7/30/2019 Gurkhas-Trouble in the Rear

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The GurkhasTrouble in the rear

Apr 17th 2008 | KATHMANDUFrom The Economistprint editionNepal's newly-elected Maoists want to stop their

compatriots serving abroad

TO SENTIMENTAL Britons, the protest waged outsidean asylum and immigration tribunal building in London onApril 15th was affecting. A dozen retired Gurkhasnatives of

Nepal with an historic dispensation to serve in Britain's armysilently saluted a portrait of Queen Elizabeth II.

Inside the building, an appeal was being heard on behalfof a former comrade who wanted permission to reside inBritain. It is one of many recent test cases for those who seekthe same rights for former Gurkhas that other old soldiersenjoy. Meanwhile, back in Nepal, the Gurkhas face troublefrom the rear.

If Nepal's rulers-elect, the Communist Party of Nepal(Maoist), saw the old Gurkhas' stand, they must have shiveredin their revolutionary socks. A former guerrilla army, whichsurprisingly won an election on April 10th, the Maoists want toban Nepalis from soldiering for foreign powers. Having the

citizenship of Nepal and serving in a foreign army is totallyunacceptable, says the party's deputy leader, BaburamBhattarai. They are mercenaries.

They are not. The Gurkhas, of whom 3,500 currentlyserve Britain, have a special legal status in an army in whichthey have fought for 200 years. A legacy of an imperial past,another 50,000 serve in India's army and 2,000 in Singapore'spolice. Tens of thousands of former Gurkhas work for privatesecurity firms. Imbued with the motto Better to die than be acoward, British Gurkhas especially are considered superbinfantrymen.

None of this would trouble the Maoists, who are alreadyabolishing Nepal's monarchy. But opposition from centralNepalis probably will deter them. In a poor region of SouthAsia's poorest country, Gurkha service is hugely popular. Lastyear the British army recruited just 230 Gurkhas from 17,500applicants. The squaddies begin their service on 14,000($28,000) a year, on the same pay scale and with the samepension as any British soldier. After they retire, the longer-serving will also receive a British old-age pensionpayable inBritain, where they may settle, or in Nepal. The chief ofNepal's army, by contrast, earns 275,000 rupees (2,200) ayear.

Over the past decade, Britain's Gurkhas have beentransformed. Formerly a light-infantry force based in HongKong, the regiment was disjointed from the rest of the army.Now based in Britain, it is an integral part of a more mobile

forceindeed, as the only infantry regiment that is alwaysfully manned, the Gurkhas often make up the numbers forothers, in Bosnia, Afghanistan and Iraq.

The standard rights and pay that British Gurkhas nowenjoyas a result of a creeping upgrade, culminating in finalequalisation in 2006partly reflects this change. It is also areward for the zealous campaigning of many retired Gurkhas,like those in London this week. That may encourage them intheir efforts to win British visas for about 2,000 formercomrades deemed to have retired too long ago to warrant them.But they should consider ditching the queen's picturelest itmake Maoists mad.