At its peak, the three presidency armies of the East India Company, based at Calcutta, Bombay, and Madras, had a combined field ready force of over 260,000 troops, roughly three quarters of whom were Indians. Compared to that, the current British army in total is roughly around 75,000, small enough to fit into a football stadium, a fact that has invited comments from the current British army chief about the necessities of a conscription in case of a major European war.
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