A slim, ramrod-straight man in immaculate Army uniform, along with a boy not yet in his teens and a sprightly little girl, were perhaps the first visitors at the Gandhi Samadhi on January 15, 1949. Paying floral homage to the Father of the Nation was the paramount act in the personal conduct of the first Indian Commander-in-Chief of the Army, General K.M. Cariappa (“Kipper” to his friends and peers).
There were no ceremonial trappings or guard of honour even when he simply walked into the appointed high office, after dropping his children home.
The Government of India had not been lacking in grace as evidenced in Home Minister Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel’s letter, “...your record of achievements inspire our confidence in your ability to lead your men at such a critical period of the country’s history, and I can assure you that we, on our part, will extend to you all goodwill and cooperation in the discharge of your responsibilities...”
When in October 1947, Pakistan ignited the J&K War, Major General Cariappa was neck-deep in the Army Reorganisation Committee, but in January 1948, he was promoted to command the newly created Western Command and conduct the war, at a time when the fall of Ladakh seemed imminent.
The next day, he was at Srinagar providing inspiring leadership to senior commanders and staff with forceful resolve. “We will not allow General Tariq to capture Leh. We have got to stop this and we will stop it... we have decided to take tanks up the Zoji Pass... a kind of operation which has never been done before... we will have a good shot at it,” goes a rare voice recording preserved in the archives. The rest is history.
The full measure of General Cariappa as man and Army chief perhaps best emerges from an hour-long conversation with P.U. Oza, a journalist who published the report “Meet India’s new Commander-in-Chief” on January 15, 1949.
Asked what he thought of the Indian soldier, General Cariappa’s instant response was “Magnificent! Second to none! ...in Kashmir, southerners and northerners alike were running up and down the snow-covered heights of 16,000-17,000 ft, unfazed... At home, the soldier is simple, almost like a child. In the battlefield, he is a veritable tiger, inspiring awe and fear. As a victor, he is restrained, unassuming, kind to his foe, devoid of any feeling of undue arrogance towards his captive...”
‘Dangerous canker’
Oza’s enquiry of the desirability of soldiers having political leanings obtained the following: “The C-in-C would like the public to understand that the Army must remain aloof from, and be above, politics... he would like to give the forces every opportunity to keep themselves informed on political affairs. But they must not go beyond as any participation in politics becomes a dangerous canker...” Oza concludes with the nugget that “Cariappa would like the Indian Army to be the best in the world based on ‘highest standards of loyalty, supreme sense of duty and selflessness in the service of the country, subordinating all interests, personal and sectarian...’”
And the boy who was with the C-in-C at the Gandhi Samadhi is a chip off the old block, a battle-hardened, distinguished fighter pilot of the 1965 and 1971 India-Pakistan wars, a veteran Air Marshal, and author of a charming biography, Field Marshal K.M. Cariappa, which provided me all the insights narrated above.
The writer is a retired
Lieutenant-General
naturefan3@gmail.com
