Editing Mercenary (section)

====18th to 19th centuries====
{{Main|Mercenaries in India}}

In the medieval period, [[Purbiya]] mercenaries from [[Bihar]] and [[Eastern Uttar Pradesh]] were a common feature in kingdoms in western and northern India. They were also later recruited by the Marathas and the British. In southern India, there is a caste/community of mercenaries in the state of Karnataka which is called [[Bunt (community)|Bunt]]. The word "bunt" itself translates to warrior or mercenary, this community later elevated itself as the rulers of the land, several powerful dynasties emerged from this community. The most notable dynasty being the Alupas of Dakshina Kannada, which reigned for 1,300 years. This community still survives and has adopted the surnames shetty, Rai, Alva, chowta etc. In Tamil Nadu, the three crowned empires used the [[Gounder|Kongar]] pastro-peasantry tribes of the [[Kongu Nadu|Kongunad]] region and the [[Vokkaliga|Kongar]] peasant tribes of the [[Mysore|Erumainad]] region as their swordsman mercenaries, cavalry mercenaries, and as chariot soldier mercenaries, as well as personal guards. Kongars worked along with the three empires' warrior tribes such as the Kallar, Maravar, Aghamudaiyar, Parkavar, Valaiya-Mutharaiyar, and Mazhavar tribes. During that time, these Kongar tribes were led only by the chiefs of their own tribe and would not come under the command of the emperor or his military general. Though these Kongar tribes of Kongunad were feudatories to the three crowned empires, Kongunad was divided into 24 subdivisions and was only ruled by Kongars. However, the Kongars (Gangars) of Erumainad established their own empire, the Western Ganga dynasty, and ruled over it for centuries. Kongar tribes still exist in the modern world, where they are referred as Kongu Vellala Gounder (Kongunadu) and Gangadhikar Vokkaliga Gowda (Erumainad).<ref name=Kolff2013>{{cite journal | jstor=j.ctt6wp6pg.11 | title=Peasants fighting for a living in early modern North India | journal=Fighting for a Living | first=Dirk H. A. |last=Kolff |author-link=Dirk H. A. Kolff | publisher= Amsterdam University Press | year=2013 | pages= 243–266| doi=10.1017/9789048517251.009 | isbn=978-9089644527 }}</ref>

The [[Mukkuvar]] clan of [[Malabar Coast]] and Sri Lankan coast did the role of soldiers in [[Kalinga Magha]]'s invasion to [[Sri Lanka]] and in [[Nair]]'s battle with the [[Dutch East India Company|Dutch]] in the [[Battle of Colachel]].

In the 18th and early 19th centuries, the imperial Mughal power was crumbling and other powers, including the [[Sikh Misl]]s and Maratha chiefs, were emerging. At this time, a number of mercenaries, arriving from several countries found employment in India. Some of the mercenaries emerged to become independent rulers. The Sikh Maharaja, [[Ranjit Singh]], known as the "Lion of the Punjab", employed Euro-American mercenaries such as the Neapolitan [[Paolo Avitabile]]; the Frenchmen [[Claude Auguste Court]] and [[Jean-François Allard]]; and the Americans [[Josiah Harlan]] and [[Alexander Gardner (soldier)|Alexander Gardner]]. The Sikh army, ''[[Dal Khalsa (Sikh Army)|Dal Khalsa]]'', was trained by Singh's French mercenaries to fight alone the lines used by the French in the Napoleonic era, and following French practice, ''Dal Khalsa'' had excellent artillery.<ref>Macintyre, Ben ''The Man Who Would Be King: The First American in Afghanistan''. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux p. 193</ref> Singh had a low opinion of his Euro-American mercenaries, once saying "German, French or English, all these European bastards are alike".<ref>Macintyre, Ben ''The Man Who Would Be King: The First American in Afghanistan''. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux p. 152</ref>

Until 1858, India was a proprietary colony that belonged to the East India Company, not the British Crown. The East India Company became the world's most influential corporation, having exclusive monopolies on trade with India and China. By the early 19th century, the East India Company in its proprietary colony of India ruled over 90&nbsp;million Indians and controlled {{convert|70|e6acre|km2}} of land under its own flag, issued its own currency and maintained its own civil service and its own army of 200,000 men led by officers trained at its officer school, giving the company an army larger than that possessed by most European states.<ref>{{cite news| title = The Company That Ruled The Waves| newspaper = The Economist| date = 17 December 2011| url = http://www.economist.com/node/21541753| access-date = 2017-06-09| archive-date = 25 February 2018| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20180225130424/http://www.economist.com/node/21541753| url-status = live}}</ref> In the 17th century, the East India Company recruited Indian mercenaries to guard its warehouses and police the cities under its rule.{{sfn|Bryant|2000|page=10}} However, these forces were ad hoc and disbanded as quickly as they were recruited.{{sfn|Bryant|2000|pages=10–11}}

Starting in 1746, the Company recruited Indian mercenaries into its own army.{{sfn|Bryant|2000|pages=3–4}} By 1765, the board of directors of the Company had come to accept it was necessary to rule its conquests to maintain a standing army, voting to maintain three presidency armies to be funded by taxes on Indian land.{{sfn|Bryant|2000|page=4}} The number of Indians working for the Company's armies outnumbered the Europeans ten to one.{{sfn|Bryant|2000|page=5}} When recruiting, the East India Company tended to follow Indian prejudices in believing the pale-skinned men from northern India made for better soldiers than the dark-skinned peoples of southern India, and that high-caste Hindus were superior to the low-caste Hindus.{{sfn|Bryant|2000|pages=11–12}} Despite these prejudices, the men of the Madras Army were from south India.{{sfn|Bryant|2000|page=12}} The Bengal Army were largely high-cast Hindus from northern India while the Bombay Army prided itself on being a "melting pot".{{sfn|Bryant|2000|pages=12, 17}}

Because the East India Company ultimately by the end of the 18th century came to offer higher pay than the Maharajahs did, and offered the novelty in India of paying a pension to veterans and their families, it came to attract the best of the Indian mercenaries.{{sfn|Bryant|2000|page=16}} Initially, the mercenaries serving in the company's armies brought along their own weapons, which was the normal practice in India, but after the 1760s the company began to them arm with the standard British weapons.{{sfn|Bryant|2000|page=19}} The East India Company, generally known in both Britain and in India as "the Company", had sufficient lobbying power in London to ensure that several British Army regiments were also stationed to work alongside the Company army, whose troops were mostly "Sepoys" (Indians). The Company never entirely trusted the loyalty of its sepoys.{{sfn|Bryant|2000|page=7}} The company had its own officer training school at the [[Addiscombe Military Seminary]]. The company's armies were trained in the Western style and by the end of the 18th century its troops were ranked as the equal of any European army.{{sfn|Bryant|2000|pages=27–28}}