The Tale of Indian Bravehearts

The Tale of Indian Bravehearts

Last Saturday, I had left off at describing the Nyukmadong War memorial. After that, the milestone for us to cross the following day was Se La pass, about 67 km from Tawang. It is the mountain pass which connects Tawang and West Kameng districts of Arunachal Pradesh.

With increasing height, the temperature had gone down, the roads had sharper turns. Even in May, we could see snow-covered rugged mountains everywhere. Gusty, chilly winds bounced tiny snowflakes around and fluttered the prayer flags, and no human population except army personnel could be seen anywhere. 

One must cross Sela pass, said to be the only high-altitude mountain pass in the world which can be accessed by vehicles, to reach Tawang. The water in Paradise Lake, frozen solid in winter, now showed ripples due to strong winds. Ideally, we should have been grateful for this break from the baking plains we came from, but being human beings never satisfied with what we have, we stood hunched in the cloudy, windy and cold spot just long enough to take some pictures, and rushed to the warmth of the car within a few minutes.

(Sela Tunnel, a 3000 metres twin lane road tunnel started in 2019, is still under construction. A Border roads Organisation project, it will cut down travel time between Dirang and Tawang and provide all-weather connectivity, making army movement to the border easy.)

From the pass, we drove down a couple of hours to the war memorial at Jaswant Garh. The memorial is for Rifleman Jaswant Singh Rawat of 4 Garhwal Rifles, who was martyred on 17 November, 1962, in the famous Battle of Nuranang. 

There are several accounts of this combat. I am sharing Syed Ata Hasnain’s piece from:

https://swarajyamag.com/defence/epic-battles-revisiting-jaswantgarh-and-rezangla-of-1962-on-their-anniversaries

The second battle honour of 1962 was bestowed on 4 Garhwal Rifles (Garh Rif), for the heroic performance of the unit at Nuranang now called Jaswantgarh on 17 November 1962. It was the only battle honour won by a unit in the eastern theatre in 1962. 4 Garh Rif is my unit; raised by my father in 1959. I was its 14th Commanding Officer. This write up is not a tactical explanation of the battle of Jaswantgarh… 

A party of three volunteers was formed. It comprised L/Nk Trilok Singh, riflemen Gopal Singh and Jaswant Singh. This party moved first by stealth and then under covering fire. In a hand-to-hand melee lasting several minutes, the HMG was silenced and the crew was killed.

Jaswant Garh battle Scene 
recreated at Ball of Fire Museum 

The bold action involved Trilok providing covering fire from a short distance away while Jaswant and Gopal assaulted and beheaded the PLA detachment with khukhris. While recovering the weapon and dragging it back, Jaswant was killed by a burst. Trilok similarly died when the Chinese targeted him realising that it was his fire which had enabled the action. Gopal succeeded in returning with the weapon. The area around Alfa company and the slope towards Jang was strewn with a large number of bodies of PLA soldiers.

Rifleman Jaswant Singh Rawat was awarded the Maha Vir Chakra. Lance Naik Trilok Singh Negi and Rifleman Gopal Singh Gusain were awarded Vir Chakras.

Even after death, Jaswant Singh has been treated as if on duty and was retired in 2002 with the rank of honourary captain. A representative set of uniform and bedding is permanently at display in the room where his statue is installed. The trunk of the tree from behind which Jaswant Singh was firing, has been preserved. The locals believe that Jaswant ‘Baba’ is their guardian angel.

Now 16 flags are hoisted at the memorial including the national flag, those of the Eastern Command, the four corps and the Division.

In a graveyard adjacent to the memorial are buried the 300 Chinese soldiers who were killed in the fighting. Up the hill, a flag is fixed at the site where the Chinese machine gun was deployed.

We went to have a look into the old and new style bunkers. These dark, damp places, almost like holes in earth, made us wonder at the tough, almost sub-human conditions the soldiers have to live in there. No, it is not the mere matter of doing a job. These soldiers who battle such tough environment to protect the borders so that people like you and me can sleep without fear, are fanatical about protecting their motherland.

As if overcome with emotions, the clouds floating with us for the last few hours, burst into a downpour, forcing us to wait to continue our journey. The crowded canteen run by the army across the road was a good place to take shelter, recharge our batteries and above all, ponder over the futility of Chinese barbarism.

When we mention the sacrifices, we forget the trauma of families, friends and colleagues of the soldiers who went ‘missing in action’ and their remains were never found. They were presumed ‘killed in action’ and ‘declared dead’ later. I am aware of one such case of Capt John Dalby of Bangalore who went for the 1962 war. He was declared ‘missing in action’ and ‘dead’ later. His wife who turned a widow at twenty-nine, and two little daughters, had no information of how and where he laid down his life. No mortal remains were found; no funeral service was held.

It was 58 years after the war that his elder daughter Cheryl Dalby (now in Australia) came to know of a memorial stone for her father that her school friend’s brother saw in an unknown sector in the Eastern Command area. The original organized by her late mother had been broken and left at some unknown place.

In the long, emotionally-exhausting months that followed, she was assisted by the Old Boys Association of her father, Capt Dalby’s school, St Joseph’s Boys High School, Bangalore, and his regiment, 5 Field, and in June 2019, had a proper memorial plaque fixed for her father at Jaswant Garh.

Ms Dalby has written about this journey of hers in a short book which shall be launched in October in Bangalore this year. The ceremony will be live streamed. (Information given with Ms. Dalby’s permission)

Gen (Retd.) H K Singh has shared: “Like those of hundreds of others’, Brig. Hoshiar Singh’s (Nyukmadong commander) body too was never found. He was, however, given a cremation about six months later after the then Punjab Chief Minister Pratap Singh Kairon visited his family in Bahadur Garh and then spoke to Pandit Nehru. It was only then that Brig Singh’s wife could get pension as he was no longer in the missing category.

Equally poignant was the story of the civilians who were evacuated to many camps established in Assam. Many civilians hid in the jungles. The villagers had vanished. There were reports that some helped establish the ambush. Panic at Sela was perhaps triggered by some communist soldiers who had got recruited in the Indian army in 1957-59. The PLA exploited them. Many Indian Chinese were brought here to decipher radio communication or to honey trap to gather intelligence…

It is said that one of the units here was from Mongolia and that Chinese had brought ferocious dogs. A few months later rabies broke out in Dirang Bomdila and in Assam. Dog killing squads with bow and arrows were used to get rid of dogs and jackals in the affected areas.

About nine months after the war, some perfunctory efforts were made to locate the missing, believed killed, and some bones collected were given a silent cremation on the banks of the Brahmaputra behind Circuit House, Tezpur. A small memorial stands there, maintained by a man and later his wife.  But no one visits it.

No records or DNA samples were kept. Ashes from the pyre were sent to the next of kin of the martyred soldiers. Some did not accept the urns since they had doubts about their authenticity.

Our drive to Twang passed in sharing our views on the solemn topic of wars and aggressions.

Tired after so much churning of emotions, all we could do was to sip lal chai (red tea) as we checked into our hotel at Tawang, call it a day and pray that the torrential rain stopped and the sun came up the next day.

Left: Road to Jaswant Garh                       Right: Towards Tawang

                                                                                                 - Anupama S Mani