Rachna Bisht Rawat - The Brave: Param Vir Chakra Stories

The Army has given me nearly all the men I love right from my father, who is a proud paratrooper, and my brother, also a paratrooper, to my husband, who is an engineer. And though Saransh, my 12-year-old son, wants to be a WWF wrestler as of now, there will be no one prouder than my husband and I if he does decide to join the Army.

Friends, family, cousinsthese men in olive green have been around me for a lifetime, walking all over my carpet and my heart, with their dirty DMS boots, drinking Old Monk rum till kingdom come, driving me insane with their unpredictable lives, and melting me completely with a salute and a smile. And I cant thank the Army enough for giving them to me, well-groomed and spit-shined. Gallant and charming, proud yet humble, uncomfortably out of place in a materialistic world but continuing to live their lives with dignity in the most trying times, because thats the only way theyve been taught. The Brave is for them all.

This story began one evening when I was walking down the Mall in Ferozepur, the last cantonment on the Indo-Pak border, where kids raced bicycles and red poppies bloomed by the roadside. Looking up, I caught the eye of Company Havildar Major Abdul Hamid, PVC, of 4 Grenadiers, who was killed in 1965 while blowing up a Pakistani Patton tank from his RCL gun in the Khemkaran sector. He was watching me from a laminated poster on the roadside. I had been offered my first book contract and was a little giddy with happiness. Looking up, I declared: I am going to write your story, Abdul Hamid.

Abdul Hamid did not respond but Lieutenant Colonel Manoj Rawat, my husband, who was walking by my side, smiled and stepped off the sidewalk and broke into a jog, gesturing to me to meet him end of the road when I was done. It took me a year, but I met him there.

This book signifies the end of the road that took me past fields of yellow mustard and golden wheat ripening in the sun, as I went looking for retired soldiers who had returned from wars that had claimed their comrades. I sat with them on cots pulled in the shade and shared with them their thoughts and their food. This road took me beyond the Sela Pass in Tawang, where an entire lake freezes over in the winter, to Bumla, where Subedar Joginder Singh fought with a bayonet when he ran out of bullets in the 1962 War, where soldiers lacked everything except courage. It took me to Kangra in Himachal, where fragrant white roses bloomed and the snow- covered Dhauladhar ranges accompanied me all the way to Captain Vikram Batras house, where his father sat draped in a pashmina shawl. It took me to Sirijap in Ladakh, where Major Dhan Singh Thapa sliced necks off with his khukri; and it took me all the way to freezing Rezang La in Chushul, where 13 Kumaons Major Shaitan Singh and his men (113 in all) were brutally massacred because they were outnumbered completelythey died following the orders: You will fight till the last man and the last bullet.

When 13 Kumaon sent me a list of Rezang La martyrs, it ran into three pages on my laptop and made my eyes wet. I met two Rezang La survivors, both 73 now. They recounted how a dying Maj Shaitan, his stomach slashed open, ordered them to leave him behind since their staying would only lessen their chances of survival.

Im sharing these stories with you to celebrate the sacrifices these men in uniform made. This book is based on interviews with families and comrades of dead soldiersand if there are any discrepancies between the versions of different people it is because incidents were looked at from different perspectives, clouded by pain and the haze of time.

It was not an easy book to write and I give it to you as a tribute to all the brave soldiers who died fighting for us, and to their families who have lived with loss all their lives and yet been generous enough to share with me what they still havememories of these dead heroes.

S oon after Independence and the painful partition of British India, India and Pakistan fought their first war over the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir.

In June 1947, when Partition was announced, the 600 princely states that existed then were given the choice to accede to either India or Pakistan, or remain independent. Most rulers agreed to merge with the country closer to them, while a few chose to remain independent. Maharaja Hari Singh of Jammu and Kashmir decided to avoid accession to either country. He preferred to enter into a Standstill Arrangement, which guaranteed that existing administrative arrangements would continue to be honoured until a new agreement was made. An appeal was made to both countries to not arm twist the state into taking a quick decision but to allow a peoples verdict. Pakistan (which felt that since a majority of Kashmirs population was Muslim, it should be a part of Pakistan) signed the agreement but was not ready to wait.

In a crafty bid to take over Jammu and Kashmir, it started infiltrating the hill state just a few months after Independence, with a force of Pathan tribesmen, ex-soldiers and deserters from the state forces intermingled with Pakistan Army regulars. The men were well supplied with rations, arms, vehicles and medical supplies and promised extensive looting. In October 1947, the raiders started attacking the border villages and creating a deadly atmosphere of plunder, loot and rape. They did not distinguish between Hindus and Muslims; they picked up women, took them back forcibly with them, and left hundreds dead in the villages they went through.

Initially, the raiders were fought back by the state military. But realizing that the attacking lashkars were proving too strong for them, Maharaja Hari Singh requested Indias help. Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru made a shrewd diplomatic move by offering help subject to Kashmir signing the Instrument of Accession to the Union of India. That was the only way the Indian Army could enter Jammu and Kashmir legally.

After Maharaja Hari Singh signed the document, Indian troops were sent to defend Kashmir and drive out the raiders. India had to airlift troops and equipment to Srinagar. A bloody conflict resulted. The raiders were chased out of Kashmir to beyond Baramulla and Uri and these towns were captured back. Jhanger, Rajauri, Tithwal, Kargil were other places that were recaptured by the Indian forces. The Zoji La Pass was taken over with the use of tanks, which could not have been imagined at that height, and even Dras was won.