Goorkhas, or GURKHAS

Goorkhas, or GURKHAS, since 1769 the dominant race in Nepal, claiming descent from Hindu immigrants, but now almost everywhere commingled with the original Mongolian stock. They fought fiercely and brilliantly in the war of 1814-15. Immediately afterwards three or four battalions were raised for the service of the British power in India. The Goorkhas, who are a short, thick-set race, are brave and faithful soldiers, fought in the Afghan and Sikh wars, and lent valuable aid to the British in the suppression of the Mutiny; and some ten regiments of Goorkhas recruited from Nepal and the borders, now form a most valuable element in our native Indian army. Those from the western districts are much more distinctively a fighting race than those from the eastern parts.