Gurkhas face their toughest battle as cuts threaten their future

The Gurkhas have been part of the British Army for nearly 200 years but these Nepalese soldiers, famous across the world for their discipline and courage, could be sacrificed as part of the battle over defence spending as the MoD tries to balance the books.

Last year, a high-profile campaign led by Joanna Lumley succeeded in improving Gurkha rights, including the right to settle in the UK. But this could prove to be a Pyrrhic victory with Tory MP Patrick Mercer, a former Army officer, warning that the Gurkhas were under threat.

"The great benefit that the Gurkhas had in the past was twofold – the first is that they were cheap, much cheaper than the British equivalent, and secondly they were plentiful," he says. "Well, now they are not so cheap and now British recruiting has never been higher."

A strategic Defence and Security review is due to be concluded in the autumn and although the MoD has refused to be drawn on specific issues it has said that "tough decisions" will have to be made. Some defence experts have claimed that Lumley's triumph last year had piled costs on to the running of the Gurkhas, as those soldiers who move to Britain will be entitled to full pensions, while those in Nepal receive around a third of what former British soldiers get.

Historically, Gurkhas who had served their time in the Army – a maximum of 30 years – were discharged back to Nepal, but this has now changed.

Veterans are also fighting for equal pensions with the soldiers they served alongside, and in 2007 they won a partial victory when pension rules were changed to give serving Gurkha soldiers equal pension rights with other service personnel in the UK.

The Gurkhas have been an integral part of the British Army since 1815, when the British East India Company signed a peace deal allowing it to recruit Nepalese soldiers. Following the partition of India in 1947, an agreement between Nepal, India and Britain led to four Gurkha regiments from the Indian army being transferred to the British Army and eventually becoming the Gurkha Brigade.

Since then, they have loyally fought for Britain all over the world, receiving 13 Victoria Crosses between them. More than 200,000 Gurkhas fought in the two world wars, during which 43,000 lost their lives. The name "Gurkha" comes from the hill town of Gorkha in Nepal and they still carry their traditional weapon – an 18-inch long curved knife known as the kukri. In the past, it was said that once a kukri was drawn in battle, it had to "taste blood". Nowadays it is used mainly for cooking.

The soldiers are selected from young men living in the hills of Nepal – with about 28,000 youths competing for just over 200 places each year. The selection process has been described as one of the toughest in the world, the would-be soldiers are expected to run uphill for 40 minutes carrying a wicker basket on their back filled with rocks weighing 70lb.

Their numbers have fallen sharply from a peak of 112,000 men during the Second World War, to a figure of about 3,500 today. Despite this

decline, Major Gerald Davies, curator of the Gurkha Museum, in Winchester, says the Gurkhas have played a key role in Britain's history. "They first entered the British psyche during the Indian

Mutiny when they remained loyal to the crown and then during the two world wars their manpower was crucial to Britain as it allowed the Indian Army to go overseas."

He says the relationship between Britain and Nepal is a long and illustrious one. "At great cost to their own nation Nepal has come to Britain's aid when we have been in times of peril. Nepal is our oldest ally in Asia and the two countries have a special treaty of friendship, not only in military terms, but on a state-to-state basis that has endured for nearly 200 years."