Cap badge, Mahar Regiment, 1941-1946

Blackened brass badge with upright obelisk or 'Victory Pillar', with a scroll bearing the battle honour, 'Kore' and 'Gaon', with the unit title, 'Mahar' below.

Soldiers from the Mahar community of Maharashtra in India were a mainstay of the East India Company's Bombay Army. Although this badge dates from World War Two, the battle honour and the obelisk device featured on it commemorate the Battle of Koregaon, fought in 1818, where Mahar troops helped the Company defeat forces of the Maratha Confederacy. To commemorate the victory, the East India Company commissioned the 'victory pillar', an obelisk memorial, in Koregaon.

Reorganisation of the Indian Army in the 1890s resulted in the demobilisation of the Mahar Regiment but a new Mahar battalion was raised during World War One. Disbandment followed the end of the Great War. During World War Two the Mahar Regiment was raised again in 1941, with units serving on the North West Frontier and in Burma and Persia.

The Regiment was renamed the Mahar Machine Gun Regiment in 1946. After independence in 1947, the Indian Army's Mahar Regiment retained the crossed Vickers machine gun insignia of this unit but replaced the obelisk with a katar dagger.

From the Field Marshal Sir John Chapple Indian Army Collection.