The Dogra Regiment is an infantry unit of the Indian
Army, formerly the 17th Dogra Regiment when part of the British Indian Army.
The regiment has the Dogra
people from the Jammu & Kashmir,
Himachal Pradesh and the
hill regions of Punjab . The current regiment was formed in 1922 through
the amalgamation of three separate regiments of Dogras as the 17th Dogra
Regiment. They were:
- 1st Battalion - Formerly the 37th (prince of Wales Own) Dogras.
- 2nd Battalion - Formerly the 38th Dogras.
- 3rd Battalion - Formerly the 1st Battalion, 41st Dogras.
- 10th (Training) Battalion - Formerly the 2nd Battalion, 41st Dogras.
The 41st Dogras
were an infantry regiment of the British Indian Army. It could trace its
origins to 1900, when it was raised as the 41st (Dogra) Bengal Infantry. After
World War I, the Indian government reformed the army, moving from regiments
with a single battalion to multi battalion regiments. It dropped '17th' from
its title in 1945 and was allocated to India upon its independence in 1947.
Enlisting in the army
is seen as an honourable pursuit for Dogras, with the earnings of the soldiers
of the regiment forming a sizeable part of the local economy.
. The regiment
currently has 18 battalions . The 1st Battalion was reroled in 1981 to become the 7th
Battalion, Mechanised Infantry Regiment.
Soldiering has not
only become a substantial part of the economic structure of the Dogra Hills,
but created social and cultural traditions built on the people's association
with the army. The regiment has produced one Army Chief, General NC Vij.
The General also served as the 10th Colonel-in-Chief of the Dogra Regiment and
the Dogra Scouts.
In the
pre-Independence era, the Dogras had to their credit three Victoria Cross’s and 44 Military Cross’s besides 312 other awards. Two
battalions of the 17th Dogra Regiment (the 2nd and 3rd), also fought in the Malayan
Campaign . After the Fall of Singapore
, a large number of the captured troops later went on to join the Indian
National Army.
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