Madras Regiment is the precursor to modern Indian Army: Historian

Ramachandran said that the Battle of Colachel in 1741, witnessed the Indian Army’s oldest surviving military unit – the Ninth Battalion – in action, where for the first and last time, a native force routed a colonial power. 

“Travancore Maharaja Marthanda Varma’s expansion plans conflicted with the Dutch’s spice trade dealings with these states. The Dutch Governor had threatened the king with military action, if he proceeded with his annexation. Varma and his personal guard, the Travancore Nair brigade or the Nair pattalam fought the Dutch forces led by Captain Eustachius De Lannoy in the town of Colachel. The Nair pattalam knew the land well and used stealth force to crushingly defeat the Dutch, weakening their colonial aspirations in India. In fact, Captain Lannoy was taken prisoner and the king gave him an option to either be killed or train his forces in western warfare. Lannoy chose the latter and the Nair pattalam went on to become the Madras Regiment’s 9th Battalion and was never disbanded in all its history,” said the founder and managing trustee of Colours of Glory, a non-profit to create awareness on India’s military heritage. 

The tradition of recruiting sepoys into the force started with the French, who used this tactic in the Battle of Adyar in 1746, between the French East India Company and Nawab of Arcot’s forces over Fort St George – an extension of the Anglo-French War in Europe. “Led by Captain Louis Paradis, the French and the trained Indian sepoys routed Nawab's army supporting the British. The French started the trend of sepoy recruitment which worked for them and the British, later, adopted this system,” added Ramachandran. 

The Indian sepoy army played a key role in the Battle of Arcot (1751), when the British defended the Nawab's fort against a French-backed army of a rival prince who wanted to overthrow the Nawab., said the historian.

“The modern day Indian Army owes its beginnings to the 1758 Siege of Madras, when Stringer Lawrence officially raised the Madras Regiment in Fort St George, when the city came under attack by French troops led by General Lally, which ended in British victory,” concluded Ramachandran.