The myth that, Bengalis do not make a good soldier is entirely created by British colonials in their quest to fill the Indian army's rank by the loyal soldiers and exclude those whom they considered not trustworthy in their empire building efforts. As 1857 Sepoy mutiny started in Bengal and Bengali soldiers played key part in the rebellion, they became the villain in the eyes of the British colonials. Moreover, Bengal was the pioneer and the center of anti-colonial agitations, so Bengalis lost farther charm. It was a century of non-recruit policy which made soldering a relatively minor affairs for Bengalis.
But this was not always the case. Bengalis had a rich history of soldering and empire building before the British. Before the Islamic conquest, direction of empire expansion was mostly from east to west and many pan Indian empire had their nucleas in Bengal. Such as Gupta empire, Mauryan empire, Pala empire etc. Even after the Islamic conquest, Bengal remain independent saltenate for most of the times, though ruling class of Sultanate came from the Central Asian Muslims, but most of the soldiers were sons of the soil. With these sons of soil soldiers, Bengal's Baro Bhuiyan confederacy were able halt Mughal penetration in Bengal for 30 years. After the weakining of Mughal empire, when Maratha became the dominant force and captured almost all of modern India, they repeatedly invaded Bengal but were unable to conquer. Nawab Aliverdi Khan had a series battle against the Marathas and he was successful to preserve Bengal, Bihars independence. In those times, nobody called, Bengalis ''non martial race''. But British policy of divide and rule have successfully brainwashed a section of Sub continent people. Pak army leadership was among the most enthusiasts in believing those British lie.
