A Soldier's Voyage of Self Discovery
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A SOLDIER’S VOYAGE OF SELF DISCOVERY First Published: 1995 2015: Seventh Edition © Major General K.K. Tewari (Retd.), P.V.S.M., A.V.S.M. Auroville, 605101, Tamil Nadu, India Email: [email protected] Cover Design: Smiti Tewari Arpi Printed at Auroville Press Auroville, 605101, Tamil Nadu, India A SOLDIER’S VOYAGE OF SELF DISCOVERY Major General K.K. Tewari (Retd.) P.V.S.M., A.V.S.M. AUROVILLE Dedicated to the Indian Army Jawan Contents Preface to the New Edition 9 Prologue 10 Introduction 11 Joining the Army 15 Training for War 20 Move into Active Operations in Burma 28 Operation Zipper – Assault on Malaya 50 Unforgettable Days of Hope and Victory 57 First Posting to a Peace Station 64 Posting To Jammu and Kashmir 80 Chinese Attack on India – October 1962 85 As a Prisoner of War 113 Reflections on the India-China War of 1962 160 War for the Liberation of Bangladesh 174 Reflections on the Bangladesh War 181 The 'Divine' Intervention in 1971 187 Realizations during the ‘Voyage’ 199 Assessment of the Present Situation 214 Some Thoughts on the Future 230 Post Script 236 Appendix 1 – Draft of The Warrior’s Call 240 Appendix 2 – Sri Aurobindo and Bangladesh 243 Appendix 3 – Auroville 248 Glossary of Terms/Abbreviations 256 Index 258 List of Illustrations and Maps – Author and elder brother as Officer Cadets page 21 – Commanders of the first all-Indian Brigade in WWII 47 – Maj Som Nath Sharma, Param Vir Chakra 49 – With the Sharmas 60 – With wife Dr Kamla and her parents 61 – Tewari family 62 – Officers and VCOs of No.2 Signal Training Battalion 65 – The first Corps of Signals Committee after Independence 67 – Singing of the National Anthem in the Officers Mess 71 – Route taken by the Dalai Lama for escape to India 83 – Road Tezpur-Tawang 86 – With Lt Gen R.N. Batra, SO-in-C 90 – With SO-in-C and Maj Ram Singh, author’s 2IC 90 – Infantry Division Signal Regiment (1961) 94 – Kameng Frontier Division sketch 99 – With local girls, near Dirang Dzong 109 – The Namkha Chu war theater 111 – Chongye, PoW camp in Tibet 119 – Facsimile of notes kept as a PoW 121 – Bell 47-G3 helicopter which brought author to the front (1962) 134 – Author as a PoW in Lhasa 139 – Author with other officers outside Potala in Lhasa 140 – Indian PoW Officers on the roofs in Lhasa (1963) 143 – Map showing places visited in China 156 – Author with Brig M.S. Rikh 159 – Author as CSO, Eastern Command (1971) 179 – Author's younger brother with Brig Hayat 190 – Receiving Param Vishisht Seva Medal (1976) 197 – Author with wife and daughter 198 – Farewell party as CSO, Northern Command (1976) 203 Preface to the New Edition This book was first published in 1995 at the All India Press in Pondicherry for a limited distribution mainly among earlier war time friends. There was no attempt made to publicize it. But the demand for it never stopped and I found a new and younger generation that was quite responsive to these stories about wars in an age gone by. The book had to be reprinted innumerable times – the last and seventh edition in 2012. It has been out of print for almost a year. It appears that there is still a reading public interested to know about the wars that independent India has been subjected to especially from the point of view of an old soldier, who took part of them. A number of dear friends in Auroville have offered to update the book to the digital age and also reprint it for a limited distribution and this time to do it from an Auroville printing unit – Auroville Press publishers. The main point that came to my mind when the idea was first proposed was that I should re-view my life’s earlier challenges and battle experiences in relation to the new and unique experience of being for more than three decades in this ‘living laboratory’, with a new and international family consisting of persons from fifty countries of the world. Upon re-reading I have concluded that I will leave the contents unchanged and as they were first recorded but the text I wrote in 1995 about Auroville (which appears as Appendix 3 in the book) requires updating, for much has grown and changed, and as Auroville approaches its 50th year of existence it demonstrates a complexity and maturity that is very unlike the experiment I had joined upon retirement in 1976. July 2015 Prologue Many friends and relatives have urged me to write about my life’s experiences with particular reference to three topics—namely, experiences as a prisoner of war with the Chinese; experiences in different wars starting with World War II in Burma and Malaya; and the Bangladesh War of 1971 which made me turn to Sri Aurobindo and the Mother and later decide to leave all my moorings in the North and after retirement from the Army settle down in Auroville in South India. Soon after we moved to Auroville in 1976, I was introduced to an American publisher here on a visit by Admiral Rutledge Tompkins (Retired) of the United States Navy, himself a devotee. He pressed me to write. Sensing my reluctance, he even offered to walk around with me with a tape recorder while I worked on the farm which I had started in Auroville. He pleaded that all I would have to do was to answer his questions and he would do the rest. He had already written a few pages in long hand based on our earlier talks and presented them to me as an introduction to a biographical account he wished to compile under the proposed title of The Warrior’s Call. The last three pages of handwritten notes of his meeting with me are reproduced in Appendix 1. This suggestion did not fructify as I was too involved in other things in Auroville at the time. Another devotee in the Sri Aurobindo Ashram in Pondicherry, Huta, who had been very close to the Mother, pressed me on the subject too and proposed the title of the book as “The Truth Wins”. A few pages were written at her insistence but again, because of my involvement in Auroville work, there was no further progress. Then, one day in 1991, I took out my old diaries, kept since 1938, in order to destroy them. I started going through them. In the process I started taking notes of some interesting past events. This process was like ‘re-living’ the old days. It was motivated more by an urge towards self discovery through a study of the years past – to find my real self working behind the scenes. The account that follows is the result of that discovery. Introduction In early 1957, I was posted in Indo-China as the Commander Signals for the three International Commissions for Supervision and Control in Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos. My wife, Dr. Kamla had joined me for a month. We were having dinner in a Chinese restaurant in Saigon1. There were three officers of the Indian delegation besides us and one of them was very good in palmistry. Not that I believe much in astrology or palmistry, but in that relaxed and jovial atmosphere, Mr. Iyengar (he was nicknamed ‘Tiny’ affectionately for his height of more than six feet and his bulky figure) first read my wife’s hand and what he said was recorded by me. He made a few rather interesting comments. That prompted me to agree to have my hand read next. This reading was recorded too. Both these papers are still preserved. Two of the statements made by Tiny, among others, not only have come true but have had a deep impact on my life. Firstly, he said that in the 41st year of my life I would travel to the Far-East (I was then 35 years old) and secondly, that in the 50th year of my life I would turn to spirituality which would affect my life in a major way. I responded with delight to the first prediction and said, “Bless you, Tiny. I have always wanted to go to Japan”. This country had been admired by me even though we had fought against it in World War II. He had immediately remarked, “Chum, you may not like it.” How very true! It was in 1963, at the age of forty and a half, that I travelled near enough to Japan. As prisoners of war, we were taken to a number of major cities of China including Shanghai and Peking (now called Beijing) before we were returned to India. The second prediction also came true except that the year was not quite so accurate. At forty-nine years of age I was introduced to the Sri Aurobindo Ashram and met the Mother in person in Pondicherry. I decided then and there to settle down in Pondicherry and Auroville after retirement. 1. Renamed Ho Chi Minh City after the communist takeover of South Vietnam. 12 A Soldier’s Voyage of Self Discovery Yet another factor worth mentioning is a visit by my wife, Kamla, accompanied by my father to Bhrigu Sangta1 centre in Hoshiarpur, Punjab in November, 1962. At that time I was reported as ‘missing in action’. This is the official Defence Ministry notification which is normally issued in a war. After the sudden Chinese attack on India on 20 October 1962, there had been no news of my whereabouts for more than a month.