In rural Nepal, thousands of boys and young men undergo rigorous military training. They aspire to become Gurkhas, some of the most feared and respected soldiers in the world, whose military prowess is so highly regarded that foreign militaries and police forces actively recruit them. While Gurkhas have been regularly recruited into the British, Malaysian, and Singaporean police forces and militaries, their biggest employer is the military of neighboring India, but that could change with recent modifications to hiring in the Indian armed forces.
Background
Since Indian independence from British rule in 1947, a tripartite agreement between the United Kingdom, India, and Nepal has allowed for the Gurkhas to be recruited into the Indian and British militaries. Out of 10 Gorkha regiments in the British Indian military, six regiments were transferred to the Indian military, while the remaining four were transferred to the British military to serve in their colonies in Singapore and Malaysia. For India, Gurkhas have served in every major military engagement since Indian independence, including India’s wars with Pakistan and China, as well as counter-insurgency operations against separatists and naxalites, regularly earning gallantry awards and honors.
The Gurkhas have played a huge role in linking India to Nepal in modern times, providing India with some of the most elite soldiers in the world, and Nepal with pensions and remittances from soldiers who earn more in the Indian military than the Nepalese military.
The Problem
However, this relationship may be weakening. Since June 2022, Prime Minister Narenda Modi’s government launched Agnipath, or ‘path of fire’ in Hindi, a new hiring scheme for the Indian army. The new plan replaces traditional military contracts for Indian and Nepali soldiers that lasted more than 10 years with four-year tenures for men and women aged 17-21, with only the top 25 percent of performers being retained for longer contracts. The rest would be released without pension, but with a lump sum close to $15,000. This has led to major protests in the Indian states of Rajasthan, Haryana, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, and Bihar, where most Indian soldiers come from, even leading to the offices of the ruling BJP being set on fire. In Nepal, anger over the new scheme has led to Kathmandu pausing the recruitment of Gurkhas into the India military since August 2022.
Many young men in Nepal are unsure of their employment with the changes to Indian hiring. Retired honorary captain Krishna Bahadur Ale, a Gurkha who served with the Indian military for 30 years, laments that many will “end up unemployed,” and will have to look to foreign militaries as the Nepalese military’s salaries and pensions are low.
While many young Nepali men are now looking towards employment in the British and Singaporean armed forces, a concerning number are also seeking jobs in the Russian military as it wages war against Ukraine. This trend may be more common among Nepali soldiers with a history in the Maoist insurgency that waged a civil war against state forces from 1996 to 2006 and later joined the Russian military out of both financial and ideological motives. While many of these mercenaries lack proper Gurkha training, it remains a concerning development for both Nepal and the West as it seeks to continue support for Ukraine.
Why the changes to recruitment in the Indian Military?
The Indian military serves two roles for the nation: defense and employment. In regards to defense, the Indian military is widely regarded as the fourth most powerful in the world, after the United States, Russia, and China. The Indian military also serves as a major employer in the country, with 1.4 million active personnel, making it the largest volunteer military in the world. India also has the world’s third largest defense expenditure. However, despite having a massive and experienced force, the Indian military is severely restricted by a lack of modern equipment. The Indian Army has reported that 68 percent of its equipment is obsolete. India has struggled to fund the modernization of their equipment and weaponry, as more than half of its army expenditure goes to salaries and pensions. Thus, New Delhi hopes that by reducing the number of soldiers it hires, it can direct more funding towards modernizing equipment, both through the acquisition of arms and equipment from Russia, Israel, France, and the United States, as well as through funding domestic defense manufacturing. While this would boost the military’s defensive capabilities, it leaves many Indians, as well as Gurkhas, without job prospects.
Dangers of the new plan
The new plan leaves many Indians and Nepalis who had sought jobs in the Indian military unemployed. More concerningly, there are security concerns in both India and Nepal over the prospect of unemployed young men with military training potentially forming gangs and armed groups. The pause in Gurkha hiring further strains the Indo-Nepalese relationship, especially alongside Beijing’s overtures to Kathmandu and border disputes.
Solutions
The Indian government is not wrong to recognize that it is spending a disproportionately large share of its defense expenditure on salaries and pensions of personnel at the expense of acquiring modern arms and equipment. However, the shift from contracts that lasted over 10 years to a guarantee of only four years is a drastic change, particularly in the aftermath of the pandemic which already left many Indians and Nepalis reeling from unemployment.
The Indian government should seek more gradual shifts towards shorter contracts, in contrast to this sudden modification to hiring. While there have been discussions about providing Gurkhas with exceptions from the Agnipath scheme, this will likely lead to domestic anger due to prioritizing foreign citizens over Indians. Nonetheless, India must recognize the soft power it wields over China in Nepal through the Gurkha hiring scheme, which promotes people-to-people ties between Indians and Nepalis, and aligns Nepali military and economic interests more towards India. The Indian government should not let this influence go to waste.
The Indian military could further assist both Indian and Gurkha soldiers it contracts by providing them with skills that would enable them to seek employment outside of the military as well as contribute to the modernization of equipment and infrastructure. These could involve jobs in maintenance, manufacturing, and cybersecurity. Gurkhas could still be allowed to settle in India in spite of having shorter contracts. Pathways towards future employment must be provided in order to sustain a new system of shorter military contracts.
Western nations can provide employment opportunities to Gurkhas to prevent them from seeking employment in the Russian military. This could be spearheaded by the United Kingdom, who already has a hiring agreement with Nepal. Western nations could also sanction Russian military recruiters targeting Nepali mercenaries.
Conclusion
India’s new military recruitment scheme leaves many Gurkhas in Nepal concerned for the future, and jeopardizes a historically close relationship between India and Nepal. Through more graduate changes to contract lengths, pathways to jobs at the end of military contracts, and expanding hiring opportunities to prevent Gurkhas from joining aggressive militaries, it may be possible to restore stability to the Indo-Nepalese relationships and world conflicts.