The 87th 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 1798, when they were raised as the 1st Battalion, 14th Madras Native Infantry.

The regiments first action was in 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....

 during the Third Anglo-Maratha War

Third Anglo-Maratha War

The Third Anglo-Maratha War was the final and decisive conflict between the British East India Company and the Maratha Empire in India. The war left the Company in control of most of India. It began with an invasion of Maratha territory by 110,400 British East India Company troops, the largest...

. Their next battle were in the Siege of Lucknow

Siege of Lucknow

The Siege of Lucknow was the prolonged defense of the Residency within the city of Lucknow during the Indian Rebellion of 1857. After two successive relief attempts had reached the city, the defenders and civilians were evacuated from the Residency, which was abandoned.Lucknow was the capital of...

 and the Capture of Lucknow

Capture of Lucknow

The Capture of Lucknow was a battle of Indian rebellion of 1857. The British recaptured the city of Lucknow which they had abandoned in the previous winter after the relief of a besieged garrison in the Residency, and destroyed the organised resistance by the rebels in the Kingdom of Awadh The...

 during the Indian Rebellion of 1857

Indian Rebellion of 1857

The Indian Rebellion of 1857 began as a mutiny of sepoys of the British East India Company's army on 10 May 1857, in the town of Meerut, and soon escalated into other mutinies and civilian rebellions largely in the upper Gangetic plain and central India, with the major hostilities confined to...

. They were next sent into Burma to take part in the Second Burmese War in 1885. 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 spent much of the time guarding the North West Frontier against incursions by Afghan tribesmen. They did send 1,400 men as reinforcements to other regiments and in 1917, were sent to take part in the Mesopotamia Campaign,

After World War I the Indian government reformed the army moving from single battalion regiments to multi battalion regiments. In 1922, the 87th Punjabis became the 5th 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 regiment was allocated to the Indian Army

Indian Army

The Indian Army is the land based branch and the largest component of the Indian Armed Forces. With about 1,100,000 soldiers in active service and about 1,150,000 reserve troops, the Indian Army is the world's largest standing volunteer army...

after independence.

Predecessor names

• 1st Battalion, 14th Madras Native Infantry - 1798
• 27th Madras Native Infantry - 1824
• 27th Madras Infantry - 1885
• 87th Punjabis - 1903