Bengal Infantry (Light Company, 65th Regiment) Full Dress

1846

Original hand-coloured aquatint on paper

12.5 x 9 in (32 x 23 cm)

Plate no. 21 from Costumes of the Indian Army 1844-49, Ackermann, 1846

Almost a quarter of the population of 'British India' lived in over a hundred semi-independent princely states who had entered into treaty relationships first with the East India Company and later with the Crown. These states maintained their own armed forces, usually supplied with British officers.

"The organisation of the Indian Army was radically different after the Mutiny to the way it was before. Every Bengal native infantry regiment either mutinied or was disbanded during or after the Indian Mutiny.

Understanding these regiments can be very confusing because they are known by their numbers and these changed frequently. The number of a regiment usually indicates it's age so that the 1st is the oldest, and the highest number is the newest, but in 1764 the regiments were re-numbered according to the seniority of their captain. This was to be the first of six re-numberings.

These units were called battalions up until 1781 when they became regiments. The 1st battalion was raised by Clive in Calcutta in 1757 and fought well at Plassey. Twenty-one battalions were raised by 1764 but the 2nd, 3rd and 5th were destroyed at Patna in 1763. After the 1764 re-numbering, there was a further re-number in 1775 according to which of three brigades they belonged. A further re-numbering occurred in 1781, 1784, 1796 and finally in 1824." (Source: BritishEmpire.co.uk, online)

"The 10th Jats were an infantry regiment of the British Indian Army. They could trace their origins to 1823, when they were known as the 1st Battalion, 33rd Bengal Native Infantry. Over the years they became known by a number of different titles. The 65th Bengal Native Infantry 1824–1861, the 10th Bengal Native Infantry 1861–1885, the 10th Bengal Infantry 1885–1897, the 10th Jat Bengal Infantry 1897–1901, the 10th Jat Infantry 1901–1903 and finally in 1903 the 10th Jats.

During this time the regiment served in China in the Second Opium War and the Third Anglo-Burmese War. During World War I they were in the 55th Indian Brigade, 18th Indian Division and served in the Mesopotamia Campaign.

The 65th BNI was one of two Bengal Native Infantry regiments which had accepted active service in China in 1857. Accordingly, both had escaped involvement in the Great Indian Mutiny of that year and were amongst the twelve "old" regiments of the East India Company's Bengal Army to survive into the new Indian Army.

After World War I the Indian government reformed the army again moving from single battalion regiments to multi battalion regiments. The 10th Jats now became the 3rd Battalion 9th Jats". (Source: Wikipedia, online)

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