British Indian Army

And Restor's leader, Rupert Lowe, is definitely opening the Overton window on that front.

You'll remember this very, very important post, "Islam as practiced by millions of Muslims in Britain is entirely incompatible with our British way of life." Of course, Humza Yousaf, who has a book to promote, chimed in, "When Muslims fought against Nazis as part of the British Indian Army, thousands of them sacrificing their lives, was that also incompatible with the British way of life? Lowe's language is comparable to rhetoric used by Nazis against Jews, as deplorable now as it was then." But Rupert responded.

He wasn't taking this lying down.

"These aggressive attempts to shut down any debate around Islam have worked for decades.

Singapore was one of those critical staging posts.

The British Indian Army's Fifth Light Infantry were a long-established regiment that were posted from India to replace the King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry, who'd been sent to France.

The Fifth Light Infantry were known as the Loyals, derived from their loyalty to the British Army when the mutiny took place in India in 1857.

When they moved to Singapore in the autumn of 1914, the regiment was entirely Muslim, from north of the Indian subcontinent, with Rangers from Rajput and Pathans from the Afghan border regions, roughly 50% of each.

Press and eyewitness reports greatly exaggerated the supposed indiscriminate actions of the mutineers.

Now a total of 30 dead at the outset of the mutiny.

Panic swept across the city's European civilian population, who recognised the only British Indian Army defenders of the colony were now in open revolt.

The multi-ethnic local police force of 1,200 were not routinely trained to carry weapons, apart from a group of about 220 Sikhs.

India itself had played a major role in the war effort.

Millions of Indian soldiers had served in the British Indian Army, fighting in regions ranging from North Africa to Southeast Asia.

Their participation highlighted the growing political expectation that Indians should soon govern their own country.

By nineteen forty-six Negotiations between British authorities and Indian political leaders had intensified.

During the nineteenth century, tensions between colonial authority and local populations occasionally erupted into conflict.

The most dramatic example occurred in 1857 in what became known as the Indian Rebellion or the Sepoy Mutiny.

The uprising began among soldiers in the British Indian Army.

Several factors contributed to their dissatisfaction, including concerns about military conditions and cultural insensitivity by British officers.

You find local whatever.

Yeah, the British Army, the British Indian Army, the, you know, the French, uh, the Tirail, uh, Algérien.

They, they, they had lovely names for their colonial armies.

[laughs]

So yes, I've always had a penchant for, you know, a passion for national security.

My granddad was in the British Indian Army as well.

So I think it's...

I don't know, it probably flows in my blood to serve the country and fight everything that's domestic and foreign that poses a threat to us.