24,608
Artillery, fourteen batteries 6,235
Infantry, 126 battalions 108,849
Engineers, twenty-three battalions 3,925
------- 143,617
Officers on staff duty 617
-------
Grand total 203,114

This regular and permanent military force is supplemented by native armies in the various independent states, which are only indirectly under the command of the commander-in-chief and are not well organized, except in one or two of the provinces.  There is a reserve corps consisting of 22,233 men who have served in the regular army and are now upon what we call the retired list.  They may be called out at any time their services are needed.  There is also a volunteer force numbering 29,500 men, including cavalry, artillery, infantry and marines, many of them under the command of retired officers of the regular army; and the employes of several of the great railroad companies are organized into military corps and drill frequently.  There is also a military police under the control of the executive authorities of the several provinces, making altogether about 300,000 men capable of being mobilized on short notice in any emergency, about one-third of them being Englishmen and two-thirds natives.

In 1856, before the great mutiny, the British forces in India consisted of less than 40,000 Europeans and more than 220,000 natives, besides about 30,000 contingents, as they were called, maintained by the rulers of the native states and at their expense.  The greater part of the artillery was manned by native soldiers under European officers.  Three-fourths of the native soldiers participated in the mutiny.  The Madras forces in southern India and the Sikhs in the Punjab were not only loyal but rendered valuable services in suppressing the revolt.  On the reorganization of the army, after the mutiny was suppressed, it was decided that there should never be more than two natives to one European in the service; that the artillery should be manned by Europeans exclusively, and that all the arsenals and supply stations should be in their charge.  Since the reorganization there has been an average of 60,000 British and 120,000 native troops in India.  All the artillery has been manned by Europeans, the British troops have been garrisoned at stations where they can render the most prompt and efficient service, and all of the cantonments, as the European camps are called, all the fortresses and arsenals, are connected with each other and with Bombay and Calcutta by railway.  When the mutiny broke out in 1857 there were only about 400 miles of railway in India, and it was a matter of great difficulty, delay and expense to move troops any distance.  To-day India has nearly 28,000 miles of railway, which has all been planned and constructed as a part of the national defense system.  In 1857 it took between three and four months for a relief party to reach Delhi from the seaboard.  To-day ten times the force could be sent there from any part of India within as many days.