Gurkha

Women washing clothes outdoors, in the Gurkha region of Nepal.

Member of any of several peoples living in the mountains of Nepal: the Gurung, Limbu, Magar, Rai, and Tamang, whose young men have been recruited since 1815 for the British and Indian armies. They are predominantly Tibeto-Mongolians, but their language is Khas, a dialect of a northern Indic language.

Driven out of Rajputana by Muslim invaders, they conquered Nepal 1767-68. The East India Company fought them in 1814; the company obtained possession of the southern slopes of the Himalayas, but recognized Nepal's independence.

All ten regiments of Gurkhas served in World War I, on the Western Front, in the Middle East, and on the Northwest Frontier of India. In World War II they fought in North Africa, Italy, Burma, and Malaya. When India and Pakistan became independent 1947, four of the Gurkha regiments were assigned to the British army, mainly for service in the Far East; the remaining six went into the Indian army.