The 74th Punjabis were an infantry regiment of the British Indian Army

British Indian Army

The British Indian Army, officially simply the Indian Army, was the principal army of the British Raj in India before the partition of India in 1947...

. They could trace their origins to 1776, when they were raised as the 14th Carnatic Battalion.

The regiment first saw action during the Carnatic Wars

Carnatic Wars

The Carnatic Wars were a series of military conflicts in the middle of the 18th century on the Indian subcontinent...

. This was followed by the Battle of Sholinghur

Battle of Sholinghur

The Battle of Sholinghur was fought on 27 September 1781 between forces of the Kingdom of Mysore led by Hyder Ali and British East India Company forces led by General Eyre Coote. The company forces were victorious.-References:*Vibart, H. M ....

  in the Second Anglo-Mysore War

Second Anglo-Mysore War

The Second Anglo-Mysore War was a conflict in Mughal India between the Sultanate of Mysore and the British East India Company. At the time, Mysore was a key French ally in India, and the Franco-British conflict raging on account of the American Revolutionary War helped spark Anglo-Mysorean...

 and the Battle of Mahidpur

Battle of Mahidpur

The Battle of Mahidpur was fought during the Third Anglo-Maratha War between the Marathas and the British led by Sir Thomas Hislop at Mahidpur, a town in the Malwa region, on 20 December 1817....

 in the Third Anglo-Mysore War

Third Anglo-Mysore War

The Third Anglo-Mysore War was a war in South India between the Sultanate of Mysore and the British East India Company and its allies, including the Mahratta Empire and the Nizam of Hyderabad...

. Their next destination was China for the Opium Wars

Opium Wars

The Opium Wars, also known as the Anglo-Chinese Wars, divided into the First Opium War from 1839 to 1842 and the Second Opium War from 1856 to 1860, were the climax of disputes over trade and diplomatic relations between China under the Qing Dynasty and the British Empire...

 and in 1885 the took part in the Third Burmese War.

During World War I

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

 they were part of the 8th Lucknow Division

8th Lucknow Division

The 8th Lucknow Division was a formation of the British Indian Army's Northern Army that was first formed as a result of the Kitchener reforms of the Indian Army in 1903...

 which remained in India on internal security and training duties they were then posted to the 10th (Irish) Division in 1918, and took part in the Sinai and Palestine Campaign

Sinai and Palestine Campaign

The Sinai and Palestine Campaigns took place in the Middle Eastern Theatre of World War I. A series of battles were fought between British Empire, German Empire and Ottoman Empire forces from 26 January 1915 to 31 October 1918, when the Armistice of Mudros was signed between the Ottoman Empire and...

.

After World War I the Indian government reformed the army moving from single battalion regiments to multi battalion regiments. In 1922, the 74th Punjabis became the 4th Battalion, 2nd Punjab Regiment

2nd Punjab Regiment

The 2nd Punjab Regiment was a British Indian Army regiment from 1922 to the partition of India in 1947.The regiment was formed by the amalgamation of other regiments:*1st Battalion, from the 67th Punjabis, formerly the 7th Regiment of Madras Native Infantry...

. This new regiment was disbanded in 1947.

Predecessor names

• 14th Carnatic Battalion - 1776
• 14th Madras Battalion - 1784
• 2nd Battalion, 6th Madras Native Infantry - 1796
• 14th Madras Native Infantry - 1824
• 14th Madras Infantry - 1885
• 74th Punjabis - 1903