The Royal Indian Navy

Trajectories, Transformations and the Transfer of Power

Kalesh Mohanan

• Publisher: Routledge India
• Year: 2019
• ISBN:
  9781000709575
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Historia
• Subtopic: Historia de la India y el sur de Asia

This book presents a comprehensive history of the Royal Indian Navy (RIN). It traces the origins of the RIN to the East India Company, as early as 1612, and untangles the institution's complex history. Capturing various transitional phases of the RIN, especially during the crucial period of 1920–1950, it concludes with the final transfer of the RIN from under the British Raj to independent India.

Drawn from a host of primary sources—personal diaries and logs, official reports and documents—the author presents a previously unexplored history of colonial and imperial defence policy, and the contribution of the RIN during the World Wars. This book explores several aspects in RIN's history such as its involvement in the First World War; its status in policies of the British Raj; the martial race theory in the RIN; and the development of the RIN from a non-combat force to a full-fledged combat defence force during the Second World War. It also studies the hitherto unexplored causes, nature and impact of the 1946 RIN Revolt on the eve of India's independence from a fresh perspective.

An important intervention in the study of military and defence history, this will be an essential read for students, researchers, defence personnel, military academy cadets, as well as general readers.

1
INTRODUCTION

1. Historical background

The genesis of a naval force by the British in India can be traced back to the formation of the Indian Marine raised by East India Company (EIC) at Surat in 1612. The East India Company in India was established in the seventeenth century to serve its economic interests. They very soon realised the need for a naval force in India to protect their mercantile interests against the Portuguese, the Dutch and also the pirates who infested the coasts of India. Subsequently, in 1612, two of the East India Company’s merchant ships, the Dragon and Hoseander, and two smaller vessels were converted into fighting ships.¹ This small squadron was the birth of the Royal Indian Navy; it was called the Honorable East India Company’s Marine and was placed under the command of Captain Thomas Best.² These ships arrived off Surat, which was the headquarters of the Company at that time, in October 1612. After acquiring Bombay, the Company moved its headquarters on the Western Coast from Surat to Bombay. The Indian Marine also moved to Bombay.

The evolution of the Royal Indian Navy from the Indian Marine, Bombay Marine, Bombay Marine Corps, Indian Navy, Bombay Marine, Bengal Marine (non-combatant), His Majesty’s Indian Marine (a combatant force with two divisions at Bombay and Calcutta), Royal Indian Marine (combatant, reversion to a non-combatant role and again combatant) and Royal Indian Navy. Her Majesty’s Indian Marine was constituted as the Royal Indian Marine in 1892 with a strength of 240 British officers and 2,000 Indian sailors, and it functioned as a non-combatant force. The RIM did not make much of a contribution to India till the outbreak of First World War.³ Till 1914, the RIM was mainly concentrated on marine surveys, transportation of troops and the maintenance of lighthouses.

When the First World War broke out, the British Government realised the need for a combatant navy in the Indian Ocean. Subsequently the status of RIM was upgraded, and her ships were fitted with guns. During the war, RIM was utilised in various theatres of wars for transportation of Indian troops, arms, ammunitions and rations to Egypt, Iraq and East Africa.⁴ RIM ships landed troops in Mesopotamia, and its smaller ships, designed for operations in inland waters, rendered service in the Euphrates and Tigris rivers. During 1914–1918, the six ships of the Royal Indian Marine served as auxiliary cruisers, and the officers of the service served at sea with the Royal Navy in many theatres of war. The total manning strength of the RIM at that time was 240 officers, 60 warrant officers and 2,000 ratings.⁵ Without RIM the utilisation of Indian manpower and material in various theatres of war would not have been possible.

The post-war economic situation forced the RIM to revert to a non-combatant force. The post-war period witnessed a large demobilisation (including the reserve list). The RIM was once again reverted to its non-combatant role when the war ended in 1918. The RIM remained as a minor component of the Indian Army and its director was subordinated to the Army’s Commander-in-Chief.⁶ Till the beginning of the Second World War, the Royal Indian Marine was an amphibious force; the main tasks assigned to the RIM were marine survey, maintenance of lighthouses and transportation of troops, arms, ammunition and stores.

On 2 October 1934 the RIM was re-designated as the Royal Indian Navy. Prior to the Second World War, Britain’s Royal Navy was responsible for the overall maritime defence of India. The naval defence of India and its maritime commerce were taken over by the Royal Navy for this service The government of India had to pay an amount of £100,000 annually to the British Government.⁷ Many committees were formed between 1925 and 1939 to find the feasibility of a re-organisation of the navy in India but the British Government could not implement any of those recommendations. The outbreak of the unforeseen Second World War forced the British Government to expand the RIN, in haste, to protect the colonial interests in the Indian Ocean. During the war period the British followed a massive expansionist policy towards the RIN. By the end of the war, manpower, establishments and ships increased to almost fifteen to twenty times that of the pre-war situation. In the post-war economic situation the British went on to demobilise the massive naval force in India. The naval revolt of 1946 led the British realise that Indian Armed Forces could not be trusted anymore. Historians have different opinions about the nature and causes of this incident. However, there is a commonality in the views of most of the scholars that the post-war demobilisation and discrimination against the Indians in the RIN were the main causes of the ‘mutiny’.

The focus of my book is the crucial years when the Royal Indian Navy went through major phases of developments and change. In some way this book hopes to look at the course taken by the Navy in terms of attitude of the British towards the development of the Royal Indian Navy, the history of its subalterns, the Indian sailors. The Navy, being one of the largest Government employers, had to decide whom to recruit and on what basis. The Government had vast demographic resources at its disposal, so the naval authorities carried out debates and discussions on how get the best materials out of the countless communities of South Asia. Moreover, their perception about the importance of different indigenous groups within the Navy changed with the function of the Navy.

The aim of the book is also to show the various transitional phases of the Royal Indian Navy, what the Navy officers thought about various potential recruits in the subcontinents and how their beliefs and convictions shaped the establishment policy of the Raj, the growth of the RIN from a non-combat force to a full-fledged combat defence force during the war, discontent within the Navy which led to the revolt of 1946 and the reaction of political leaders towards it. At a broader level the book will examine five major phases in the history of the Royal Indian Navy. Finally the book talks about the partition of RIN, the question of Commonwealth and the final transfer of the Navy from the Royal Indian Navy under the Raj to the Indian Navy in Independent India.

2. Historiography

The period 1935–1950 has a vital role in the history of the world, especially in the case of the Indian subcontinent. It was the period of many major changes. This period witnessed many new developments and striking incidents like the rise of powers called Axis and Allied Powers, rise of armies, navies and air forces, the Second World War, the Pearl Harbour attack followed by the atomic massacre of millions of people, liberation of many nations from the century-old colonial rule at the end of the war. In the case of India, it was a period of transition. The struggle for freedom from the colonial regime was at its climax; without the concern for India, Britain declared the involvement of India in the Second World War and began the reorganisation of the armed forces in the colonial state. This period witnessed great recruitment of Indian manpower and the utilisation of the Indian economy for the imperialist war in the name of ‘the protection of India’. India’s contribution in the Second World War was appreciated by many British officials. When the war ended in 1945, the world scenario had changed. The socio-economic-political and military situation worsened in the post-war period; the armed forces did not remain untouched, and it led to many revolts in the armed forces. The RIN revolt of 1946 made a new chapter in the history of India. The British plans for the nationalisation of the armed forces were never realised due to the immediate plan for the partition of India and reconstitution of the armed forces. In the post-independence era, the Indian armed forces kept some of the senior British defence personnel for almost for a decade to fully nationalise the Indian armed forces.

Between 1930 and 1941, 15 native navies were raised in the British colonies to protect the imperial interest during the war. Britain could not have fought the Second World War without exploiting the men and material available in India. Historians have looked at this period from different angles. The studies of British policy in India between 1935 and 1950 are characterised by different schools of thought and ideologies. In 1945, when the Second World War was nearing the end, the Government of India set up an office to collect and collate material for writing the history of the operations conducted by the Indian Armed Forces in various theatres of War. This office was subsequently designated as the War Department Historical Section, and Major General T. N. Corbett was appointed as the Director. In August 1946 Brigadier Cordon took over as the Director. Meanwhile, in March 1946, the Section was shifted to Shimla as the climate of Delhi was not considered conducive for quality academic work. However, in 1951, the Section was shifted back to Delhi. Meanwhile, the partition of the country took place and the Section was re-designated as the Combined Inter-Services Historical Section (India and Pakistan). The writing of the history of the Second World War now turned out to be a joint effort of India and Pakistan. Efforts to write the history of the Second World War started in 1948 after Dr. Bisheshwar Prasad, a reputed academic, was appointed as the Director of the CIS Historical Section. Later this office was re-designated as the History Division under the Ministry of Defence. The Division eventually came out with a series of books on the contribution of the Indian Armed Forces in the Second World War. Most of these works mainly focus on the Indian Army in various theatres of war. The History Division has published 25 volumes covering not only the campaigns of the Indian Army but also the history of the Indian Air Force and the Corps of Engineers and a series of volumes on the medical services. The Royal Indian Navy, by Instructor Lieutenant D. J. E. Collins, is a unique work on the Royal Indian Navy.⁸ However it mainly focusses on the operational history of the RIN. Another work by the MoD History Division, Expansion of the Armed Forces and Defence Organisation, 1939–1945, by Sri Nandan Prasad, gives information on the development of the RIN during the Second World War.⁹ These two official history books by the History Division of the Ministry of Defence give the primary information but do not provide an academic perspective. Another work of MoD History Division by S. C. Gupta discusses the formation of Indian Air Force Volunteer Reserve (IAFVR), recruitment and training during wartime.¹⁰ He says that the Pownall Sub-Committee recommendation to form auxiliary Air Force units for the coast defence could not be given effect to for lack of funds. According to him “On the outbreak of war the immediate expansion of the Service resulted in an urgent need of officers, and their recruitment.”¹¹

In 1968, the Naval History Cell was created at Naval Headquarters, New Delhi, to document the history of the Indian Navy. Subsequently, the history of the Navy has been published in five volumes covering the period from 1945 to 2000. The official history of the Indian Navy, Under Two...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• CONTENTS
• List of figures
• List of tables
• Foreword
• Acknowledgements
• List of abbreviations
• 1 Introduction
• 2 Origin and development of RIN: post–First World War era (1920–1939)
• 3 Manpower and recruitment in the RIN during the war
• 4 Expansion of the Royal Indian Navy: growth of training and new establishments during the Second World War
• 5 Post-war plans, demobilisation, discontent and revolt
• 6 Indigenisation, partition, reconstitution and birth of a new Navy
• Bibliography
• Index