In initial encounters the British had found the Moplars to be a warlike race[2] and in 1901 it was decided to try and recruit them for the Indian Army.
[3] The 77th and 78th Moplar Rifles were accordingly raised as battalion-sized units A problem from the beginning was that with a population basis totalling only one million the number of Moplah males available for recruitment was limited.
Used to a moist and humid environment the Moplah sepoys encountered difficulty in acclimatising to the harsh dry climate of the frontier region.
[5] The Arab origin of both Moplar regiments was reflected in the adoption of red fezs - an unusual item of uniform in the Indian Army of the period where turbans of various patterns were the norm.
After the regiment's disbandment, the military colours of the 77th Moplah Rifles was buried within the west wall of St. Mark's Cathedral, Bangalore.