesley, often went on to greater things. India was also a dangerous place. Tens of thousands of British soliders did not survive, killed by native warriors, wild animals, strange diseases, and extremes of climate. Holmes highlights the experience of the families who went out with their soldiers to a str