From Kashmir to Katanga

OF SOME CONSEQUENCE - A Soldier Remembers: General K. Sundarji; Harper Collins Publishers India Pvt. Ltd., 7/16, Ansari Road, Daryaganj, New Delhi-110002. Rs. 250.

EVEN THOSE who had known Gen. Sundarji only casually, could never forget the warmth and charm he always exuded and the last thing they would have ever expected was the news of his death on February 8, 1999. Those who had seen him two years earlier would never have suspected that his health was failing and it is, therefore, a shock to know from the foreword written to this book by Ms. Vani Sundarji that in January 1998, he was ``diagnosed as having motor neuron disease, a rare condition which has no known cause or cure.'' One could very well understand how very grief- stricken she still is over the death of her husband when she writes, ``For me, the sun has ceased to shine.''

The Indian Armed Forces have been known for scrupulously refraining from making political comments as they conform very faithfully to their having to carry out the orders coming from the civilian and political authority.

Sundarji, who had seen action in Kashmir immediately after the Pakistani-backed invasion by the Afridi tribesmen in 1947, however, draws attention to how all the Kashmiris ``were thoroughly enthusiastic about joining India and they treated the Indian forces as heroes. That, in something like 40 years, India squandered all that goodwill through political ineptitude and laid the foundations for successful insurgency is another story.... Little did we dream that in four short decades, inept and corrupt politicians from the rest of India, along with the Kashmiri politicians, who were not slow to learn from the Indian peers, would alienate the friendly and gentle population.'' What he thought about the ceasefire ordered by Jawaharlal Nehru in 1949 is clear enough when he says, ``Likewise, it is not my intention to comment on the moot point of the timing of the ceasefire in January 1949 and as to whether some months' delay might not have helped us to clear the Pakistani forces from the entire state.''

Sundarji gives a detailed description of the turmoil in Congo and the western-backed Katanga secessionist, Moise Tshombe, as he saw it from very close quarters as a Major in the multi-national U.N. force led by Brig. K.A.S. Raja.

He also makes a few lively comments upon how the record of the Congolese and Katangan politicians and their Generals in corruption would make their Indian counterparts look like novices with Col. Mobutu setting anyone free for a payment of $ 20,000. Among the adventurers who came to Katanga was an Englishman, Richard Lionheart, claiming to be a surgeon from the Harley Street though he was nothing of the kind. He later won an ``honourable mention'' in the Readers' Digest publication, Scoundrels and Scallawags. There is obviously an international ``freemasonry'' among the crooks and corrupt politicians.

As a soldier, Sundarji has seen how attitudes change. What had been for long the ``done thing'' on which no questions were asked now fills everyone with disgust within less than a generation. He writes about the Maharani of Kotah having a ``record among the ladies for the largest bag of tigers.'' It is worth recalling here that the Duke of Edinburgh, who had visited India with Queen Elizabeth II in 1960, hit the headlines when he ``bagged'' a tiger in Rajasthan and the Indian Government's response to this shameful act was one of approval. The likes of the Maharani and the Duke, who have been decimating the tiger population, have today forced a rearguard action on the country for saving the tiger which has become an endangered species. The recollections begin from 1946 when Sundarji was recruited as a commissioned officer of the second battalion of the Mahar Regiment. The regiment had also in its ranks the havildar Bandiya who joined it as a lamb - yes, a lamb - since the soldiers who became very fond of the animal when he strayed into their midst recruited it as a havildar. It is sad to know that the communal distinctions were kept very much alive with water carriers in railway stations crying out Hindu and Muslim ``pani''. The chapter on parachute jumping from planes draws attention to fear being a normal response to anticipated danger though it is generally overcome by trainees. But sometimes fear does persist and would disqualify the trainees. One could recall a Second World War Hollywood movie, ``The Parachute Battalion'', portraying a soldier becoming frenzy with fear. ``If it was the first jump of the individual,'' writes Sundarji, the jump masters paid no heed to his cries and pushed him out of the door. ``If the trainee's refusal persisted at the second jump, he was not forced but on landing was unceremoniously packed off to his unit before he could infect the other trainees with his timidity.''

Sundarji gives chilling accounts of the trains transporting Hindu, Sikh and Muslim regiments on the eve of the Partition in either directions and the savage killings which would still haunt those who had witnessed them. The scene, however, was not one of total savagery. There were many who came forward unhesitatingly to adopt infants abandoned by those fleeing from the communal terror let loose on them and they grew up happily in their new homes.

Sundarji was in Delhi when Mahatma Gandhi, representing ``quintessential goodness'', was assassinated. Within just two years of his joining the Indian Army, he was assigned to the jeep to the rear of the gun carriage and one could imagine the scenes of the funeral procession staying on in his memory.

Sundarji had to drop out of the Madras Christian College in 1945 without going ahead with his B.Sc. (Honours) course when he got his Commission in the Army. Dr. A. J. Boyd, who was then the highly distinguished principal of the college, was sorry to see him leave. He was looking forward to Sundarji later becoming a doctor though he reconciled himself to the country gaining a soldier.

The book is a collection of the articles published earlier in The Hindu in the column ``Generally Speaking''. Giving a glimpse of how the relations between the soldiers of India and Pakistan always remained cordial notwithstanding the souring of the same between their two Governments, Mrs. Sundarji writes about the basket of fruits her husband used to get when he was Commander of the Western Army year after year with ``warmest regards'' from General Zia. Sundarji's book is very lively reading and there are a few juicy accounts which would make the readers enjoy though with a blush.

CVG

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