Write in detail about the Army of British East India Company.
Answers
The army of the British East India Company in the Bengal Presidency, prior to the Sepoy Rebellion of 1857-1858, was based heavily on native models in keeping with the limited goal of the Company in India: to make profits, but avoid upsetting the traditional order as much as possible. Robert Clive and Warren Hastings were the fathers of the Honorable Company's army in India prior to 1857, but they in turn based their policies on the armies of the Nawab of Awadh and the Benares Raj. The resulting Company army was composed largely of high-caste Hindus and Muslim peasants, and the Company catered to their religious sensitivities and preferences. Essentially, the Company army until 1857.
Recruitment and Benefits of Service Recruitment into the army of the East India Company was voluntary, and the standard requirements were an amalgamation of British and Indian practices, formulated by Major-General Robert Clive and Governor-General Warren Hastings. Both Clive and Hastings adopted the recruiting practices of Indian armies, which dovetailed with similar longstanding British recruitment patterns. Clive and Hastings based their recruiting practices on were the armies of the Nawab of Awadh and the Benares Raj; both had adopted the same recruiting practices, and the Benares Raj recruited high-caste Hindus in an effort to identify itself as a Hindu Raj. The practice of recruiting peasants into native armies was pioneered by Shuja-ud-daula, Nawab of Awadh, in 1764.