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The End of Batmen in the Indian Army

On the Times website: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article6731047.ece

To many Indian politicians... the post is an abhorrent relic of the British Raj, under which soldiers have to perform degrading tasks such as walking their officers’ dogs and taking their children to school.

Now the Indian Government has finally bowed to political pressure and ordered the army, for the first time, to prevent its roughly 34,000 officers from using their sahayaks, or assistants, as domestic servants.

“Sahayaks will not be employed for menial household work,” A. K. Antony, the Defence Minister, told Parliament on Monday. “Any practice that lowers the self-esteem is to be abhorred . . . In this context, it is always ensured and shall continue to be ensured that soldiers are not employed on any demeaning and humiliating tasks.”

Britain abolished the system after the Second World War. In India, the navy and air force phased it out several years ago and pressure has been mounting on the army to follow suit.

And I thought it lived on in the Household Div?

Current and former batmen complain that they are issued with inferior uniforms, passed over for promotions and frequently humiliated by their officers, or more often their wives.

… is this still not the fate of stinking non-grad officers? :D

Charlie
 
Indeed. If they had been good enough they would have squared themselves away with a degree rather than trotting out lines like "I was clever enough and accepted by Oxford, Cambridge etc but didn't want to go" or else "I wanted to spend more time as a Pl Comd" etc etc ad infinitum. :wink:
whf
 
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