REMINISCENCES OF THE 1971 INDO-PAK WAR

We were five brothers of whom, in 1971, four of us were in the Army. In Punjab, this isn't unusual. Many families have generation-based military pedigree, legacy, and reputation, call it as you like it but the military is a noble calling and takes within its pale the vast majority of Punjabi families, whether rural or urban. Not just that, my father was quasi-military: he was Deputy Controller of Defence Accounts who had also volunteered to act as the establishment's Security Officer...a clearly military role if in civvies. We as children saw him conduct himself as a ramrod-straight, proactive, physically fit and mentally alert Dad who looked and acted as one might expect an Army officer of standing, class and pedigree.

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The 1971 Indo-Pak War - we could see it coming since June 1971 - saw my brothers; all ex-NDAs and therefore nobly born in their esteem - one on each of the three principal axes of advance into then East Pakistan. Two, a major and a captain were older and from the Cavalry. The third was younger to I and from an elite Garhwal Rifles Battalion…just out of IMA; a batch which had passed out a month earlier, in November 1971, to make this braveheart batch of young warriors available for the coming war. Unlike my brothers, I being from the Arts stream was ineligible to apply for NDA entry which demands PCM (Science) credentials. I thus entered the Army as a Short Service officer who was later found fit for permanent absorption. I was a Cavalry Subaltern who’d left University studies to join the Army.

My Mother, educated, full of energy, enterprise and grit became a widow at 33; with five sons, a daughter and a stringent pension to bring us up. The elder was 10, the youngest was breastfeeding. Realizing she was surrounded by family members petrified of helping her and her large family, she chose the Rabindra Tagore path: Akla Cholo Re. She became Mai-Baap. Our education was to be her sole passion and she got us into fine schools. The rest was peripheral. When the war broke, she bade us farewell telling the very few who remained family: "I'm sending four sons into war. My husband would've been proud and I certainly am. I wish them enough". We left for the war with sky-high morale and focus: we knew her trust had to be honoured.

My recall of the war commences sometime in September 1971. We were part of the 16 (Indep) Armoured Brigade, commanded by Brig Arun Vaidya, MVC, from The Deccan Horse. The tank units were my unit 16 Cavalry, The Poona Horse, and Hodson’s Horse, all equipped with British Centurion 50-ton Mark 7 tanks with the 20-pounder gun.