by Mukul Deva
The runway of Dacca airport had been heavily bombed and cratered by the Indian Air Force at the outbreak of the war, and had still not been repaired. The pilot flew over the damaged runway a couple of times before he finally managed to land. It must have been a hair-raising landing, as the pilot barely managed to bring the aircraft to a halt a few metres short of the first crater.
‘I had not heard a louder roar in my life,’ Paunchy, who, though still not fully healed, had been unable to keep himself away from Dacca and was now watching the action from the control tower. ‘When Mujib emerged from the aircraft, it was as though the world had gone mad. There were thousands of Bengalis at the airfield and they gave voice to their pleasure when they saw the man who had spearheaded their struggle for freedom.’
Paunchy was unable to contain himself and despite orders to the contrary, rushed forward to shake hands with Mujib-ur-Rehman.
Soon, it was time to bid farewell to the land they had shed blood on and wrested freedom for. On 12 March 1972, as a befitting acknowledgement of the battalion’s role in the war, 4 Guards was selected to represent the Indian Army at a farewell parade held at Dacca stadium.
4 Guards marching past – Farewell parade at Dacca Stadium on 12 March 1972
Thousands of jubiliant Bengalis packed the stadium, more vociferous and excitable than ever before.
Sheikh Mujib addresses the parade and thanks India
The parade was commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Himmeth Singh, and reviewed personally by Sheikh Mujib-ur-Rehman. The Sheikh addressed our troops and thanked the Government of India and the Indian Army for their help and sacrifices in the liberation of his country.
Sheikh Mujib signing the 4 Guards Visitor Book
Major Kharbanda, Major General J.F.R. Jacob, Lieutenant General Jagjit Singh Aurora and Sheikh Mujib-ur-Rehman
THE
HOMECOMING
A young battalion comprising really young officers had gone to war. The youngest was nineteen-year-old Medappa. In the real world, he would have just stopped wearing braces and barely have been given a driver’s license. In this gory world, he found himself leading thirty-eight men (two for every year of his life) through a nightmare of mud, slush, machine gun fire and artillery shelling. Paunchy, the second-in-command, was twenty-eight, and in between them lay the other fourteen officers. Himmeth, who commanded this motley group, was forty-three, twenty-one years of which had been spent in uniform.
Officers and JCOs of 4 Guards
Seated (L-R):Major S. Marwah, Panditjee, Major Gus Debu, S. M. Man Singh, Lieutenant Colonel Himmeth Singh, Lieutenant Colonel K.M. Muthanna, Subedar Rawat Singh, Major Chandra Kant, JCO Dogra.
Standing (L-R):Subedar Gurvachan Singh, Ramji Lal, Raghubir, --------, Lieutenants Yadav and Jaiveer with the regimental colours, Captain V. K. Dewan, Tibat Singh, Ramlochan, Naib Subedar Basti Ram.
Standing last row (L-R):Bishan Singh, Kashmir Singh, Dhuri Ram,--------, Subedar Makhan Lal, Tirath Singh, Desram, Edu. JCO, Naib Subedar Subhash Chander.
In the aftermath, like the slowly fading rush of adrenaline, came the reality of what we call normal life. The change was surreal; perhaps completely unreal. Each one of the men handled it differently. Some felt there was nothing else the Army could offer them, and left. Some shed the uniform, feeling hurt and betrayed, by a nation that chose to forget them. Some, career-oriented soldiers who could not envisage a life less ordinary, stayed on.
Himmeth Singh rose through the ranks till he became a Lieutnant General and was awarded the PVSM (Param Vishisth Seva Medal). He served as GOC 10 Corps, Commandant IMA, and Commandant NDC, after which he retired on 30 June 1987. Post retirement, he served as advisor to His Excellency, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, the then Defence Minister and now the Emir of Qatar. Himmeth passed away on 3 January 2000.
Himmeth bids farewell to fellow officers
Paunchy (Major Chandrakant), who was awarded the Vir Chakra for his role in this war, and Tuffy (Major S. P. Marwah), the Sena Medal, both took premature retirement and are now self employed.
Major V. K. Dewan received a ‘Mention in Dispatches’, served his full term in the Army and is now self employed.
Major Kharbanda, also awarded the Vir Chakra, stayed on in service till his retirement as a Lieutnant Colonel. He expired soon after, on 18 April 1998.
Granthi (Lieutenant Colonel Surinder Singh) and Lieutenant Colonel K. S. Yadav, both commanded 4 Guards eventually, and after retirement are now self employed.
"The ones that nation forget--widows veterans."
Front row:Honorary Captain Pati Ram, Pushpa Devi, W/o.Giranth Singh, Shanti Devi W/o.Hans Ram, Guardsman Brij Nandan, Guardsman Ramnath, ---------.
Second row:Naik Shri Kishan, Guardsman Subedar, Guardsman Ujagar Lal, Guardsman Ram Sarthi,--------, Guardsman Suresh Singh, Guardsman Ramdin, Guardsman Ram Saran.
Third row:Guardsman Ram Prakash, Guardsman Jiva Lal, Major Chandrakant VrC., Guardsman Raghubir Singh, Guardsman Salik Ram, -------
Major L. M. Singh, Lieutenant Colonel Amar Singh Chauhan, Lieutenant Colonel B. B. Midha, Lieutenant S. Karmarkar, Captain Sahani, Major Vijay Uppal and Brigadier Medappa also completed their Army tenures, and are now self employed.
Captain RAK' Maneck retired as a Lieutnant Colonel and is now the regional head of Maharashtra, Gujarat and Goa, of the Mumbai-based Securitrans India Private Limited, a cash-in-transit company.
Lieutnant General Shamsher Mehta (Armoured Corps), PVSM, AVSM and Bar, VSM, retired after serving as GOC-in-C (General Officer Commanding in Chief) Western Command, and is now settled in Pune.
Major Rajendra Mohan (Armoured Corps) took voluntary retirement and once he had recovered from his horrific burn wounds, served as an Executive Director with ONGC (Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited).
Of the JCOs, NCOs and Other Ranks, I wish I could give a detailed listing of each one of them, since they were heroes, each one of them. And have been forgotten by the country, as soldiers are wont to be.
However, I do not think this story would be complete without mentioning at least a few of them, and their widows.
It was the near fanatic dedication of Mrs Jane Himmeth Singh that brought to light the stories of the veterans of this war and their widows, who would have been well nigh impossible to find otherwise. But I am glad they were found and I can share these stories with you. It will help you realize the plight of the loved ones of those who gave their lives for the country.
Bhind and Morena, in the badlands of the Chambal ravines, are one of the traditional recruitment areas for the Guards regiment. The hundred-kilometre ride to the Bhind Sainik Kalyan Board, on a dusty, bumpy road, took almost five hours.
Another half-an-hour’s drive through the narrow lanes of Bhind brings one to the Shaheed (Martyr’s) Colony, built by the government for war widows of the Indian Army. Contrary to the grand name, the colony is just a cluster of terribly dilapidated huts, not very different from the slums in Delhi, however without the TV antennae or any other signs of modernity or prosperity. Navigating past unplastered and unfinished red brick houses, narrow unpaved lanes, and uncovered drains finally led us to the house of Kailashi, the widow of Guardsman Jagdish Prasad.
Kailashi was sixteen when she received the telegram informing her of her husband’s death. She was living with her in-laws and had been married only a few months earlier, when Jagdish had come on leave. That was the first and the last time she saw him. She does not remember what he looked like for she had no photograph of his. In due course, she was informed that she was entitled to a special family pension of 132 rupees per month, which would continue only till the time she did not marry again, unless she married the brother of Jagdish.
Pushpa Devi, widow of Guardsman Giranth Singh
Kailashi, widow of Guardsman Jagdish Prasad, with Mrs. Jane Himmeth Singh
Next to the house of Kailashi is the house of Lakhpath Singh of Alpha Company, who, whilst wounded at Kodda, had been deliberately run
over by a Pakistani tank. Lakhpath’s wife was eighteen on the day he died. And she was pregnant then. Shortly after giving birth, she passed away, leaving the boy to be brought up by his grandparents.
Not much further away from them, in Fatehgarh district, lives Pushpa Devi, the widow of Guardsmen Giranth Singh. She was married to him when she was all of thirteen years old, and he, a grand sixteen. One year later, she joined him at his home, and in the five years that followed, bore him two sons and a daughter.
Madhuri Dixit, widow of Guardsman Raghunath Dixit
Giranth enlisted when he was twenty, and soon joined the proud ranks of 4 Guards. A few months before war broke out, Giranth arrived for two months’ leave. It was during this leave that their fourth child was conceived. A child who would never see his father, since Giranth Singh was declared ‘Missing In Action’ during the war. The loss of her husband netted Pushpa Devi the handsome amount of forty-two rupees per month. This was what she was expected to bring up her family of five on.
Several years elapsed before she was informed that Giranth had been killed and she was now officially a widow. From twenty-six years of age, Pushpa Devi has soldiered on, bringing up four children, two of them blind, on a meagre pension of 132 rupees a month.
Somewhat better off than them is Madhuri Dixit, the wife of Guardsman Raghunath Dixit.
To reach Madhuri’s small, but pucca house, one has to enter deep into the heart of Farrukhabad town and jump over open sewers and garbage heaps. She was all of seventeen years old when she got word that her husband was no more. Today, all she has of him is a photograph taken from his paybook, enlarged and morphed to include her standing beside him in her bridal finery. That, and some hazy memories, perhaps as hazy as the nation’s memories of its men in uniform, who sacrifice their lives in each war.
BACK
TO
THE
PRESENT
‘I never thought I would see you again, sahib,’ Naik Ganesha Singh’s voice cracked as the wizened old man reached out to embrace Paunchy. The babel of voices and excited expressions on the faces of the others conveyed the same sentiment.
I stood beside Mrs. Jane, Himmeth’s wife, watching them. They had gathered at Fatehgarh, to meet us and tell their story, rallied together by the call of the officers they had followed into battle all those years ago. I could see they were eager to tell their stories. Many had forgotten most of the stories. The others, who remembered, had given up hope that their stories would ever be told.
Age and life had taken its toll on them, but it was easy to see that they still retained that spark, that very special spark, which separates heroes from mere mortals.
I have had the pleasure of meeting war veterans before, and it was not hard for me to understand what they would have been like, back in those days.
Lord Tennyson’s ode to Ulyssses swept through me, unbidden:
Though much is taken, much abides; and though
We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven; that which we are, we are;
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.
I sat with them till the sun was low over the horizon, and heard their half-forgotten, half-scrambled stories. And these are what I have put together for you in the story I just shared.
Suresh Singh, Ganesha Singh, Mukund Singh, Tirath Singh and Pushpa Devi: forgotten remanants of a forgotten war.
As I walked away, I could not help think… With pride for what they had accomplished, with grief for all that they had lost, and with shame at the nation that had forgotten them. These simple, yet brave, men who had wrested freedom for a people not their own.
Despite everything, I had the satisfaction of knowing that the Garud they had marched under would be proud of them.
Letters of Appreciation received by 4 Guards
Officers of 4 Guards Who Fought the 1971 War
1.Lieutenant Colonel Himmeth Singh, Commandant
2.Major V. Uppal, D Company Commander
3.Major Chandra Kant, Vir Chakra, A Company Commander
4.Major S.P. Marwah, Sena Medal, C Company Commander
5.Major I.P. Kharbanda, Vir Chakra, B Company Commander
6.Major A.S. Chouhan, Adm Company Commander
7.Major V.K. Dewan, Adjutant
8.Captain Surinder Singh, D Company Commander (with effect 1 Dec 1971)
9.Lieutenant Ram Raj Singh, RCL PIatoon Commander
10.Captain L.M. Singh, Company Officer
11.Captain S.S. Sahni, B Company Commander (with effect 9 Dec 1971)
12.2nd Lieutenant B.B. Midha, Company Officer
13.Lieutenant K.S. Yadav, Intelligence Officer
14.2nd Lieutenant S.M. Karmarkar, Company Officer
15.2nd Lieutenant N.N. Madappa, Company Officer
16.2nd Lieutenant T.G. Verghese, Company Officer
17.Captain H.P. Sutradhar, Regimental Medical (Army Medical Corps), Officer
Honours and Awards