Lingayat Battalion from 1939 to 1945

Lingayat community battalion

In 1941, the members of the Lingayat community, a group from southern India, were enlisted in the 1st Lingayat battalion which initially served as an infantry unit and subsequently as an anti-tank regiment till it was disbanded in the late 1950s.

From September 1939 until August 1945, recruitment was done at Regimental Centre at Belgaum for the Madras Regiment, the Mahar Regiment, and the Lingayat Regiment.

By the end of the World war-2 an entire garrison battalion of Lingayats was included in the Maratha Light Infantry. A large portion of these troops came from the Hyderabad State (i.e. before "States Reorganisation Act" was passed in 1956).