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On September 2nd, 2010, 35-year-old Bishnu
Shrestha gazed out the window of a Maurya

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Express train as it chugged through the dense
jungles of West Bengal.

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Around midnight, the train came to a screeching
halt as gangsters poured aboard, armed with

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knives, clubs and firearms.

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Stomping up and down the carriage, they began
extracting cash, jewelry, laptops and watches

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from the terrified passengers.

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Initially, Shrestha kept his head down.

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It was only when the hijackers put their hands
on a helpless young woman that he could no

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longer stand idly by.

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He leapt up, drew his kukri knife and threw
himself upon the fiends.

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In the ensuing melee, Shrestha single-handedly
killed three gangsters and injured eight more,

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causing the rest to flee.

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Who was this humble superhero, whose badassery
could serve as the inspiration for a Die Hard

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movie?

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He was a Gurkha, a member of arguably the
single most elite fighting force of the 20th

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century.

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In this presentation, we will explore the
history of a revered community of modern warriors

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with a reputation that surpasses the Ancient
Spartans.

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Welcome to our video on the friendly, chipper,
and utterly fearless Gurkha Brigade, whose

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motto is “better to die than be a coward.”

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Who are the Gurkhas?

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Indian Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw once was
quoted as saying: “If a man says he is not

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afraid of dying, he is either lying, or he
is a Gurkha.”

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The Gurkhas are elite soldiers native to Nepal,
a mountainous country which has long existed

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at the crossroads of the great Empires of
Eurasia.

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They are most famous for their 200-year history
of foreign service in the British Army and

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other global military forces, in which they
have earned a reputation as arguably the most

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reliable, disciplined and fearless warriors
of the 20th century.

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The title of ‘Gurkha’ is derived from
the historical Nepalese Kingdom of Gorkha,

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but has since evolved to refer exclusively
to Nepali nationals serving in a foreign army

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or police unit.

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Since time immemorial, the frigid peaks and
steep valleys of the Himalayan mountains have

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incubated many hardy peoples who developed
robust martial societies in an unforgiving

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high-altitude environment.

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A culturally diverse fighting force, the Gurkhas
are drawn from across Nepal’s many distinct

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ethnic minorities, most of whom speak their
own unique language and practice a unique

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variation of the Buddhist or Hindu faith.

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However, all Gurkhas are fluent in both English
and the national language of Nepal, an Indo-Aryan

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tongue of Sanskrit heritage.

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With an average height of five feet and three
inches, the Gurkhas are the world’s fiercest

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short kings.

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They are deadliest in CQC, wielding their
iconic weapon, the kukri knife, with fatal

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finesse.

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The Gurkha’s prowess with the curved blade
is the stuff of legend and spawned this amusing

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wartime gag: Locked in close combat in the
trenches, a squat Gurkha takes a swing at

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a tall German with his kukri.

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The German appears to side-step the swipe.

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“Ha!”

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He taunts, “You missed!”

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To this, the Gurkha wipes a drop of blood
from his knife and replies, “Shake your

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head.”

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An insanely rigorous training regimen ensures
that the Gurkhas are among the most physically

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fit humans in the world.

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In order to even qualify for training camp,
each prospective Gurkha has to be able to

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perform physical feats that would make a prime
Rocky Balboa look geriatric.

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These include performing 75 bench jumps in
one minute, 70 sit-ups in two minutes, and

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running three miles up the steep foothills
of the Himalayas while carrying 55 pounds

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of rocks on their backs in under an hour.

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Every year, nearly 28,000 young Nepalese men
compete for just 200 spots in the British

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Army’s Brigade of Gurkhas, ensuring only
the toughest of the tough are inducted into

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the modern world’s most feared fighting
force.

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Examples of Gurkha Heroism
Gurkha history is utterly inundated with insane

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stories of military heroism, and we would
be remiss not to retell some of them here.

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In 1945, Lachhiman Gurung of the 8th Gurkha
Rifles was cut off and encircled by over 200

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Japanese soldiers in the Burmese jungle.

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Alone in a trench with only two other comrades,
he held off the enemy hordes singlehandedly.

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Twice, the Japanese lobbed grenades into his
trench, and twice, he managed to return them

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to sender.

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A third grenade landed.

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This time, when he picked it up, it exploded
in his hand, blowing off most of his fingers

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and severely wounding his face, torso and
right leg.

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Disregarding his mortal wounds and operating
his rifle one-handed, the Nepalese warrior

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fought off wave after wave of Japanese assaults
for four hours, all the while screaming, “Come

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and fight a Gurkha!”

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By the time the enemy retreated, he had amassed
a final kill count of 31.

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He survived his wounds, was awarded the Victoria
Cross, and lived to the age of 92.

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Six months earlier, Tul Bahadur Pun of the
6th Gurkha Rifles was advancing on a Japanese-held

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railway bridge when his entire platoon section
was wiped out.

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As the last man standing, Rifleman Pun charged
alone into a hailstorm of enemy fire, barreling

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ahead over thirty yards of open ground while
ankle-deep in mud, weaving through shell holes

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and leaping over fallen trees.

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Miraculously, he reached the enemy position
without being hit.

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Leaping into a bunker, he killed four Japanese
soldiers with his Bren Gun and another three

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with his kukri.

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He then gave accurate supporting fire from
the bunker, which allowed the remainder of

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his platoon to advance.

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Rifleman Pun was awarded the Victoria Cross
and lived until the age of 88.

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Gurkha families are often warrior dynasties,
with sons and grandsons striving to live up

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to the deeds of fathers and grandfathers.

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As it turned out, Rifleman Pun’s grandson
would more than live up to the legacy of his

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fearless grandfather.

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In 2010, Acting Sergeant Dipprasad Pun was
standing guard on a roof checkpoint in Helmand

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province, Afghanistan, when he found himself
surrounded and under attack by up to 30 Taliban

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fighters armed with AK-47s and RPGs.

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Believing he was about to die, Sergeant Pun
resolved to kill as many of the enemy as he

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could before he went down.

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Fending off attackers from three sides, he
fired more than 400 machine gun rounds, launched

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17 grenades, and detonated a mine.

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When he ran out of ammo, he resorted to using
his gun’s tripod as a club, smashing it

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against an insurgent’s skull as he scaled
the roof.

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Singlehandedly, Sergeant Pun fended off the
attack and was awarded the Conspicuous Gallantry

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Cross by Queen Elizabeth.

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Origins of the Gurkha - The Unification of
Nepal

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Having introduced the Gurkhas and provided
a sampling of the action-movie heroics they

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are capable of, let us explore their origins
and how they came to serve in the British

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Army.

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The story begins in the year 1743, with the
ascension of Prithvi Narayan Shah to the throne

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of the tiny Kingdom of Gorkha, one of many
petty statelets strewn about the Himalayan

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foothills at the time.

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Prithvi Narayan soon came into his own as
one of the greatest visionaries in the history

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of the Indian Subcontinent.

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Embarking on a mission to unify all of Nepal,
he slowly conquered over 54 other principalities

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throughout the Himalayas, training up one
of the most well-drilled, disciplined and

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experienced armies in Asia in the process.

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However, Gorkha was not the only rising power
in the Indian Subcontinent at the time.

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By the late 18th century, the British conquest
of India was well underway, spearheaded by

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a private megacorporation, the British East
India Company.

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Back in 1757, this hydra of capitalism defeated
the last independent Nawab of Bengal at the

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Battle of Plassey, annexing all of Bengal
in the aftermath.

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This put the Gorkha Kingdom and the East India
Company on each other’s borders, causing

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their spheres of influence to overlap.

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In 1767, Prithvi Narayan Shah set his sights
on conquering the Kathmandu Valley.

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Seeking to curtail the expansion of their
regional rival, the British deployed a 2,500-man

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expedition under one Captain George Kinloch
to prevent Kathmandu’s capture.

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In the hilly jungle province of Sindhuli,
the Gorkhas ambushed their foe, pouring out

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of the thicket and wreaking havoc among the
enemy formation with kukri in hand.

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It was the first time that British redcoats
had faced the Gorkhas in battle, and it would

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be an experience they would not soon forget.

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Out of Kinloch’s 2500 men, less than 1000
returned to Bengal alive.

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With the East India Company knocked out of
the picture, King Prithvi Narayan Shah captured

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Kathmandu in 1768 and made it into his royal
capital.

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The great Nepalese conqueror-King died in
1775, and would go down in history as the

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man who had thoroughly humbled the British
Empire and unified all of Nepal.

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The Anglo-Nepalese War of 1814-1816
For the next few decades, the Kingdom of Gorkha

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and the British megacorporation maintained
an uneasy peace, but it was only a matter

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of time before their next clash.

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In November of 1814, during the reign of King
Girvan Yuddha Bikram Shah, an escalating frontier

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dispute led to the second and final showdown
between the two powers: the Anglo-Nepalese

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War.

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According to historians, the Gorkha army at
this time numbered around 12,000 to 14,000

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strong.

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To contend with this force, the East India
Company mustered an expedition of over 50,000

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men.

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That the British levied such a massive army
in preparation for their push into Nepal displayed

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just how highly they regarded the fighting
skills of their mountain-dwelling opponents,

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Kinloch’s doomed expedition no doubt still
fresh in their minds.

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As expected, the East India Company’s advance
into the Himalayas was slow, brutal and bloody.

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Despite being heavily outnumbered, the Gorkhali
army put up an extremely effective resistance,

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utilizing the mountainous terrain of their
native homeland to stymie the advance of their

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numerically superior foes.

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The first major battle of the Anglo-Nepalese
war took place at the fortress of Nalapani,

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where Gorkha captain Balbhadra Kunwar and
a garrison of 600 Nepalese men, women and

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children held the line against British General
Rollo Gillespie’s force of over 3,500 men.

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Outnumbered seven to one, Balbhadra withstood
the British bombardment for over a month and

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even managed to kill General Gillespie in
action.

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Throughout the battle, many British soldiers
developed a begrudging respect for their lionhearted

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enemies, not just for their fighting spirit
but for the honour they displayed in battle.

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James Baillie Fraser, a Scottish adventurer
accompanying Gillespies’ division, wrote:

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“There was here no cruelty to wounded or
to prisoners; no poisoned arrows were used;

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no wells or waters were poisoned; no rancorous
spirit of revenge seemed to animate them:

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they fought us in fair conflict, like men;
and, in intervals of actual combat, showed

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us a liberal courtesy worthy of a more enlightened
people.”

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The bill the British paid for Nalapani amounted
to over a thousand casualties and the life

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of an experienced commander.

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This pyrrhic victory would set the tone for
the rest of the war, in which the East India

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Company would continue to make slow, incremental
and costly advances into Gorkha territory,

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all the while growing increasingly impressed
by the gallant resistance put up by their

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fearless yet noble enemies.

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Indeed, the Gorkhas fought on with seemingly
no comprehension of their own mortality.

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In April of 1815, at the Battle of Deuthal,
74-year-old Gorkha General Bhakti Thapa repeatedly

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threw himself headlong into British cannon
fire until he and his warriors had been mown

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down to the last man.

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Out of respect for this old man’s incredible
courage, the British wrapped his body in an

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expensive shawl and ensured it was returned
to his people with due honours.

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The Treaty of Sugauli - The Gurkhas Join the
British Army

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Despite their seemingly inexhaustible font
of courage, the Gorkha Kingdom was eventually

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ground down by the British Empires’ superior
manpower and firepower.

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In March of 1816, the Anglo-Nepalese war came
to an end with the signing of the Treaty of

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Sugauli, which forced the Kingdom of Gorkha
to cede around a fourth of its recently conquered

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territory to the East India Company, reducing
it to the borders that mark present-day Nepal.

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Although the Nepalese war effort had been
a losing one, they had fought fiercely enough

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to maintain their independence, and would
remain a free nation even as the British extended

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their rule across the entire rest of the Indian
Subcontinent.

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However, while Nepal would not be colonized
directly, there was still one further price

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to be paid for their defiance.

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Incredibly impressed by the tenacity of the
Gorkha soldiers who had fought them so bravely,

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the British made it a term of the peace that
the Kings of Gorkha would have to allow British

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recruiters to roam the Nepalese countryside
and encourage their able-bodied warriors to

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volunteer in the British Army.

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In the British narrative, the creation of
the Brigade of Gurkhas is considered an event

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to be celebrated.

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Peace had been made with a gallant foe who
they had come to respect, and henceforth,

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Gurkha and Briton would no longer be enemies,
but fight side by side as comrades-in-arms.

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However, from the Nepalese perspective, this
watershed moment is often cast in a more sombre

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light.

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Tim Gurung, a modern Nepalese writer and Gurkha
veteran, claims that the policy of recruiting

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young Nepalese men into the British army “not
only took the sting out of the Gorkhali Army

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but also made the country into a toothless
tiger and crippled it for the foreseeable

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future.”

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“By depleting Nepal of its youth and able
men for generations,” Gurung says, Nepal

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would “never again be able to raise its
head against the British.”

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Gurung’s words are important to remember.

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For, as captivating as stories of Gurkha invincibility
are, we must remember that, at least originally,

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they were hired mercenaries serving an Imperialist
power in colonial wars often fought to subjugate

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the homelands of indigenous peoples, and that
this has resulted in the Gurkhas having a

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complex and controversial legacy both in their
own homeland and beyond.

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History of Gurkha Military Service
Indeed, the Gurkha’s reputation among the

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British public for loyalty and reliability
began coming into form during the Great Revolt

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of 1857, when a massive uprising against the
British East India Company erupted across

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the Indian Subcontinent.

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As some of the only native troops who remained
loyal to the British, the Gurkhas played a

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significant role in putting down the insurrection.

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From the end of the Great Revolt to the start
of World War I, British Gurkha Regiments were

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deployed to fight in colonial wars in Afghanistan,
Burma, Tibet, and China.

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Throughout all these campaigns, the Gurkhas
slowly cultivated their reputation as some

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of the most resilient, adaptable and indomitable
soldiers in the known world.

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Throughout the First World War, over 200,000
Gurkhas served in the British Army.

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They fought with all the discipline and bravery
that had come to be expected of them, suffering

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around 20,000 casualties and receiving almost
2,000 gallantry awards for feats of both individual

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and regimental heroism.

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The Gurkhas threw themselves against the Germans
in the trenches of Ypres and Loos, and bloodied

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their kukri against the Turks at the meat
grinder of Gallipoli, where they were among

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the first to arrive and the last to leave.

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Throughout the Second World War, over 250,000
Gurkhas served in almost every theatre of

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battle, suffering around 32,000 casualties.

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They fought Hitler’s Nazis and Mussolini’s
Fascists in Syria, North Africa, Sicily and

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Greece, while bloodying the nose of Imperial
Japan in Burma and Singapore.

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Earlier in this video, we told the stories
Lachhiman Gurung and Tul Bahadur Pun, two

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Gurkhas whose insane feats of bravery against
the Japanese in the Burmese jungle earned

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them the Victoria Cross.

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These were just two of a mind boggling 2,734
bravery awards the Gurkhas earned throughout

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World War Two.

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After India achieved its independence, the
British lost their monopoly on Gurkha invincibility

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when some of the Gurkha regiments that had
formerly formed part of the British colonial

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army in India were transferred to the newly
independent Indian army.

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Meanwhile, in Singapore, a unit of British
Army Gurkhas was formed as an riot-control

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and counter-terrorism wing of the local police
force in 1949, and played a crucial role in

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stabilizing the city-state in its turbulent
road to independence.

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The Gurkha regiments that remained in the
British army continued to see action in every

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conflict the United Kingdom took part in.

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They were in Cyprus in 1974, the Falklands
in 1982, participated in the Gulf War of 1991

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and were deployed into Afghanistan in 2001.

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Legacy of the Gurkhas
After over 200 years of loyal service to the

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British crown, the Gurkhas have undoubtedly
been immortalized as some of the modern era’s

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most lionized soldiers, with a reputation
of immortality that rivals the ancient Spartans.

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However, despite being celebrated as heroes
by the British public, their relationship

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with the British government has not been quite
as rosy.

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In retirement, the Gurkhas have long been
subject to unequal treatment by their British

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paymasters, their military pensions only a
fraction of what British veterans of equal

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rank received.

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Moreover, Gurkha veterans seeking to immigrate
and live in the UK, a country they had fought

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and killed for, faced significant barriers
to entry.

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After decades of protests, the British government
agreed in 2007 to start providing pay and

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pensions on par with British soldiers.

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Then, in 2009, the House of Commons passed
a motion allowing all Gurkha veterans the

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right to residence in the UK.

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In their home country of Nepal, the Gurkhas
are considered in some circles to be a source

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of national shame, a consistent drain on the
country’s best and brightest, and a major

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contributor to economic stagnation back home
. However, despite the controversies, many

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in Nepal hold the Gurkhas in high regard,
and take pride in the reputation for fearlessness

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and invincibility they have earned for the
Nepalese people on the world stage.

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Thus, it seems that for the foreseeable future,
young men throughout Nepal will continue to

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enlist in foreign Gurkha brigades, where they
will cultivate themselves into some of the

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physically and mentally toughest people on
the planet, living up to the legacy of their

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Gurkha fathers and grandfathers as the fiercest
soldiers of the modern age.

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