Major General James G. Blunt

A Deccani courtier, c.1600.
A sowar of the 6th Madras Light Cavalry, serving the British East India Company, c. 1845.

Sowar (Urdu: سوار, also siwar meaning "the one who rides" or "rider", from Persian sawār)[1] was originally a rank during the Mughal Empire. 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. It is also used more specifically of a mounted orderly, escort or guard. It was also the rank held by ordinary cavalry troopers, equivalent to sepoy in the infantry — this rank has been inherited by the modern armies of India and Pakistan.

History

An image from the Carnatic Wars features a Sowar armed with a Musket.

Sowar has been used as the name of a line of wrist-watches by the Swiss West End Watch Co.

See also

References

  1. ^ Ostler, Nicholas (2010). The Last Lingua Franca: English Until the Return of Babel. Penguin UK. pp. 1–352. ISBN 978-0141922218.
Memorial plaque in Christ Church, Mhow, noting two officers who were "killed by their own sowars" in the Indian Rebellion of 1857.