History and Culture of Leadership in the Indian Army

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ParGha
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History and Culture of Leadership in the Indian Army

Post by ParGha »

Bharat Rakshak is planning on creating a series of profiles of distinguished commanders of the Indian Army since 1947. These profiles will celebrate the lives and contributions of those officers. Hopefully they will also inspire our readers to seek to learn more about these men and women who have shaped the history and culture of leadership in the Indian Army. Ramana and I were originally seeking to learn about Lt. Gen I.S. Gill, when Ramana hit upon the idea of creating profiles and Mandeep suggested other distinguished commanders as well. To this end we are seeking member contributions in form of biographical content and sources on selected Indian Army commanders - not including those who attained the post of COAS - which will be provided shortly.

Roughly speaking, I think it should be organized on the following outline form which will expand as members contribute:

I. History
A. British Indian Army
1. Indianization of the British Indian Army starting circa 1920s
2. Issues with Indianization (KICO and ICO)
B. Second World War Rapid Expansion
1. Industrial War Breaks Old Paradigms
...
C. Partition.
...

II. Profiles in Leadership: An overview of the major illuminaries and their contributions.
...

(Just on basis of my familiarity, in no particular order)

III. Lt. Gen PVS Bhagat
...
IV. Maj. Gen. Sparrow
...
V. Lt. Gen. Thorat
...
VI. Brig. Usman
...

So on and so forth (A first-draft list of notables we are interested in will be provided shortly).

If you are interested in this project, but don't have much exposure to it, I would suggest starting with Leadership in the Indian Army: Biographies of Twelve Soldiers by Major Gen. V.K Singh, as the basic primer. It is available at Google Books for a brief preview. NOTE: Please note that we will require sources for all content, as we don't want to run into copyright or plagarization issues. So if you come across something interesting, please also remember to note down its source. Thank you.
Surya
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Re: History and Culture of Leadership in the Indian Army

Post by Surya »

Personally think it would be more useful to pursue it like the IAF veteran project.
ParGha
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Re: History and Culture of Leadership in the Indian Army

Post by ParGha »

Surya wrote:Personally think it would be more useful to pursue it like the IAF veteran project.
It may eventually expand out to that. Right now we are focusing on a smaller aspect of the IAF project - profiling some of the more famous and visionary commanders who haven't been covered under the Army COAS profiles. We are looking for officers who have made enduring mark on the Indian Army either as operational commanders and/or as visionaries of special and new units/formations.
Jagan
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Re: History and Culture of Leadership in the Indian Army

Post by Jagan »

ParGha,

This is a great initiative. All power to you for taking it up.

You are right - you can start off with the profiles and slowly grow it as people write in. Thats how the IAF site started off as well.

Now we have to see how we can arm-twist mandeep to join you in this effort.

-Jagan
Jagan
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Re: History and Culture of Leadership in the Indian Army

Post by Jagan »

Also, you can take it a step further and write about all the generals - famous or infamous. Quite a career went down hill after the 62 war, but undeniably they are part of the Army's History and they should have a place in the collection of stories.

For my part you can straight away use Sagat Singh writeup from BRM. This article now looks particularly outdated and skimpy in the light of what has been written on Sagat Singh in VK Singhs book . But it did spread the word on Sagat till that book came out.

-Jagan
enqyoob
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Re: History and Culture of Leadership in the Indian Army

Post by enqyoob »

up

(Mahdi-e-Thread-Deleti does have a heart, u know....)

Contributions, please...
Keshav
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Re: History and Culture of Leadership in the Indian Army

Post by Keshav »

Besides the information that is already available on the Field Marshalls (on BR), what else are you looking for?
Jagan
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Re: History and Culture of Leadership in the Indian Army

Post by Jagan »

ParGha wrote:[ profiling some of the more famous and visionary commanders who haven't been covered under the Army COAS profiles. We are looking for officers who have made enduring mark on the Indian Army either as operational commanders and/or as visionaries of special and new units/formations.
To jumpstart such a list - the following is a list of Army Commanders of the IA (Lt Gen with GOC-in-C command experience) frm 1947 till 1994 . (Was reading too many army books then :P ). Dates are not accurate but only indicative.

Code: Select all

No.	Army Commanders	Regiment	Date		Commands Held
1	K M Cariappa	Rajput	Nov-47		EC WC COAS
2	Rajendra Sinhji	Armd 	20-Jan-48		EC SC COAS
3	T Nathu Singh	Rajput	May-48		EC
4	S M Shri Nagesh	Kumaon	15-Jan-49		WC SC COAS
5	K S Thimmayya	Kumaon	15-Jan-53		WC SC EC
6	Sant Singh	Bihar	63		EC
7	Kalwant Singh	Dogra	15-May-55		WC
8	P N Thapar	Raj Rif	May-57		SC WC COAS
9	S P P Thorat	Mahar	May-57		EC
10	J N Chaudhuri	Armd 	15-May-59		EC SC COAS
11	L P Sen	1 GR	May-61		EC
12	Daulet Singh	Armd 	May-61		WC
13	P P Kumaramangalam	Arty	01-May-63		EC
14	K Bahadur Singh	Kumaon	01-May-63		CC
15	Sam Manekshaw	8 GR	28-Nov-63		WC EC
16	Harbaksh Singh	Sikh	10-Nov-64		WC
17	Moti Sagar	4 GR	07-May-65		SC
18	J S Dhillon	Eng	01-Jun-66		CC
19	J S Arora	Punjab	Jun-69		EC
20	K P Candeth	Arty	Jun-69		WC
21	G G Bewoor	11 GR	04-Jul-69		SC COAS
22	P S Bhagat	Eng	04-Aug-70		CC NC
23	H K Sibal	5 GR	Jun-72		CC
24	M L Thapan	Jat	Oct-72		WC
25	Sartaj Singh	Arty	Oct-72		SC
26	N C Rawlley	Guards	07-Feb-73		EC
27	K K Singh	Armd 	11-Nov-73		CC
28	O P Malhotra	Armd 	May-74		SC WC COAS
29	J F R Jacob	Arty	01-Aug-74		EC
30	H C Rai	Raj Rif	01-Aug-74		NC
31	J S Nakai	Arty	01-Apr-75		CC
32	I S Gill	Para	01-Jun-75		WC
33	T N Raina	Kumaon	26-Oct-75		WC
34	A M Vohra	3 GR	20-Jan-77		SC
35	E A Vas	9 GR	01-Aug-78		EC
36	Gurbachan Singh	Armd 	01-Aug-78		NC SC
37	R D Hira	11 GR	01-Apr-79		CC SC
38	A N Mathur	Signals	01-Jun-79		SC 
39	K V Krishna Rao	Mahar	01-Jun-79		WC
40	S P Malhotra	Guards	01-Jan-80		NC
41	W A G Pinto	Rajput	01-Jan-80		CC
42	A S Vaidya	Armd 	01-Jun-81		EC
43	S K Sinha	5 GR	01-Jun-81		WC
44	T S Oberoi	Punjab	01-Sep-81		SC
45	H C Dutta	8 GR	01-Jul-82		CC
46	M L Chibber		01-Nov-82		NC
47	K Sundarji	Mech	01-Dec-82		WC
48	Bhupinder Singh	ARty	83		CC
49	K Chiman Singh	Raj Rif	01-Aug-83		EC
50	K K Hazari	Arty	-		CC
51	A K Handoo		01-Sep-85		NC
52	H Kaul	Armd 	01-Feb-85		WC
53	R S Dayal	Para	01-Feb-85		SC
54	K B Mehta		01-Feb-85		CC
55	J K Puri	Arty	01-Feb-86		EC
56	V N Sharma	Armd 	01-Feb-86		EC
57	B C Nanda	Mahar	01-Jun-87		NC
58	Depinder Singh	8 GR	01-Dec-86		SC
59	V K Nayar	Para	01-Nov-87		WC
60	Sami Khan	Madras	01-Jan-88		CC
61	A K Chatterjee	Sikh LI	02-Mar-88		SC
62	R M Vohra	Armd 	28-Mar-00		EC
63	S F Rodrigues	Arty	01-Apr-89		CC
64	Gurinder Singh	Armd 			NC
65	F N Bilmoriya	5 GR	01-Oct-89		CC
66	B C Joshi	Armd 	01-Jun-90		SC WC COAS
67	G S Grewal	Armd 	01-Jun-90		WC
68	K S Brar	MLI	01-Jun-90		EC
69	D S R Sahni	Eng	01-Mar-92		NC
70	Y N Sharma	Gren	01-Jan-92		CC
71	J Mahmood	Arty	01-Jan-92		EC
72	A S Kalkat	8 GR	01-Oct-92		SC
73	R N Batra	Arty	07-May-93		EC
74	R K Gulati	Armd 	01-Jul-93		WC
75	Surinder Singh	Armd 	01-Sep-93		NC
76	M L Dhar	Armd 	01-Jan-94		SC
77	Arun Gautam	Armd 	01-Apr-94		CC
Ofcourse not all of the above would have made their mark - but the list may form a basis to identify some generals who left their mark on the Army's History - and then work from there.
Rupesh
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Re: History and Culture of Leadership in the Indian Army

Post by Rupesh »

It will be great if someone can also add the details of British Chiefs of our army in the pre independence era. There were a few notable ones like FM Philip Chetwood.There may be some more Generals whose contribution towards building strong foundation for Indian Army needs to be documented.
ks_sachin
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Re: History and Culture of Leadership in the Indian Army

Post by ks_sachin »

Has any one heard of Gen Hanut Singh?
Rupesh
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Re: History and Culture of Leadership in the Indian Army

Post by Rupesh »

^^^^^^^^^^^^
Lt. Col. Hanut Singh Rathore (Maha Veer Chakra) of 17 Poona Horse with his Centurion tank, Kooshab. The regiment is one of the most decorated in the Armoured Corps and in 1965 it had already been awarded with one PVC, only to win another in 1971 at the Battle of Basantar in which 66 Pakistani tanks were claimed to have been destroyed. Hanut Singh is the elder brother of former Finance minister of India Jaswant Singh Jasol ( Jasol is the name of the village in Barmer district of Rajasthan).

He retired as Lt. General. He is highly religious and was named to be the army general but when Mrs. Indira Gandhi (then Prime Minister) phoned him twice, he refused to talk as he was in prayer room. Mrs. Gandhi herself wrote on his file that "he is too religious to be an army general".
clicky
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Re: History and Culture of Leadership in the Indian Army

Post by Samay »

Rupesh wrote:^^^^^^^^^^^^
Lt. Col. Hanut Singh Rathore (Maha Veer Chakra) of 17 Poona Horse with his Centurion tank, Kooshab. The regiment is one of the most decorated in the Armoured Corps and in 1965 it had already been awarded with one PVC, only to win another in 1971 at the Battle of Basantar in which 66 Pakistani tanks were claimed to have been destroyed. Hanut Singh is the elder brother of former Finance minister of India Jaswant Singh Jasol ( Jasol is the name of the village in Barmer district of Rajasthan).

He retired as Lt. General. He is highly religious and was named to be the army general but when Mrs. Indira Gandhi (then Prime Minister) phoned him twice, he refused to talk as he was in prayer room. Mrs. Gandhi herself wrote on his file that "he is too religious to be an army general".

clicky
And IG was too egoistic to be a PM ,not fit to direct the IA,.
but she remained ,until being removed by the same army's men.:oops:

One more example of IG's Gandhi-nehru family dictraitor ego, no wonder half of kashmir in still out of reach. :!:

Here Gen. Hanut's being religious could be associated with his disciplined religious life that he neglected other bullies for his duty(religious here) , it should have been taken in positive way by any PM . i.e. it was a good trait to be a general .
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