The Army of the Indian Moghuls: Its Organization and Administration c15.11

c15.11

With regard to the Najībs in the Nawāb of Oudh’s service in 1780, Captain Thomas Williamson, 124, tells us that they were clothed in blue vests and drawers, furnishing their own arms and ammunition (matchlock, sword, shield, bow and arrows). Their discipline was very contemptible; they answered very well for garrison duty, but could not stand the charge of cavalry, having no bayonets, while their arms were totally unfit for prompt execution. As for the Nawāb’s troops organized in imitation of the E. I. Company’s battalions, they were, even on actual service, nothing but "food for powder". Such as had bayonets had no locks: those that had hammers to their locks, had no cock, or at any rate the flints were wanting. Such ammunition and cartridges as there were had, through damp and time, become so incorporated with the wooden pouch-blocks, that when touched the tops came off, leaving the powder and ball a fixture. A battalion of Najībs could with ease cut to atoms half a dozen of those mock regiments.