The Officer and his Batman

When my friend told me the story of the bench warmer tradition in his erstwhile battalion, I was somewhat surprised, though not astounded. The British implanted some queer customs during the buildup of the Indian armed forces, and if you search you can find many. This one comes from a station somewhere up North, where the winters can be biting cold, and where the Sikh regiment had been billeted. It was a long standing tradition from who knows when and the story of its origin had been passed down the proverbial grapevine, to the present day. The British CO (Commanding officer), he said, had a daughter who used to come in the mornings, to where soldiers fell in and congregated for morning prayers. I don’t know why she came often, but take it for a moment that she was genuinely interested and quite fastidious about attending these prayers, albeit from a distance. 

The bench overlooking the Gurudwara where she would sit every time she came was made of cement or granite, and the result of the meeting of a compact derriere belonging to this English lass wearing just skirts (my assumption), with a biting cold bench surface, can easily be imagined with a grimace. The CO, her caring pop, decided that matters had to be set right and so a Sepoy was selected (how one selects a man with the warmest arse, is not a question I can answer, but thou shalt not ask such questions when I retell these stories) to get there ahead of time and warm the bench. So he did and when the lady in question arrived, he would slink away to perform his normal duties.  As I understood, the tradition continues with a Jawan still being selected for bench warming duty, though there is no CO’s daughter any longer. Still there, it is just that, a tradition, followed perhaps for military decorum…. Now most sportsmen would perk up to mention that there are bench warmers even today, those who do not play a match, substitutes or just members of a team who sit on the bench at the sidelines, nevertheless this story of a real benchwarmer was new to me.

But the article is not about bench warmers actually, it is about the batmen. Worry not, I am not going to write about the comic strip character and his sidekick Robin, I am going to cover the batman in the British and Indian army. Today the position is almost on its way out after having morphed through many names. But we will get to most of them.  The gist of the matter is that the batman was a personal servant or valet of a British Indian army officer. Sometimes it was purely personal duties, sometimes, it overlapped to that of an orderly or even to carry out radio duties, but we will get to all that eventually. That it was a necessity then, a tradition or even a matter of prestige, needs no mention. But the name is a curiosity, how and where did it come about?

The batman had nothing to do with bats (unlike the comic strip) or bat caves, but actually originated with horses and the term can be traced to pack horses in the French army. In French the term Bat signified pack saddles and bat horses (baw hors or bor hors) carried the cooking utensils of a traveling army. The person assigned to look after these horses and utensils were the original batmen. Over time, they took responsibility for all baggage of the regiment, and went on to become the keeper (baw man or bor man or bat man) of the officer’s horse. They were paid, as you can conclude, bat money.  Batmen were common in all armies and you will find books from the past mentioning the term often, be it Russian, East European, British or French. It was a common concept, the assistant or servant of a high ranking officer, like a Man Friday and make note of the real old pronunciation, it was bawman, not BATman.

Now it is time for the curious one to pipe in and ask, so is that the origin of the term bata or daily bata in the Indian expense statements? Well, no, while BATA is an acronym for boarding allowance travel allowance, Batta is maintenance or traveling expenses of an employee. It evolved as a common term for an extra allowance paid on special grounds to British officers, soldiers, and others serving in India! Batta came from Bhatta (Kannada for paddy and bhat - boiled rice), the term for this allowance, which in addition to their ordinary salary, provided officers with money for field-equipment and other expenses when on the march. In south India, East India Company officers were paid half batta while in the North, full batta (about Rs 600 or £60) was paid monthly!

If you wonder why I brought up the definition of batta, you will soon detect a possible link. In the early EIC days, the officer in the EIC army was paid a fixed amount and a batta, and with it he had to manage his expenses, his horse and well his servant. So the batta was used for all that and I could also infer (wrongly) that the man maintained with a batta may have been the original Indian batman. Perhaps that was a given, and the Batman became an institution even with the horse and the batman directly paid for by the British Indian army. When the use of horses for conveyance tapered overtime and mechanized armies were housed in billets, the batman simply became the British officer’s servant. His duties were varied and he had to take care of all sundry matters while the office rested and cleared his mind for more important matters!

As time sped by, this small cog in the gigantic army machine got delegated to mere mentions in officer’s memoirs, though some of them batmen did go on to choose their own illuminating careers. Many of them followed their officers in retirement to work in their homes as butlers or secretaries. But let us spend a little while to check their lives and times.

As you may have inferred, all commissioned officers were therefore assigned a Batman who served as a personal servant and assistant. While there were assigned duties which we will get into, one can generally state that they acted as runners to convey orders from the officers, as drivers, as valets, maintaining the officer’s uniform, handled the radio at times and had various other roles such as limiting and regulating personal access to the officer during busy and testing times.  It was always considered a good role in the past, because batmen received better rations and often, favors from their officers. He had in the old times, that is, among other unsaid duties, more formal ones such as waking up the officer, getting his bed tea and breakfast ready, whipping up the shaving lather, lighting the fire and getting (upto an inch of hot bath water as they say, for the tin tub) his bath water ready, collecting rations, cooking meals, cleaning the quarters, handling his laundry, maintaining the officers personal effects and sometimes even sorting of mail and handling communications as a radio man. Sometime it was just a lots of drudge work such as being a dogsbody (a menial worker, lackey or a gopher – but not a dog walker) for his boss! Dog robber" is American military slang, dating back to the US Civil War, for an enlisted man who acts as an orderly, valet and all-around facilitator for an officer.

There are so many stories mentioning batmen, be it the Russian novels of acclaim such as ‘the brothers Karamazov’ or various British officer’s accounts from the first and second world wars. Some mention them in passing, some talk about heroic batmen they associated with, some talk about their sheer necessity. These foreign accounts mention British and Australian batmen, while Indian and old BIA officers mention Indian batmen. They are interspersed or mixed up with orderlies, aides, assistants, aides, in all a confusing glossed over compendium, to say the least. Interestingly, there were batwomen as well, and we come across stories of British and Australian women who worked in camp messes as well as Red army girls appointed as batwomen to Red Air Force captains, with various kitchen duties including that of procuring necessities. Kay Summersby who served for Gen Eisenhower is sometimes termed a batwoman, though she was actually his confidante, chauffer and later secretary.

But it should also be noted that during the great wars, the batman was sometimes voluntary as one officer stated - senior officers on the staff and in command positions were entitled to a personal staff, including a batman. It was usual to seek a volunteer from the senior officer's regiment who was detached from the regiment and posted to the senior officer's headquarters or unit. A batman was in British Army parlance an officer's uniformed servant or orderly, supposedly taken on as a voluntary extra duty, for which the officer paid for the service. In the trenches, a batman carried his personal weapon and often acted as a bodyguard, while the officer carried out his duties as a platoon, company or battalion commander.

James Belton and Ernst Odell explain in their WW memoirs - ‘Hunting the Hun’ - A batman is chosen by an officer to act as his orderly; his duties are many, and wherever the officer goes while in the trenches his batman accompanies him. The higher the rank of the officer the easier the work for the batman and the less the risk, although there are exceptional occasions when a commanding officer takes as much risk as the junior Lieutenant under him. When a platoon officer leads his platoon “over the top” his batman goes with him; he therefore takes the same risk as the other men in the platoon, but he has several privileges that the private has not, such as: after he has attended to the requirements of his officer when out of the line he may spend the balance of his time as he deems fit, he is exempt from sentry and fatigue duties, and as a rule he has a good standing with the boys.

Another Brit definition states - The batman's services consist principally in grooming the officer's regimental horses, and cleaning his accoutrements, but he sometimes goes on errands, and does anything else which may be required of him; the officer pays him a small weekly sum, fixed by the army regulations, and he is subject to all military duty, at the will of the commanding officer, and attends the parades; he also receives a soldier's pay.

The aide-de-camp in comparison is not a batman, but he used to be an officer on the personal staff of a very high-ranking military person, acting as his confidential secretary in routine matters. In modern times aides-de-camp are usually of junior rank and their duties largely social.

Radhika Singha who studied these subsidiaries (see references), explains - As the British entrenched themselves in India and availed of comforts, they too employed a number of servants, both in the army and in civil positions. However British officers in pre-war India, whether in the British army or in the Indian army were not allowed a British soldier-servant, that is a batman. The official reason was that the white combatant strength had to be kept up. By the close of World War one, the Indian service was said to be unpopular with British officers, so it was felt that they had to be offered more 'concessions in kind'. The Esher Committee appointed in 1919-20 to suggest army reforms proposed that officers of the British service be allowed a British soldier-servant (a batman) from the ranks when in India, as they were in the U.K., and British officers of the Indian service, a soldier-servant from the Indian ranks, deploying special enlistments if necessary. She adds that if high caste sepoys objected to 'menial' work, lower castes could be specially recruited as soldier-servants, clarifying also that British privates avoided the job and resisted the performance of 'menial' tasks in the sight of natives..

Officers received an allowance for a syce (grass-cutter and groom) and took him into active service as a 'private follower'. Thus we find the formal usage of the term orderly.  British Officers of Indian regiments were also assigned a sepoy as an orderly, who on active service took messages, cleaned his kit, found him food and a billet.

After the British left, the Indian army continued with the system, terming them buddies initially and later as the sahayak. The system became quite popular and lent prestige to a senior officer, so much so that when suggestions came to dispense with it as it was felt a demeaning activity and no longer a necessity for a modern army, there was marked discontent in the officer’s line. The Sahayak meanwhile was getting upset when some officer spouses would get him to do vegetable shopping, menial household work, baby sitting or even dog walking. Was that what he signed up to do in the army? Was it his choice? The discontent increased and the clamor to end a system that has been referred to as "an anachronism" and "a feudal practice", which has no place in a modern army, had become strident.

While the air force and Navy had disbanded the system long back, the army is still contending with some 30,000 sahayaks (and 41,000 officers). Looking at the Lok Sabha report, we see that the duties presently assigned to a Sahayak are: to provide personal protection and security, to attend to telephones, receive and deliver messages during operations, training and exercise, and in peace,to maintain weapons, uniforms and equipment of Officers/Junior Commissioned Officers in accordance with custom and usage in the Army, to assist in digging trenches, erect bivouacs and shelters during war, training or exercise, while the leaders are more busy in planning, coordination and execution of operations, to be of assistance during patrols and independent missions, to carry and operate radio sets, maps and other military equipment during operations, training cadres and outdoor exercises. In 2010 the defence committee recommended that the practice be abolished stating - The Committee expect the Ministry of Defence to issue instructions to stop the practice forthwith, as this lowers the self-esteem of the Jawan.

The army replied as follows - that the Sahayak is a comrade-in-arms to Officer/JCO symbolizing trust, respect, warmth, confidence and interdependence, which are the fundamentals of relations between the leaders and the led. The Sahayak is a solider who in addition to his duties provides the essential support to authorized Officers and JCOs, both in peace and war to enable them to fully attend to their assigned duty. He also provides leaders a direct contact with men and thus enables officers and JCOs to gain an insight into the state of morale and wellbeing of men. The Sahayak will be attached to regular Army units and provided proper living accommodation and messing facilities. The officers to whom Sahayaks are provided will ensure such facilities are arranged. And finally, that Sahayaks will not be employed for menial house-hold work.

In summary, The Ministry while defending the use of Sahayaks by Army officers only concluded that comprehensive instructions be issued to regulate the work of Sahayaks. They added that the Committee is not able to understand the necessity of having the services of Sahayaks by the Army officers particularly when sister services viz Navy and Air Force have abandoned this practice. Meanwhile, the system continued.

As I researched this topic further, I chanced upon the sad story of Gunner Roy Mathew and his death at Deolali in 2017, a case which brought out the worst side of the Sahayak or buddy system hit the press, and turned out to be complicated one, still under investigation.

The MOD added in a 2017 justification press release that during operations in the field areas, the sahayak and the Officer / JCO act as buddies in arms. One covers the movement of the other buddy and protects him in operations where support has to be total, whether mental or physical or moral. A Sahayak, in addition to his normal soldier’s tasks, provides essential support to officers / JCOs both in peace and war, which enables them to fully attend to their assigned duties. The buddy also provides an alternate contact with the troops, whereby the officer is made aware of grass root issues, albeit through informal means. Clarifying that they should not be used for menial tasks, reiterate that buddies are combatant soldiers and form part of the Army and perform operational tasks as well. Thus, there is no additional cost to Government exchequer.

The deliberations are perhaps still on, while Sahayaks continue to do what they did. The term batman meanwhile died a silent death, unheralded and unlauded.

But there were heartwarming stories too, especially those dating to the war days. O. P. Bahukhandi in his Army Oh Army, mentions the close relationship between the officer and his batman. During the 1962 Indo China conflict, Capt Basant Singh (who retired as colonel) of the Sikh light infantry, refused to abandon his wounded batman and humped him back to safety through the mountains and jungles of Bhutan, himself hungry, sleepless and with festering sores. Lt Col Desmond Hayde recalls how he was saved from certain death when his batman Kunwar lal rushed in to shoot down three Pakistani assailants in the 1965 war. And there is also the story of a batman who went on to become an MLA after retiring from the army, as mentioned in Brig Kuldip Singh’s memoirs.

Blackford in his book humorously talks about Mustaffa, who regularly brought him his chota hazri (breakfast), hot water for a shave, organized the emptying of his thunderbox (shitpot), took care of his bath, had the dhobi starch and iron his uniforms, polished his shoe and shin straps, kept his tent spic and span and served his food. For this the British deducted Rs 50 from his emoluments and in addition, he paid him directly a sum of Rs 30 plus a baksheesh now and then as the master pleased! He goes on to term the batman ‘the Jeeves in Uniform’ (Jeeves would be familiar to the rare PG Wodehouse fan still out there). Glorifying the batman, who could very well turn out to be a friend, philosopher and guide, he provides yet another term – the batman during peace times was a madadgar (helper) or a Johnny who sometimes kept and controlled the officer’s expenditure and accounts. An invaluable asset, he even provided advance warning of major events or shakeup’s in progress, tapping the batman network’s upper echelons.

He also recounts the story of Field marshal Claude Auchinleck’s (Auk) sudden arrival at his post. Auchinleck had heard about a particular unit’s posting in this area and expressed his interest to visit them, much to the dismay of its CO. The CO hurriedly passed orders down and in haste they decided also to send out a particular officer nick named Bhola, one with a very Indian outlook as explained by Blackford and somewhat of an embarrassment, on a long reconnaissance trip to avoid any problems when the FM came. As it turned out, the FM was there only to check on the very same Bhola, asking in his booming voice ‘where is my Bhola?’, who as it turned out, happened to be Auk’s ageing batman’s son. The FM wanted to see the young fella, and make sure he was getting along well. What happened when he found him missing is left to reader’s imagination and naturally did not bode well for the CO.

There is the story of Lord Ismay’s batman (from the times when he was a military man in India) - Ismay had, for more than twenty years, been supplementing his old Muslim batman’s Army pension with one of his own. Just before he arrived in India, his bank manager wrote to tell him that the pension hadn’t been collected for some weeks. He realized why when he reached Delhi. His batman, hearing of his appointment on the radio, had set out on foot and walked for weeks and was waiting in Delhi to serve him again. And then, there is Sam Gamjee, Tolkien’s famous creation, Frodo Baggins’s Batman familiar to young readers.

Servants are nothing new in India and define high position, even today. They have been there before the British arrived and though the batman is as we saw, a colonial vestige, like so many other remnants of the British, such positions would surely have been there in native armies of various princely states even before the Brits came and I am sure, will remain for a long time to come.

References

The world in world wars: experiences, perceptions and perspectives from Africa and Asia - Front lines and status lines: Sepoy and 'menial' in the Great War 1916-1920 -Radhika Singha

Searching for Pop - Michael R. Brookbank

One hell of a life – Capt Stan Blackford

Standing committee on Defence - thirty first report October, 2008, 4^th report 2010,

Note - While writing this I recalled a place from my Turkey days, located in SE Anatolian region of Turkey, named Batman after the Batman River. Nobody really knows how its name came by, perhaps it was a shortening of the Bati Raman Mountain located nearby (bati means west). Batman is also a unit of weight in Turkey! The unit of weight maund in India is somewhat equivalent to the batman in Turkey. Batman’s mayor Huseyin Kalkan once tried to sue Warner brothers for mental agony, and loss of identity, on the basis that there is only one batman, and that was in Turkey. Perhaps Kalkanbey has never heard of the Batmen in the armies…