Village in India with retired soldiers from Nepal

Former Gurkha says wars do not solve anything, all disputes can be peacefully negotiated

GEN NEXT: Suk Bahadur Gurung is an Indian Army veteran. His grandfather was from Gulmi, and joined the British Indian Army. Photos: BIKAS RAUNIYAR

Barely 60km from the Nepal border in India is the village of Uditpur where most residents are retired Gorkha soldiers and their descendants.

Called ‘Army Village’, there are 85 households with former veterans from Nepal and their families. Every other house in this neighbourhood belongs to a former soldier, and Nepali can be heard being spoken on the streets.

The village was previously named Baikunthapur, but was renamed Army Village by the district magistrate as a sign of respect to Nepal by the Indian government, says Suk Bahadur Gurung, 76, one of the retirees.

Suk Bahadur was deployed in the artillery unit of the Indian Army before retiring as a major in 1994, and now heads the Gorkha Village Social Welfare Committee.

Gurung has a family of three including his wife Basanti and son Sonu who has followed his father’s footsteps and is posted with the Indian Army in the border town of Pathankot in Punjab.

As tensions between India and Pakistan rose last month, Suk Bahadur worried for his son.

“I have fought in previous India-Pakistan wars, it was our duty as soldiers,” he says, “but even so, I wish there was peace. As parents, we worry.”

Village in India with retired soldiers from Nepal NT
Gurung's descedants, including the next generation all live in a village near Gorakhpur.

Suk Bahadur Gurung was awarded medals for his bravery in both the 1962 and 1965 wars with China and Pakistan. But now in late life, he says wars do not solve anything, and all disputes can be peacefully negotiated.

The larger irony, of course, is that Nepali nationals are fighting on behalf of one neighbour against two other neighbours with which Nepal has good relations. Recruitment of Nepalis in the Indian Army is a geopolitically sensitive matter.

At present, there are an estimated 32,000 Nepali nationals in the Gorkha Regiments of the Indian Army, and there are many other Indians of Nepali origin.

But recruitment of soldiers from Nepal into the Indian military has been stopped since 2022 after Prime Minister Modi’s Agneepath scheme.

Read also: A forgotten Gurkha rebellion, Ram Kandangwa

Suk Bahadur Gurung was himself born in India but his ancestral home is in Gulmi district. It was his grandfather who moved to India after enlisting in the British Indian Army. After retirement, he stayed on in India.

Suk Bahadur has not tried to trace his roots in Nepal, and does not feel the need either.

“When my grandfather came here, he also invited our relatives and other people. There is no one left back in Gulmi,” he says.