Indian Army and Volunteers During World War One

In 1914, the Indian Army was the largest volunteer army in the world with a total strength of 240,000 men and by November 1918 this number increased significantly to 548,311 men.  This field force was divided into two armies: The Northern Army which stretched from the North-West Frontier to Bengal with five divisions and three brigades under command and the Southern Army which stretched from Baluchistan to southern India and it in turn had four divisions under command and two formations outside the subcontinent. The two armies contained 39 cavalry regiments, 138 infantry battalions (including 20 Gurkha), a joint cavalry-infantry unit the Corps of Guides, three sapper regiments and 12 mountain artillery batteries.

The normal annual recruitment for the Indian army was 15,000 men, during the course of the war over 800,000 men volunteered for the army and more than 400,000 volunteered for non-combatant roles. In total almost 1.3 million men had volunteered for service by 1918. One million Indian troops served overseas during the war, of these 62,000 died and another 67,000 were wounded. In total, 74,187 Indian soldiers died in World War I.
 

The Indian Corps won 13,000 medals for gallantry including 12 Victoria Crosses. Khudadad Khan won the Corps first Victoria Cross. Due to the massive cost of the war, India’s economy was pushed to near bankruptcy.