Martial race was a designation created by Army officials of
British India after the
Indian Rebellion of 1857, where they classified each
caste into one of two categories, 'martial' and 'non-martial'. The ostensible reason was that a 'martial race' was typically brave and well-built for fighting, while the 'non-martial races' were those whom the British believed to be unfit for battle because of their
sedentary lifestyles. However, an alternative hypothesis is that British-trained Indian soldiers were among those who rebelled in 1857 and thereafter recruitment policy favoured castes which had remained loyal to the British and diminished or abandoned recruitment from the catchment area of the
Bengal army. The concept already had a precedent in Indian culture as one of the four orders (
varnas) in the
Vedic social system of Hinduism is known as the
Kshatriya, literally "warriors."