The British invented martial race categories to divide and control Indian populations

Evidence

After the historic Mutiny of 1857, in which Indian soldiers recruited by the British East India Company started an uprising that led to widespread civilian rebellions, the British reorganized the Indian army along the lines of the fictitious ”martial races,” categories that the British defined through biological and cultural notions of race and masculinity (Puri 1983, 19; Streets 2004). Drawing on racialist theories and colonial knowledge, for example, the British defined Punjabi Sikhs as bold warriors, in contrast to Tamils from southern India, who were defined as weak and untrustworthy. Further, recruits from the Punjab Province were viewed as strong fighters yet docile in nature, making them ideal subjects who would follow orders, particularly when policing Indian civilians. Punjabis’ experiences fighting abroad on colonial military expeditions were subsequently transposed onto worker-recruiting schemes (Metcalf 2007). — Junaid Rana, Terrifying Muslims, 485

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to reading on how colonial classification systems (ethnology) were used for governance — parallels the caste/race classification literature (Dirks, Cohn). — connects to: British colonial rule created ethnoracial divisions where pluralistic communal life existed. — David Theo Goldberg, The Threat of Race: Reflections on…, 556
• SEED: An essay angle: modern immigration and hiring preferences still operate on similar invented ‘character’ typologies — comparing Victorian martial-race theory to contemporary tech-sector nationality-based talent tiers.