WEBVTT 00:00:05.639 --> 00:00:11.859 On September 2nd, 2010, 35-year-old Bishnu Shrestha gazed out the window of a Maurya 00:00:11.859 --> 00:00:16.570 Express train as it chugged through the dense jungles of West Bengal. 00:00:16.570 --> 00:00:21.829 Around midnight, the train came to a screeching halt as gangsters poured aboard, armed with 00:00:21.829 --> 00:00:24.348 knives, clubs and firearms. 00:00:24.349 --> 00:00:29.429 Stomping up and down the carriage, they began extracting cash, jewelry, laptops and watches 00:00:29.429 --> 00:00:31.239 from the terrified passengers. 00:00:31.239 --> 00:00:34.339 Initially, Shrestha kept his head down. 00:00:34.340 --> 00:00:38.359 It was only when the hijackers put their hands on a helpless young woman that he could no 00:00:38.359 --> 00:00:40.200 longer stand idly by. 00:00:40.200 --> 00:00:44.670 He leapt up, drew his kukri knife and threw himself upon the fiends. 00:00:44.670 --> 00:00:50.640 In the ensuing melee, Shrestha single-handedly killed three gangsters and injured eight more, 00:00:50.640 --> 00:00:52.119 causing the rest to flee. 00:00:52.119 --> 00:00:57.390 Who was this humble superhero, whose badassery could serve as the inspiration for a Die Hard 00:00:57.390 --> 00:00:58.390 movie? 00:00:58.390 --> 00:01:03.899 He was a Gurkha, a member of arguably the single most elite fighting force of the 20th 00:01:03.899 --> 00:01:04.900 century. 00:01:04.900 --> 00:01:09.650 In this presentation, we will explore the history of a revered community of modern warriors 00:01:09.650 --> 00:01:13.140 with a reputation that surpasses the Ancient Spartans. 00:01:13.140 --> 00:01:18.079 Welcome to our video on the friendly, chipper, and utterly fearless Gurkha Brigade, whose 00:01:18.079 --> 00:01:20.719 motto is “better to die than be a coward.” 00:01:20.719 --> 00:01:26.500 This video is made available for free thanks to our Youtube Members and Patrons. 00:01:26.500 --> 00:01:30.569 We fund our free content 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content, a spot in our lively discord server, and behind 00:02:10.489 --> 00:02:12.330 the scenes info and goodies. 00:02:12.330 --> 00:02:16.890 We rely on our backers to support our growing team pumping out these videos, so thank you 00:02:16.889 --> 00:02:20.609 to everyone already involved, and we hope you’ll consider joining in too. 00:02:20.610 --> 00:02:22.190 Who are the Gurkhas? 00:02:22.189 --> 00:02:26.909 Indian Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw once was quoted as saying: “If a man says he is not 00:02:26.909 --> 00:02:31.219 afraid of dying, he is either lying, or he is a Gurkha.” 00:02:31.219 --> 00:02:36.639 The Gurkhas are elite soldiers native to Nepal, a mountainous country which has long existed 00:02:36.639 --> 00:02:39.399 at the crossroads of the great Empires of Eurasia. 00:02:39.400 --> 00:02:44.930 They are most famous for their 200-year history of foreign service in the British Army and 00:02:44.930 --> 00:02:50.090 other global military forces, in which they have earned a reputation as arguably the most 00:02:50.090 --> 00:02:54.759 reliable, disciplined and fearless warriors of the 20th century. 00:02:54.759 --> 00:02:59.399 The title of ‘Gurkha’ is derived from the historical Nepalese Kingdom of Gorkha, 00:02:59.400 --> 00:03:04.569 but has since evolved to refer exclusively to Nepali nationals serving in a foreign army 00:03:04.568 --> 00:03:06.259 or police unit. 00:03:06.259 --> 00:03:11.120 Since time immemorial, the frigid peaks and steep valleys of the Himalayan mountains have 00:03:11.120 --> 00:03:16.759 incubated many hardy peoples who developed robust martial societies in an unforgiving 00:03:16.759 --> 00:03:18.859 high-altitude environment. 00:03:18.860 --> 00:03:24.090 A culturally diverse fighting force, the Gurkhas are drawn from across Nepal’s many distinct 00:03:24.090 --> 00:03:28.830 ethnic minorities, most of whom speak their own unique language and practice a unique 00:03:28.830 --> 00:03:31.590 variation of the Buddhist or Hindu faith. 00:03:31.590 --> 00:03:37.420 However, all Gurkhas are fluent in both English and the national language of Nepal, an Indo-Aryan 00:03:37.419 --> 00:03:39.869 tongue of Sanskrit heritage. 00:03:39.870 --> 00:03:44.120 With an average height of five feet and three inches, the Gurkhas are the world’s fiercest 00:03:44.120 --> 00:03:45.530 short kings. 00:03:45.530 --> 00:03:50.250 They are deadliest in CQC, wielding their iconic weapon, the kukri knife, with fatal 00:03:50.250 --> 00:03:51.500 finesse. 00:03:51.500 --> 00:03:56.280 The Gurkha’s prowess with the curved blade is the stuff of legend and spawned this amusing 00:03:56.280 --> 00:04:01.590 wartime gag: Locked in close combat in the trenches, a squat Gurkha takes a swing at 00:04:01.590 --> 00:04:03.479 a tall German with his kukri. 00:04:03.479 --> 00:04:05.829 The German appears to side-step the swipe. 00:04:05.830 --> 00:04:06.830 “Ha!” 00:04:06.830 --> 00:04:07.990 He taunts, “You missed!” 00:04:07.990 --> 00:04:13.239 To this, the Gurkha wipes a drop of blood from his knife and replies, “Shake your 00:04:13.239 --> 00:04:14.239 head.” 00:04:14.239 --> 00:04:18.699 An insanely rigorous training regimen ensures that the Gurkhas are among the most physically 00:04:18.699 --> 00:04:20.750 fit humans in the world. 00:04:20.750 --> 00:04:25.189 In order to even qualify for training camp, each prospective Gurkha has to be able to 00:04:25.189 --> 00:04:30.319 perform physical feats that would make a prime Rocky Balboa look geriatric. 00:04:30.319 --> 00:04:35.719 These include performing 75 bench jumps in one minute, 70 sit-ups in two minutes, and 00:04:35.720 --> 00:04:40.520 running three miles up the steep foothills of the Himalayas while carrying 55 pounds 00:04:40.519 --> 00:04:43.810 of rocks on their backs in under an hour. 00:04:43.810 --> 00:04:49.839 Every year, nearly 28,000 young Nepalese men compete for just 200 spots in the British 00:04:49.839 --> 00:04:54.619 Army’s Brigade of Gurkhas, ensuring only the toughest of the tough are inducted into 00:04:54.620 --> 00:04:56.879 the modern world’s most feared fighting force. 00:04:56.879 --> 00:05:00.629 Examples of Gurkha Heroism Gurkha history is utterly inundated with insane 00:05:00.629 --> 00:05:06.339 stories of military heroism, and we would be remiss not to retell some of them here. 00:05:06.339 --> 00:05:13.149 In 1945, Lachhiman Gurung of the 8th Gurkha Rifles was cut off and encircled by over 200 00:05:13.149 --> 00:05:15.909 Japanese soldiers in the Burmese jungle. 00:05:15.910 --> 00:05:20.289 Alone in a trench with only two other comrades, he held off the enemy hordes singlehandedly. 00:05:20.288 --> 00:05:25.099 Twice, the Japanese lobbed grenades into his trench, and twice, he managed to return them 00:05:25.100 --> 00:05:26.100 to sender. 00:05:26.100 --> 00:05:28.060 A third grenade landed. 00:05:28.060 --> 00:05:32.860 This time, when he picked it up, it exploded in his hand, blowing off most of his fingers 00:05:32.860 --> 00:05:36.660 and severely wounding his face, torso and right leg. 00:05:36.660 --> 00:05:41.770 Disregarding his mortal wounds and operating his rifle one-handed, the Nepalese warrior 00:05:41.769 --> 00:05:47.758 fought off wave after wave of Japanese assaults for four hours, all the while screaming, “Come 00:05:47.759 --> 00:05:49.520 and fight a Gurkha!” 00:05:49.519 --> 00:05:54.469 By the time the enemy retreated, he had amassed a final kill count of 31. 00:05:54.470 --> 00:06:00.810 He survived his wounds, was awarded the Victoria Cross, and lived to the age of 92. 00:06:00.810 --> 00:06:06.120 Six months earlier, Tul Bahadur Pun of the 6th Gurkha Rifles was advancing on a Japanese-held 00:06:06.120 --> 00:06:10.930 railway bridge when his entire platoon section was wiped out. 00:06:10.930 --> 00:06:16.810 As the last man standing, Rifleman Pun charged alone into a hailstorm of enemy fire, barreling 00:06:16.810 --> 00:06:22.269 ahead over thirty yards of open ground while ankle-deep in mud, weaving through shell holes 00:06:22.269 --> 00:06:24.629 and leaping over fallen trees. 00:06:24.629 --> 00:06:28.399 Miraculously, he reached the enemy position without being hit. 00:06:28.399 --> 00:06:32.679 Leaping into a bunker, he killed four Japanese soldiers with his Bren Gun and another three 00:06:32.680 --> 00:06:34.160 with his kukri. 00:06:34.160 --> 00:06:38.160 He then gave accurate supporting fire from the bunker, which allowed the remainder of 00:06:38.160 --> 00:06:40.340 his platoon to advance. 00:06:40.339 --> 00:06:45.799 Rifleman Pun was awarded the Victoria Cross and lived until the age of 88. 00:06:45.800 --> 00:06:50.860 Gurkha families are often warrior dynasties, with sons and grandsons striving to live up 00:06:50.860 --> 00:06:53.560 to the deeds of fathers and grandfathers. 00:06:53.560 --> 00:06:58.310 As it turned out, Rifleman Pun’s grandson would more than live up to the legacy of his 00:06:58.310 --> 00:07:00.009 fearless grandfather. 00:07:00.009 --> 00:07:05.430 In 2010, Acting Sergeant Dipprasad Pun was standing guard on a roof checkpoint in Helmand 00:07:05.430 --> 00:07:11.269 province, Afghanistan, when he found himself surrounded and under attack by up to 30 Taliban 00:07:11.269 --> 00:07:14.848 fighters armed with AK-47s and RPGs. 00:07:14.848 --> 00:07:19.009 Believing he was about to die, Sergeant Pun resolved to kill as many of the enemy as he 00:07:19.009 --> 00:07:21.579 could before he went down. 00:07:21.579 --> 00:07:26.800 Fending off attackers from three sides, he fired more than 400 machine gun rounds, launched 00:07:26.800 --> 00:07:29.920 17 grenades, and detonated a mine. 00:07:29.920 --> 00:07:34.770 When he ran out of ammo, he resorted to using his gun’s tripod as a club, smashing it 00:07:34.769 --> 00:07:38.029 against an insurgent’s skull as he scaled the roof. 00:07:38.029 --> 00:07:42.978 Singlehandedly, Sergeant Pun fended off the attack and was awarded the Conspicuous Gallantry 00:07:42.978 --> 00:07:44.149 Cross by Queen Elizabeth. 00:07:44.149 --> 00:07:45.409 Origins of the Gurkha - The Unification of Nepal 00:07:45.410 --> 00:07:49.800 Having introduced the Gurkhas and provided a sampling of the action-movie heroics they 00:07:49.800 --> 00:07:54.329 are capable of, let us explore their origins and how they came to serve in the British 00:07:54.329 --> 00:07:55.329 Army. 00:07:55.329 --> 00:08:00.448 The story begins in the year 1743, with the ascension of Prithvi Narayan Shah to the throne 00:08:00.449 --> 00:08:05.460 of the tiny Kingdom of Gorkha, one of many petty statelets strewn about the Himalayan 00:08:05.459 --> 00:08:07.478 foothills at the time. 00:08:07.478 --> 00:08:11.919 Prithvi Narayan soon came into his own as one of the greatest visionaries in the history 00:08:11.920 --> 00:08:13.990 of the Indian Subcontinent. 00:08:13.990 --> 00:08:20.069 Embarking on a mission to unify all of Nepal, he slowly conquered over 54 other principalities 00:08:20.069 --> 00:08:24.210 throughout the Himalayas, training up one of the most well-drilled, disciplined and 00:08:24.209 --> 00:08:27.219 experienced armies in Asia in the process. 00:08:27.220 --> 00:08:32.930 However, Gorkha was not the only rising power in the Indian Subcontinent at the time. 00:08:32.929 --> 00:08:37.989 By the late 18th century, the British conquest of India was well underway, spearheaded by 00:08:37.990 --> 00:08:42.168 a private megacorporation, the British East India Company. 00:08:42.168 --> 00:08:48.278 Back in 1757, this hydra of capitalism defeated the last independent Nawab of Bengal at the 00:08:48.278 --> 00:08:51.740 Battle of Plassey, annexing all of Bengal in the aftermath. 00:08:51.740 --> 00:08:56.889 This put the Gorkha Kingdom and the East India Company on each other’s borders, causing 00:08:56.889 --> 00:08:59.389 their spheres of influence to overlap. 00:08:59.389 --> 00:09:06.059 In 1767, Prithvi Narayan Shah set his sights on conquering the Kathmandu Valley. 00:09:06.059 --> 00:09:11.689 Seeking to curtail the expansion of their regional rival, the British deployed a 2,500-man 00:09:11.690 --> 00:09:17.020 expedition under one Captain George Kinloch to prevent Kathmandu’s capture. 00:09:17.019 --> 00:09:21.539 In the hilly jungle province of Sindhuli, the Gorkhas ambushed their foe, pouring out 00:09:21.539 --> 00:09:26.059 of the thicket and wreaking havoc among the enemy formation with kukri in hand. 00:09:26.059 --> 00:09:30.769 It was the first time that British redcoats had faced the Gorkhas in battle, and it would 00:09:30.769 --> 00:09:33.730 be an experience they would not soon forget. 00:09:33.730 --> 00:09:39.950 Out of Kinloch’s 2500 men, less than 1000 returned to Bengal alive. 00:09:39.950 --> 00:09:44.310 With the East India Company knocked out of the picture, King Prithvi Narayan Shah captured 00:09:44.309 --> 00:09:49.199 Kathmandu in 1768 and made it into his royal capital. 00:09:49.200 --> 00:09:54.980 The great Nepalese conqueror-King died in 1775, and would go down in history as the 00:09:54.980 --> 00:09:59.250 man who had thoroughly humbled the British Empire and unified all of Nepal. 00:09:59.250 --> 00:10:03.070 The Anglo-Nepalese War of 1814-1816 For the next few decades, the Kingdom of Gorkha 00:10:03.070 --> 00:10:07.670 and the British megacorporation maintained an uneasy peace, but it was only a matter 00:10:07.669 --> 00:10:10.379 of time before their next clash. 00:10:10.379 --> 00:10:16.179 In November of 1814, during the reign of King Girvan Yuddha Bikram Shah, an escalating frontier 00:10:16.179 --> 00:10:21.639 dispute led to the second and final showdown between the two powers: the Anglo-Nepalese 00:10:21.639 --> 00:10:22.639 War. 00:10:22.639 --> 00:10:28.299 According to historians, the Gorkha army at this time numbered around 12,000 to 14,000 00:10:28.299 --> 00:10:29.299 strong. 00:10:29.299 --> 00:10:34.449 To contend with this force, the East India Company mustered an expedition of over 50,000 00:10:34.450 --> 00:10:35.450 men. 00:10:35.450 --> 00:10:40.920 That the British levied such a massive army in preparation for their push into Nepal displayed 00:10:40.919 --> 00:10:45.089 just how highly they regarded the fighting skills of their mountain-dwelling opponents, 00:10:45.090 --> 00:10:49.778 Kinloch’s doomed expedition no doubt still fresh in their minds. 00:10:49.778 --> 00:10:56.208 As expected, the East India Company’s advance into the Himalayas was slow, brutal and bloody. 00:10:56.208 --> 00:11:01.099 Despite being heavily outnumbered, the Gorkhali army put up an extremely effective resistance, 00:11:01.100 --> 00:11:05.420 utilizing the mountainous terrain of their native homeland to stymie the advance of their 00:11:05.419 --> 00:11:07.719 numerically superior foes. 00:11:07.720 --> 00:11:12.778 The first major battle of the Anglo-Nepalese war took place at the fortress of Nalapani, 00:11:12.778 --> 00:11:17.429 where Gorkha captain Balbhadra Kunwar and a garrison of 600 Nepalese men, women and 00:11:17.429 --> 00:11:23.929 children held the line against British General Rollo Gillespie’s force of over 3,500 men. 00:11:23.929 --> 00:11:29.559 Outnumbered seven to one, Balbhadra withstood the British bombardment for over a month and 00:11:29.559 --> 00:11:32.969 even managed to kill General Gillespie in action. 00:11:32.970 --> 00:11:37.690 Throughout the battle, many British soldiers developed a begrudging respect for their lionhearted 00:11:37.690 --> 00:11:42.820 enemies, not just for their fighting spirit but for the honour they displayed in battle. 00:11:42.820 --> 00:11:47.560 James Baillie Fraser, a Scottish adventurer accompanying Gillespies’ division, wrote: 00:11:47.559 --> 00:11:53.388 “There was here no cruelty to wounded or to prisoners; no poisoned arrows were used; 00:11:53.389 --> 00:11:59.110 no wells or waters were poisoned; no rancorous spirit of revenge seemed to animate them: 00:11:59.110 --> 00:12:04.230 they fought us in fair conflict, like men; and, in intervals of actual combat, showed 00:12:04.230 --> 00:12:08.639 us a liberal courtesy worthy of a more enlightened people.” 00:12:08.639 --> 00:12:13.909 The bill the British paid for Nalapani amounted to over a thousand casualties and the life 00:12:13.909 --> 00:12:16.159 of an experienced commander. 00:12:16.159 --> 00:12:20.610 This pyrrhic victory would set the tone for the rest of the war, in which the East India 00:12:20.610 --> 00:12:26.560 Company would continue to make slow, incremental and costly advances into Gorkha territory, 00:12:26.559 --> 00:12:31.078 all the while growing increasingly impressed by the gallant resistance put up by their 00:12:31.078 --> 00:12:33.429 fearless yet noble enemies. 00:12:33.429 --> 00:12:39.278 Indeed, the Gorkhas fought on with seemingly no comprehension of their own mortality. 00:12:39.278 --> 00:12:45.610 In April of 1815, at the Battle of Deuthal, 74-year-old Gorkha General Bhakti Thapa repeatedly 00:12:45.610 --> 00:12:50.440 threw himself headlong into British cannon fire until he and his warriors had been mown 00:12:50.440 --> 00:12:52.560 down to the last man. 00:12:52.559 --> 00:12:57.729 Out of respect for this old man’s incredible courage, the British wrapped his body in an 00:12:57.730 --> 00:13:01.470 expensive shawl and ensured it was returned to his people with due honours. 00:13:01.470 --> 00:13:02.930 The Treaty of Sugauli - The Gurkhas Join the British Army 00:13:02.929 --> 00:13:07.419 Despite their seemingly inexhaustible font of courage, the Gorkha Kingdom was eventually 00:13:07.419 --> 00:13:12.328 ground down by the British Empires’ superior manpower and firepower. 00:13:12.328 --> 00:13:17.859 In March of 1816, the Anglo-Nepalese war came to an end with the signing of the Treaty of 00:13:17.860 --> 00:13:22.430 Sugauli, which forced the Kingdom of Gorkha to cede around a fourth of its recently conquered 00:13:22.429 --> 00:13:28.479 territory to the East India Company, reducing it to the borders that mark present-day Nepal. 00:13:28.480 --> 00:13:32.579 Although the Nepalese war effort had been a losing one, they had fought fiercely enough 00:13:32.578 --> 00:13:37.719 to maintain their independence, and would remain a free nation even as the British extended 00:13:37.720 --> 00:13:41.139 their rule across the entire rest of the Indian Subcontinent. 00:13:41.139 --> 00:13:46.519 However, while Nepal would not be colonized directly, there was still one further price 00:13:46.519 --> 00:13:49.299 to be paid for their defiance. 00:13:49.299 --> 00:13:53.870 Incredibly impressed by the tenacity of the Gorkha soldiers who had fought them so bravely, 00:13:53.870 --> 00:13:58.379 the British made it a term of the peace that the Kings of Gorkha would have to allow British 00:13:58.379 --> 00:14:03.509 recruiters to roam the Nepalese countryside and encourage their able-bodied warriors to 00:14:03.509 --> 00:14:06.190 volunteer in the British Army. 00:14:06.190 --> 00:14:10.410 In the British narrative, the creation of the Brigade of Gurkhas is considered an event 00:14:10.409 --> 00:14:12.110 to be celebrated. 00:14:12.110 --> 00:14:16.379 Peace had been made with a gallant foe who they had come to respect, and henceforth, 00:14:16.379 --> 00:14:21.559 Gurkha and Briton would no longer be enemies, but fight side by side as comrades-in-arms. 00:14:21.559 --> 00:14:27.539 However, from the Nepalese perspective, this watershed moment is often cast in a more sombre 00:14:27.539 --> 00:14:28.610 light. 00:14:28.610 --> 00:14:33.539 Tim Gurung, a modern Nepalese writer and Gurkha veteran, claims that the policy of recruiting 00:14:33.539 --> 00:14:38.539 young Nepalese men into the British army “not only took the sting out of the Gorkhali Army 00:14:38.539 --> 00:14:43.019 but also made the country into a toothless tiger and crippled it for the foreseeable 00:14:43.019 --> 00:14:44.019 future.” 00:14:44.019 --> 00:14:49.220 “By depleting Nepal of its youth and able men for generations,” Gurung says, Nepal 00:14:49.220 --> 00:14:53.180 would “never again be able to raise its head against the British.” 00:14:53.179 --> 00:14:55.729 Gurung’s words are important to remember. 00:14:55.730 --> 00:15:02.100 For, as captivating as stories of Gurkha invincibility are, we must remember that, at least originally, 00:15:02.100 --> 00:15:07.990 they were hired mercenaries serving an Imperialist power in colonial wars often fought to subjugate 00:15:07.990 --> 00:15:12.720 the homelands of indigenous peoples, and that this has resulted in the Gurkhas having a 00:15:12.720 --> 00:15:16.730 complex and controversial legacy both in their own homeland and beyond. 00:15:16.730 --> 00:15:20.009 History of Gurkha Military Service Indeed, the Gurkha’s reputation among the 00:15:20.009 --> 00:15:25.069 British public for loyalty and reliability began coming into form during the Great Revolt 00:15:25.070 --> 00:15:30.870 of 1857, when a massive uprising against the British East India Company erupted across 00:15:30.870 --> 00:15:33.000 the Indian Subcontinent. 00:15:33.000 --> 00:15:37.039 As some of the only native troops who remained loyal to the British, the Gurkhas played a 00:15:37.039 --> 00:15:40.399 significant role in putting down the insurrection. 00:15:40.399 --> 00:15:44.610 From the end of the Great Revolt to the start of World War I, British Gurkha Regiments were 00:15:44.610 --> 00:15:50.190 deployed to fight in colonial wars in Afghanistan, Burma, Tibet, and China. 00:15:50.190 --> 00:15:54.300 Throughout all these campaigns, the Gurkhas slowly cultivated their reputation as some 00:15:54.299 --> 00:15:59.789 of the most resilient, adaptable and indomitable soldiers in the known world. 00:15:59.789 --> 00:16:04.919 Throughout the First World War, over 200,000 Gurkhas served in the British Army. 00:16:04.919 --> 00:16:09.519 They fought with all the discipline and bravery that had come to be expected of them, suffering 00:16:09.519 --> 00:16:16.409 around 20,000 casualties and receiving almost 2,000 gallantry awards for feats of both individual 00:16:16.409 --> 00:16:18.799 and regimental heroism. 00:16:18.799 --> 00:16:23.328 The Gurkhas threw themselves against the Germans in the trenches of Ypres and Loos, and bloodied 00:16:23.328 --> 00:16:27.318 their kukri against the Turks at the meat grinder of Gallipoli, where they were among 00:16:27.318 --> 00:16:30.409 the first to arrive and the last to leave. 00:16:30.409 --> 00:16:35.919 Throughout the Second World War, over 250,000 Gurkhas served in almost every theatre of 00:16:35.919 --> 00:16:38.849 battle, suffering around 32,000 casualties. 00:16:38.850 --> 00:16:44.350 They fought Hitler’s Nazis and Mussolini’s Fascists in Syria, North Africa, Sicily and 00:16:44.350 --> 00:16:49.009 Greece, while bloodying the nose of Imperial Japan in Burma and Singapore. 00:16:49.009 --> 00:16:54.410 Earlier in this video, we told the stories Lachhiman Gurung and Tul Bahadur Pun, two 00:16:54.410 --> 00:16:59.399 Gurkhas whose insane feats of bravery against the Japanese in the Burmese jungle earned 00:16:59.399 --> 00:17:01.360 them the Victoria Cross. 00:17:01.360 --> 00:17:07.911 These were just two of a mind boggling 2,734 bravery awards the Gurkhas earned throughout 00:17:07.911 --> 00:17:10.039 World War Two. 00:17:10.039 --> 00:17:15.088 After India achieved its independence, the British lost their monopoly on Gurkha invincibility 00:17:15.088 --> 00:17:19.039 when some of the Gurkha regiments that had formerly formed part of the British colonial 00:17:19.039 --> 00:17:23.829 army in India were transferred to the newly independent Indian army. 00:17:23.829 --> 00:17:28.568 Meanwhile, in Singapore, a unit of British Army Gurkhas was formed as an riot-control 00:17:28.568 --> 00:17:34.529 and counter-terrorism wing of the local police force in 1949, and played a crucial role in 00:17:34.529 --> 00:17:39.240 stabilizing the city-state in its turbulent road to independence. 00:17:39.240 --> 00:17:43.250 The Gurkha regiments that remained in the British army continued to see action in every 00:17:43.250 --> 00:17:45.690 conflict the United Kingdom took part in. 00:17:45.690 --> 00:17:52.630 They were in Cyprus in 1974, the Falklands in 1982, participated in the Gulf War of 1991 00:17:52.630 --> 00:17:55.130 and were deployed into Afghanistan in 2001. 00:17:55.130 --> 00:17:59.890 Legacy of the Gurkhas After over 200 years of loyal service to the 00:17:59.890 --> 00:18:04.580 British crown, the Gurkhas have undoubtedly been immortalized as some of the modern era’s 00:18:04.579 --> 00:18:10.629 most lionized soldiers, with a reputation of immortality that rivals the ancient Spartans. 00:18:10.630 --> 00:18:15.000 However, despite being celebrated as heroes by the British public, their relationship 00:18:15.000 --> 00:18:18.308 with the British government has not been quite as rosy. 00:18:18.308 --> 00:18:22.899 In retirement, the Gurkhas have long been subject to unequal treatment by their British 00:18:22.900 --> 00:18:27.930 paymasters, their military pensions only a fraction of what British veterans of equal 00:18:27.930 --> 00:18:29.370 rank received. 00:18:29.369 --> 00:18:34.299 Moreover, Gurkha veterans seeking to immigrate and live in the UK, a country they had fought 00:18:34.299 --> 00:18:38.250 and killed for, faced significant barriers to entry. 00:18:38.250 --> 00:18:43.819 After decades of protests, the British government agreed in 2007 to start providing pay and 00:18:43.819 --> 00:18:46.178 pensions on par with British soldiers. 00:18:46.179 --> 00:18:51.919 Then, in 2009, the House of Commons passed a motion allowing all Gurkha veterans the 00:18:51.919 --> 00:18:54.450 right to residence in the UK. 00:18:54.450 --> 00:18:58.750 In their home country of Nepal, the Gurkhas are considered in some circles to be a source 00:18:58.750 --> 00:19:03.808 of national shame, a consistent drain on the country’s best and brightest, and a major 00:19:03.808 --> 00:19:09.529 contributor to economic stagnation back home . However, despite the controversies, many 00:19:09.529 --> 00:19:15.039 in Nepal hold the Gurkhas in high regard, and take pride in the reputation for fearlessness 00:19:15.039 --> 00:19:19.240 and invincibility they have earned for the Nepalese people on the world stage. 00:19:19.240 --> 00:19:24.579 Thus, it seems that for the foreseeable future, young men throughout Nepal will continue to 00:19:24.579 --> 00:19:29.439 enlist in foreign Gurkha brigades, where they will cultivate themselves into some of the 00:19:29.440 --> 00:19:34.350 physically and mentally toughest people on the planet, living up to the legacy of their 00:19:34.349 --> 00:19:39.699 Gurkha fathers and grandfathers as the fiercest soldiers of the modern age. 00:19:39.700 --> 00:19:43.019 More videos on history’s deadliest warriors are on the way. 00:19:43.019 --> 00:19:46.819 To ensure you don’t miss it, make sure you are subscribed and have pressed the bell button 00:19:46.819 --> 00:19:47.819 to see them. 00:19:47.819 --> 00:19:51.220 Please consider liking, subscribing, commenting, and sharing - it helps immensely. 00:19:51.220 --> 00:19:56.679 Recently, we have started releasing weekly patron and YouTube member exclusive content, 00:19:56.679 --> 00:20:00.500 consider joining their ranks via the link in the description or button under the video 00:20:00.500 --> 00:20:05.250 to watch these weekly videos, learn about our schedule, get early access to our videos, 00:20:05.250 --> 00:20:07.809 access our private discord, and much more. 00:20:07.809 --> 00:20:11.440 This is the Kings and Generals channel, and we will catch you on the next one.