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A sepoy (from Persian
Persian language

name=Persian|nativename=|pronunciation=[f??r'si]|image=|caption=Farsi in Perso-Arabic script |states= Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Bahrain....
 ????? Sipâhi meaning "soldier") was a native of India, a soldier allied to a Europe
Europe

Europe is, conventionally, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural , the Caspian Sea, and by the Caucasus Mountains to the southeast....
an power, usually the United Kingdom
United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom , the UK or Britain,is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe....
. Specifically, it was the term used in the British Indian Army
British Indian Army

The Indian Army was the principal army of the British Raj in India during the last half-century before the Partition of India of India in 1947....
, and earlier in the Honourable East India Company, for an infantry
Infantry

Infantry are soldiers who are primarily trained for the role of fighting on foot. A soldier in the infantry is known as an infantryman. Infantry units have more physically demanding training than other branches of armies, and place a greater emphasis on fitness, physical strength and aggression....
 private
Private (rank)

A Private is a soldier of the lowest military rank . The term dates from the Middle Ages, where privates were known as "private soldiers" who were either hired, conscripted, or feudalism into service by a nobleman forming an army....
 (a cavalry trooper was a Sowar
Sowar

Sowar , meaning 'The one who rides' in Persian language, was originally a rank during the Mughal Empire period. Later during the British Raj it was the name in Anglo-Indian usage for a horse-soldier belonging to the cavalry troops of the native armies of British India and the feudal states....
), and is still so used in the modern Indian Army
Indian Army

The Indian Army is the largest branch of the Indian Armed Forces of India and has the responsibility for army military operations. Its primary objectives include defending India from external aggression, maintaining peace and security within the country, patrolling borders and conducting counter-terrorist operations....
, Pakistan Army
Pakistan Army

The Pakistan Army is the largest branch of the Pakistan military, and is mainly responsible for protection of the state borders, the security of administered territories and defending the national interests of Pakistan within the framework of its international obligations....
 and Bangladesh Army
Bangladesh Army

The Bangladesh Army is the Army branch of the Military of Bangladesh. It was formed on 15 April 1971 following the oath of the Bangladesh Government at Meherpur, Kushtia during Bangladesh Liberation War under which the Bangladesh Forces originally consisting of Bengali soldiers and officers who defected from the Pakistan Army pledged their...
. Close to 300,000 sepoys were crucial in securing the subcontinent for the British East India Company, and played a prominent role in the Indian Rebellion of 1857
Indian Rebellion of 1857

The Indian Rebellion of 1857 began as a mutiny of sepoys of British Honourable East India Company's army on 10 May 1857, in the town of Meerut, and soon erupted into other mutinies and civilian rebellions largely in the Upper Gangetic Plains moist deciduous forests and central India, with the major hostilities confined to present-day Uttar Pr...
 after it was alleged that the new rifles being issued to them used animal fat to grease the casing.

The same Persian word has reached English via another route in the form of Spahi
Sipahi

Sipahi was the name of an Ottoman cavalry corps. In the form of "Spahi" it was the title given to several cavalry units serving in the French and Italian colonial armies during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries....
.






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A sepoy (from Persian
Persian language

name=Persian|nativename=|pronunciation=[f??r'si]|image=|caption=Farsi in Perso-Arabic script |states= Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Bahrain....
 ????? Sipâhi meaning "soldier") was a native of India, a soldier allied to a Europe
Europe

Europe is, conventionally, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural , the Caspian Sea, and by the Caucasus Mountains to the southeast....
an power, usually the United Kingdom
United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom , the UK or Britain,is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe....
. Specifically, it was the term used in the British Indian Army
British Indian Army

The Indian Army was the principal army of the British Raj in India during the last half-century before the Partition of India of India in 1947....
, and earlier in the Honourable East India Company, for an infantry
Infantry

Infantry are soldiers who are primarily trained for the role of fighting on foot. A soldier in the infantry is known as an infantryman. Infantry units have more physically demanding training than other branches of armies, and place a greater emphasis on fitness, physical strength and aggression....
 private
Private (rank)

A Private is a soldier of the lowest military rank . The term dates from the Middle Ages, where privates were known as "private soldiers" who were either hired, conscripted, or feudalism into service by a nobleman forming an army....
 (a cavalry trooper was a Sowar
Sowar

Sowar , meaning 'The one who rides' in Persian language, was originally a rank during the Mughal Empire period. Later during the British Raj it was the name in Anglo-Indian usage for a horse-soldier belonging to the cavalry troops of the native armies of British India and the feudal states....
), and is still so used in the modern Indian Army
Indian Army

The Indian Army is the largest branch of the Indian Armed Forces of India and has the responsibility for army military operations. Its primary objectives include defending India from external aggression, maintaining peace and security within the country, patrolling borders and conducting counter-terrorist operations....
, Pakistan Army
Pakistan Army

The Pakistan Army is the largest branch of the Pakistan military, and is mainly responsible for protection of the state borders, the security of administered territories and defending the national interests of Pakistan within the framework of its international obligations....
 and Bangladesh Army
Bangladesh Army

The Bangladesh Army is the Army branch of the Military of Bangladesh. It was formed on 15 April 1971 following the oath of the Bangladesh Government at Meherpur, Kushtia during Bangladesh Liberation War under which the Bangladesh Forces originally consisting of Bengali soldiers and officers who defected from the Pakistan Army pledged their...
. Close to 300,000 sepoys were crucial in securing the subcontinent for the British East India Company, and played a prominent role in the Indian Rebellion of 1857
Indian Rebellion of 1857

The Indian Rebellion of 1857 began as a mutiny of sepoys of British Honourable East India Company's army on 10 May 1857, in the town of Meerut, and soon erupted into other mutinies and civilian rebellions largely in the Upper Gangetic Plains moist deciduous forests and central India, with the major hostilities confined to present-day Uttar Pr...
 after it was alleged that the new rifles being issued to them used animal fat to grease the casing.

The same Persian word has reached English via another route in the form of Spahi
Sipahi

Sipahi was the name of an Ottoman cavalry corps. In the form of "Spahi" it was the title given to several cavalry units serving in the French and Italian colonial armies during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries....
. Also the Sepoy Mutiny
Sepoy Mutiny

Sepoy Mutiny may refer to:*Indian Rebellion of 1857*1915 Singapore Mutiny*Vellore Mutiny...
 got its name from this.

The sepoys also served Portugal
Portugal

Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic , is a country on the Iberian Peninsula. Located in southwestern Europe, Portugal is the westernmost country of mainland Europe and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the west and south and by Spain to the north and east....
 in India
Portuguese India

Portuguese India was the aggregate of Portugal's colonial holdings in India. At the time of British India's independence in 1947, Portuguese India included a number of enclaves on India's western coast, including Goa proper, as well as the coastal enclaves of Daman and Daman and Diu, and the enclaves of Dadra and Nagar Haveli, which lie inl...
. Sepoys from the Portuguese India
Portuguese India

Portuguese India was the aggregate of Portugal's colonial holdings in India. At the time of British India's independence in 1947, Portuguese India included a number of enclaves on India's western coast, including Goa proper, as well as the coastal enclaves of Daman and Daman and Diu, and the enclaves of Dadra and Nagar Haveli, which lie inl...
, later, were sent to other territories of the Portuguese Empire
Portuguese Empire

The Portuguese Empire was the first global empire in history and also the earliest and longest lived of the modern European Colonialism empires, spanning almost six centuries, from the capture of Ceuta in 1415 to the handover of Macau in 1999....
, specially those from Africa
Africa

Africa is the world's second-largest and second most-populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km? including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area....
. Later, the term "sipaio" (sepoy) was also applied by the Portuguese to African soldiers and African rural police officers.

Its Basque version zipaio is used by leftist Basque nationalists
Abertzale

Abertzale in the Basque language means roughly, "Patriotism", and is used to mean "Basque nationalism". It comes from the fusion of "aberri" with the suffix "-zale" ....
 as an insult for members of the Basque Police
Ertzaintza

File:Edificio Ertzaintza.jpgErtzaintza is the police force of the Basque Country , one of the autonomous communities of Spain. An Ertzaintza member is an ertzaina....
, implying that they are not a national police but servers of a foreign occupant.

See also


  • Sepoy Mutiny
    Indian Rebellion of 1857

    The Indian Rebellion of 1857 began as a mutiny of sepoys of British Honourable East India Company's army on 10 May 1857, in the town of Meerut, and soon erupted into other mutinies and civilian rebellions largely in the Upper Gangetic Plains moist deciduous forests and central India, with the major hostilities confined to present-day Uttar Pr...
     (also Indian Mutiny or First Indian War of Independence)
  • Jawan
    Jawan

    Jawa refers to a young man in Hindi, Urdu, Bengali language, and Punjabi language. In the Indian subcontinent, it has additionally taken on the reference to an infantryman, and is used in much the same meaning as troop or soldier in English language....
    , the word used today to describe a soldier of the Armies of India
    Indian Army

    The Indian Army is the largest branch of the Indian Armed Forces of India and has the responsibility for army military operations. Its primary objectives include defending India from external aggression, maintaining peace and security within the country, patrolling borders and conducting counter-terrorist operations....
     and Pakistan
    Pakistan Army

    The Pakistan Army is the largest branch of the Pakistan military, and is mainly responsible for protection of the state borders, the security of administered territories and defending the national interests of Pakistan within the framework of its international obligations....
    .