Hi Richard,
this is Jim McDougal's, Jens', Lew's (to name a few) 'territory'.
But I'll have a bash.....
As is known,.. the quality of Tulwars varies from the beautifully forged Wootz blades to the 'munitions' grade. I feel one of the problems for the British Army's sabres was the fact of the regulation sword 'pattern'. It seems that swords were not 'customised' to the individual user, which I feel would have been a disadvantage.(soldiers of differing stature, build etc would not all be suited to the same sized, similarly weight sword)
AFAIK There were large numbers of 'munition' grade Tulwars in Armouries...but a good number of Indo-Perian soldiers owned their Tulwars privately or could at least have a Tulwar built/adapted to their specification (meaning ,blade curveature, thickness, weight, balance point etc). I am no expert on Military patterns, but I think the 'pattern' sabres progressively became less acute in their curveature, making 'slashing' type cuts less effective.... to the point that around the mid 19c all new patterns were relatively straight. (Definately Jim's or Paul's input needed to ensure I've got this right
)
Obviously, firearms were now the primary weapon with the sword secondary. So it is likely that 'costs' aided the 'War office pen pushers' decision to provide cheaper alternatives to a decent Sabre.
The Tulwar described in the quoted passages seems to have a blade of excellent quality ...........
As we're talking Tulwars this may be of interest...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OddtPds_sbA