who had sided with the rebel army during the war. Some authors, such as Heather Streets, argue that the military authorities puffed up the images of the martial soldiers by writing regimental histories, and by extolling the kilted Scots, kukri-wielding Gurkhas and turbaned Sikhs in numerous paintings. Richard Schultz, an American author, has claimed the martial race concept as a supposedly clever British effort to divide and rule the people of India for their own political ends. Tribes and groups designated as martial races In British colonial times British-declared martial races in the Indian subcontinent included some groups that were officially designated instead as "agricultural tribes" under the provisions of the Punjab Land Alienation Act of 1900. These terms were considered to be synonymous when the administration compiled a list in 1925. Among the communities listed as martial were: Ahir Arain Awan Baloch Brahmins Dogra Gakhar Gurjars Janjua Jat Kamboh Khokhar Labana Mahton Mughal Saini Pathan Rajputs Rowthers Qureshi Sial Syed Communities that were at various times classified as martial races include: Sudhan Pathan Gaur Brahmin Bhumihar Brahmins Garhwali Gurkhas Kumaoni Kurmi Marathas Mohyal Brahmin Naga people Mukkulathor Nairs Post-colonial period India India was quick to formally disclaim the martial races theory after gaining independence. The largest single of source recruitment for the British Indian Army had come from Punjab, with Sikhs and Punjabi Muslims particularly preferred, with the result that at independence over 50% of the new Indian Armed Forces' senior officers came from East Punjab, despite the fact that it made up just 5% of the new country's population. Recognizing the destabilising potential of an unrepresentative armed forces, Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru soon urged the Commander-in-Chief, India and Defence Secretary to undertake "large scale reform to the armed forces”. However, while most caste or tribal bars on recruitment were lifted, recruitment in regions populated by the former "martial races" was progressively intensified, with the result that by the beginning of the 1970s, India had more than doubled the number of "martial class" units. The Punjab Regiment, which recruits mainly Sikhs and Dogras, had gone from five to 29 battalions since independence, while the Rajputana Rifles, which is mainly composed of Jats and Rajputs, increased from six to 21 battalions over the same time period. The three states that comprised the former East Punjab—Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, and Punjab—remain substantially over-represented in the contemporary Indian Armed Forces. In 2001, Haryana,