The ‘Gurkhas’ have long been part of the history and tradition of serving in the British Army, and to this day captures the imagination of many young boys who want to be part of this tradition. Recruitment as a ‘Gurkha’ soldier is the most preferred choice of employment among various ethnic groups in the hills of Nepal. The Gurkhas have also benefitted largely from this service, and have been able to generate wealth compared to others in their communities. But more importantly it is the prestige they garner as a soldier, and the respect they get after retirement within their communities that shapes the aspiration of many young boys. Therefore, many put themselves through a rigorous training and selection regime to meet the requirements of becoming a Gurkha soldier. However, over the years the number of intakes has decreased, and competition has been very high as thousands of young people go through various stages of screening to fill in a few places.
Recruitment process has also come a long way since its early days of selection in the hills of Nepal. It is now a more centralised system with two recruitment depots: Dharan in the East and Pokhara in the West. It is also an annual process starting in January with a new batch of recruits being selected by the end of the year in December. Potential recruits go through various stages of preparation and selection in between. This centralized system of recruitment has also created a ‘recruitment industry’ based around the practices of recruitment as hordes of ‘training centres’ now operate in major cities of Nepal, mostly in Dharan, Kathmandu and Pokhara. They claim to provide all the necessary training and preparations required to join the British Army, Singapore Police and Indian Army. A potential recruit could spend anywhere between three to nine months in these training centres. Based on ethnographic fieldwork in Pokhara during 2013-14, I follow the training regimes of the potential recruits in these centres.
A potential recruit training to become a Gurkha soldier is expected to embody many virtues such as having ‘a flawless body’, ‘emotional clout’, and ‘being a loyal soldier.’ Some of these virtues have historical links to the characterization of ‘martial race’, whereas some are more closely adopted due to changes in recruitment requirements. In all of these cases, the training center along with the larger recruitment industry is central to the embodiment of these virtues. Potential recruits undertake rigorous physical and education preparation classes during the time they spend at these institutions under the guidance of a guru or a master. It is mostly in these interactions between the master and the pupil that virtues are learned and negotiated. In this paper, I will explore how potential recruits are expected to embody such virtues through a strict system of self-disciplining and self-practicing, and how potential recruits then internalize them in their everyday life through self-care.