Do you know why soldiers wear khaki? So that they can hide themselves easily and are less likely to be spotted by their enemies. In the 1840s, Lieutenant Harry Lumsden was forming a regiment of cavalry and infantry in northern India, and was given permission to arm and dress his men as he wished. Since they would have to fight with the natives, he decided that his men should wear uniforms the colour of the local ground, so that they would be inconspicuous, and had cloth specially dyed locally. It was called khaki after the Urdu word for dusty.