Gurkhas

Well, as nominal owner in the GZG Galactopoedia of the world Gorkha (named for
the ancient Empire of Gorkha from which today's Nepal has more or less
evolved), I guess I have to give my two kwatloos worth on this subject.

The Gurkha in 2183: Sometime prior to 2183, the NAC and the UN (with the tacit
complicity of the ESU who mostly wanted the annoying Nepalese to depart so
they could fully annex the land) jointly arranged for some portion of the
Nepalese population to be transported to a colony world the NAC had set aside
(not terribly resource rich, habitable but tough on its inhabitants, so not
prime real
estate) - some suggest the NAC did so out of a
feeling of guilt for taking advantage of the Nepalese for so long. Some
suggest they did it
just to be a pain in the butt for the ESU off-
earth as well as on earth. The idea (and why the ESU let it go) was this: The
Gurkhas got their own planet, could work for whoever they wanted (soldiering
is a good revenue generator for the people back home), the ESU finally took
what was left and whoever wanted to stay behind, and the UN helped oversee
this
because they didn't want an ESU/Nepalese
genocide on their hands.

Thus was born the planet of Gorhkha. Similar to some practices of the NI, the
Gurkhas rent out combat formations, but only with the approval of the
planetary government and the royal family. Traditionally, these forces have
been made available to the NAC, the IF (or at least to the Sultan of Brunei
specifically), and sometimes to other worthy groups (troops have served for a
time with Romanov forces, etc). They tend not to work against other Gurkha
units (generally one unit or the other will arrange to be transfered out of
the conflict zone), they tend not to work for the Japanese, the Chinese, or
most of the European countries.

Does the ESU have Gurkhas? Not from Gorkha, but yes, from India and the
remnants of the original Nepalese population. These are generally not reckoned
to be quite as
professional or dangerous as the Gorkha-based
Gurkhas, but they are still Gurkhas. They have a long history of loyal service
in India and they have ties with some Sikh units.

Strangely, the Gurkhas have a historical affinity for Highlanders (the
military units, and the celtic people). They appreciate (and in some cases,
such as pipers, appropriated) their traditions, their outlook on life, their
stoicism, etc. In return, the Highland units have always had a high respect
for the tough little soldiers from Nepal (and later, from Gorkha). Small
celtic splinter states might be able to arrange some Gurkha protection due to
this affinity, if they weren't directly clashing with the NAC Crown.

I have a web page for the Renewed Empire of Gorkha and the Gorkha Space Navy
(some IF, some ESU, some NAC, and one UN ship) (thought it is a small force).
It just has been back burnered but it might get done sooner since this seems
to be an interesting topic.

Many of the traditional Gurkha formations are still in operation with the NAC
or operating as contract military specialists out of Gorkha. Unit honours are
continous from a time well before
the bullet-in-a-casing to the modern day of
caseless weapons...

And the Kukri (the short form of the longer word) is still in service, with
the Service No. 1 being manufactured by a small business on Gorkha.

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Interesting aside (My own experience of the Gurkhas, 2nd hand though it be): I
stayed with a lady in Medicine Hat, AB whose husband had been British Army
(officer). He had been, amongst other things, a Gurkha officer and bodygaurd
of King Farouk of Egypt. She told me of his high respect for the Gurkhas, and
how you, as a British Officer, learned to not muddle too deeply in the affairs
of the soldiers (accidents had been known to happen to officers who were too
nosy or too willing to give the men a rough time).

I also remember a friend at CFSAC (Canadian Forces Small Arms Competition) who
timed a Gurkha rifleman doing a 100m rundown on the range. Prone to prone, in
combat boots and webbing, running 100m, in under 11 seconds. And the whole
team they sent could do standing backflips.

And, my Grandad, who served with the Highland Light Infantry in France in WW1,
related to me of the one time a Gurkha unit was near his unit in the lines. He
indicated they were considered very good soldiers, and would leave the lines
with only their knife into no-man's land at night.
They put rather a nasty scare into the locale Germans. Eventually, however,
their habit of collecting ears and wearing them on a string made them odourous
enough (and perhaps a source of contagion) that they were rotated to some
other posting. I've heard some suggest this kind of story is apocryphal, but I
sort of think it was a true story (remembered as well as I can after a decade
or two).