| This affectionate and anecdote-filled biography of the Field Marshal, a lavish production by Niyogi Books, is written by his son Air Marshal K C Cariappa (retired), with inputs from his sister Nalini. The text is paired with reproductions of "archival matter", including photographs and documents from family and state archives and scans of letters to and from the Field Marshal, including from the likes of Indira Gandhi and Rajendra Prasad. |
| Father always had a warm cordial relationship with Pandit Nehru and Indira Gandhi. Towards the end of his tenure as C-in-C, however, an undercurrent of suspicion seemed to have set in where the Prime Minister was concerned. Father was perceived as being too popular, not only in the Army but among those in other walks of life too. Perhaps there was a lurking suspicion that Father might engineer a coup. Nothing could have been further from the truth. |
| As C-in-C, Father and his team of very fine officers at various levels strived to getting back to the standards of the pre-Partition days. He stressed that it was the Government that decides and dictates the size of the Armed Forces on the threats that are perceived, Pandit Nehru often told Father that the role of the Army "... is to defend the freedom of our land against aggression." He went on to suggest that the Army identifies itself with the people more than before and the barriers that existed between the two in British times were to be removed. He stressed that at the time, he was mainly concerned with the situation in Kashmir and with the Western and Eastern borders with Pakistan. However, where the Northeastern frontier was concerned, even pre-Partition, the British did not give it any thought. |
| While in service, Father was too busy moulding the Army into being the professional service it is today. His exhortation to the officers and troops was they must at all times safeguard the integrity of the country, There was another reason too. In Father's mind not enough thought had been given to the vulnerable, sensitive Northeast, particularly in respect to the threat from China. There was also the insurgency in Nagaland that was being stoked from abroad. |
| In 1951 there were some disquieting events in that region when Chinese troops had been apprehended with maps showing some parts of the Northeast Frontier Agency (NEFA) as part of China. Because the Army had no operational responsibility there, the region being under the control of the Governor of Assam, Father asked the Prime Minister for direction in regard to the responsibility of its defence. He requested that the Assam Rifles be transferred to Army Headquarters with a view to locate them in block houses along the Durand Line, with the regular Army located some distance behind. |
| Father considered it his duty to caution the political leadership of the possibility of an attack in that region. He was told by the Prime Minister that it was not for the Army to decide who the Nation's likely enemies would be! |
| It was in the late '50s that when asked about "General Cariappa's statement", the Prime Minister is reported to have said, that Father was "off the track, mentally and otherwise!" |
| In 1962, the Chinese came and went, giving us more than a bloody nose. The proud Indian Army suffered an ignominious defeat because the politicians would not heed warnings sounded by Father, and later by General Thimayya. For Father this was no time for recriminations or saying "I told you this would happen." The need of the hour was to rally the nation around and to rekindle the flagging morale and spirit of the Army. He travelled all over the country at his own expense, exhorting as always the youth and the nation to face the challenge. He went to the extent of standing in a queue in front of a recruiting office to offer his services. After the unilateral ceasefire and withdrawal by the Chinese, D F Karaka of the weekly newspaper Current is supposed to have asked of the Prime Minister, "Now who is off the track," or, words to that effect. |
| When asked by various people whether he discussed the Chinese issue with Pandit Nehru in later years, Father said he had not because it would "not have been proper" to do so. The Chinese had stabbed us in the back, something that the Prime Minister had least expected.... |
| Father was always critical of the Government when the occasion demanded and he never hesitated to write to the Prime Minister, Mrs Gandhi by now, or to the President expressing his views and concerns. My cousin Melly once mentioned to me that he had been asked to dispatch a telegram written by Father to Mrs Gandhi asking her to reconsider the decision to support the secession of East Pakistan. He is supposed to have cautioned against the possibility of Pakistan, at some time in the future, paying us back in the same coin. Yet, in the aftermath of the 1971 victory he congratulated Mrs Gandhi applauding her decision to give the Armed Forces a free hand in the prosecution of the war. |
| The Person Behind The General |
| Deep Pockets That Carried Everything During his post-retirement years Father drove about a lot in South India. Many of his trips were to Mysore and Bangalore. En route he would invariably stop at a village if he saw children at play. He would try and get them to approach his car, but they would not do so. After all this was a stranger, and in the vernacular, a dodda manushya "" big man talking in an unfamiliar language! After a short while he would pull out a handful of sweets that he always carried in his cavernous pockets. This was irresistible to the kids and with shyness thrown to the winds they would clamour around. Once each child had a sweet in hand, Father would select the scruffiest, most unkempt little girl and hold a mirror to her. Then he would bring out a comb, and perhaps a ribbon, and proceed to comb the little girl's hair. After he had finished with her and had tied a ribbon, he would show her the mirror again. She would beam at the reflection that stared back at her, and nod vigorously when asked if she did not think she looked prettier like this. The comb would be presented to her and she would be told to ask her mother to comb her hair everyday in that manner. |
| Tender Loving Care for an "Old Lady" Father carried a wide variety of things in his huge pockets. There was a needle and thread, a torch and a small candle, a couple of buttons, a blade and a couple of safety pins. His car too was equipped for all contingencies: a length of rope in case the car needed to be towed; a chock to prevent the car rolling back if it stopped on an incline and a well-stocked first-aid kit. There was always a machete-type knife to cut a tree fallen across the road as could happen during the Kodagu monsoons. Father's "old lady" as he referred to his 1956 Plymouth Belvedere... was a black convertible that he enjoyed driving with the hood lowered. It was his pride and joy.... If at any time the hood got wet, and this would happen all the time during our four long monsoon months, he would always wipe it dry, a ritual he observed irrespective of how late at night it may have been, or how tired he was. Through his tender loving care he was able to keep the car in fine shape for close to thirty years. |
| Field Marshal K M Cariappa Author Air Marshal K C Cariappa (Retd) Publisher Niyogi Books PAGES 200 Price Rs 1,250 |
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