What did the Royal Sussex Regiment do in India between 1891-1897?

Question

My 2x Great Grandfather, James Walter Juden, served in the Royal Sussex Regiment from 1889 to 1902. I have a copy of his service records, which I have downloaded from FindMyPast; the images can be found at the bottom of this question.

He spent six years in India between 1891-97. What was happening there at this time, and what might he and his unit have been doing?

A related question. The reason I've split it in to two is because I'd like two complete answers and users might be experts in one field rather than both.

Source:

• Imgur Album of Records - http://imgur.com/a/ZsOcu

(Can also be found on FindMyPast searching 'James Walter Juden', in British Army Service Records 1760-1915)

Answer 1

Some negative results:

1. The Royal Sussex did not participate in the Relief of Chitral (1895)

2. The Royal Sussex participated in the Tirah Campaign (1897-8), but only after your ancestor's departure on Nov. 5, 1897; relieving 1st Battalion, The Devonshire Regiment, in the main column later that month (page 206, footnote 1). Of course in order to promptly perform that relief the Sussex would have had to be trailing the main force, and your ancestor likely was wounded or invalided as part of that maneuver - witness the length of his stay in England while his regiment remained on active duty.

Answer 2

Since he was in India, it could be that your granddaddy was sent to India because of the great revolt of 1857 which was partially a success. The revolt was successful in the removal of the British East India Company's rule from India and the application of Queen victoria's rule over India. After the act of 1858 which ended the company's rule, the army was reorganized. The no. of European soldiers was increased to 65,000 and the no. of Indian soldiers reduced to 140,000. All modern arms and weaponry was taken away from the Indian soldiers and were only to be handled by the European soldiers. Your granddaddy wouldn't have been in action for a particular span of time. In the year 1889, your granddaddy was 18 years old. He would have been sent into action but not too much during a very "Prominent" event. In the beginning of the 1900s, the British faced a lot of difficulties and sometimes they deployed the army due to the rise of (Assertive) nationalism in India. Especially during the non-cooperation movement in the 1920s and the civil disobedience movement in the 1930s.