On 22 October, Dogri Sanstha felicitated Dr Karan Singh, the erstwhile Maharaja of the State of Jammu and Kashmir, the first chancellor of the University of Jammu, a former union minister, parliamentarian , and above all, a Dogra icon who deserves veneration for his huge scholarship. The well attended ceremony was held at Dogri Bhavan, which is erected on a parcel of land gifted by Dr Karan Singh himself.
Dr Karan Singh, besides authoring several very readable books, is also a poet and an amateur singer and music composer. He is a devout bhakt of Bhagwan Shiv and Maa Vaishno Devi. Therefore, very appropriately, the Sanstha decided to hold a short music concert in honor of the erstwhile ruler.
At this felicitation ceremony, Bulbul-e-Jammu-o-Kashmir, Seema Anil Sehgal, singer and composer of Vaishno Maa Dati, the first-ever Dogri music album in praise of Maa Vaishno, sang two bhajans penned by Dr Karan Singh. Chinmayi and Kusha duo, both siblings of our good old friend Gianeshwar Sharma, tunefully sang the other two bhajans of his as duets. It was predecided who will sing which bhajan so that there is no overlap. Imagine both singers singing the same bhajans !
How I wish the University of Jammu too had followed this basic fundamental to save the audience from repetitive discourses by one after the other speaker, during the seminar on General Zorawar Singh, the other day.
As admitted by Professor Shyam Narayan Lal, senior convener of the seminar himself, nearly 40 percent of the speakers fell in this trap of repetition. He was presenting an overview of the seminar : “General Zorawar Singh : Revisiting his life, legacy and legendary conquests of the Himalayan territories”.
The two-day-seminar was held by the department of history at the Brigadier Rajinder Singh Auditorium of the University,, on 20 & 21 October, in collaboration with Maharaja Gulab Singh Research Centre, Jammu.
Prof Suman Jamwal, the vivacious head of the department of history and senior director of the seminar, invited me to be a participant to the seminar, which was attended by some of the well known research scholars.
Growing up in Jammu, studying at the grand old Government Gandhi Memorial Science College ( erstwhile Prince of Wales College ) and the nascent University of Jammu, we were not taught or told about our great hero Zorawar Singh. Nobody talked of him those days. He was not a part of the subjects we were given for a debate or discussion in the educational institutions. Only erudite friends like Professors Hari Om and Bhim Singh would speak of him those days.
Those were the days the radio waves ruled supreme over the world of information and audio entertainment. To my mind, Radio Kashmir Jammu ( presently All India Radio ) never broadcast any programmes about this great warrior of the Dogras. Of course, there were no computers, the internet, or the modern gadgets , the social media, WhatsApp or Wikipedia.
I deliberately mention these because they provide the fodder for debates, discussions, seminars and conferences these days. These constitute the major part of source materials. Then there is a plethora of books to go to, which were not available to us during our studentship in the 60s and the 70s. It is sad that even with so many facilities, our seminars and conferences lack the expected quality of intellectual discourse.
I recall how I used to run around from post to pillar to lay my hands on knowledge, information and wisdom whilst making preparations to record a debate or talk at Radio Kashmir Jammu. Most of the teachers and writers who were my ” go to resources” did not have the coveted landline phones. Therefore, you had to take your chances, cross the fingers and, maybe, go several times to actually meet them and talk !
Today, you just Google around to lay hands on information about anything and everything under the sun. Our expectations that standards of our intellectual debates, discussions and discourses should be high, therefore, are only well placed.
This is exactly the Achilles heel, the raw nerve every research scholar is wary of. Plethora of information is no doubt available to us at the press of a finger. But, you are required to labour hard to sift through it cautiously. And, thereafter comes the real test, many of our intellectuals fail.
We are expected not only to absorb the relevant content, but also mull over it, analyse it and put it in a perspective. That is the crux of the real research. What we should present before the learned audience is a balanced narrative that has been well analysed, examined in a historical perspective and also bears a mark of our own viewpoint.
Mere reading of a research paper derived and rehashed from the annals of Wikipedia is nothing short of a botched up surgical procedure, which does more harm than giving any benefit.
I am fascinated by human mind and the enduring, inspiring and endearing relationships it fosters. Therefore, I would like to look at the bond General Zorawar Singh enjoyed with his master Maharaja Gulab Singh.
A short and mundane interaction took place between a king and his nondescript messenger. The experienced eyes of the king spotted a bright spark kindling in the youthful man, waiting to be recognised and raised into an all consuming fire.
The messenger had the courage to speak to the king unasked for, and report wastage of resources of his kingdom. Not only that, even a suggestion was made by the messenger how to plug the wastage. Gulab Singh was so moved, he retained the youth in his service. And a lifelong relationship of great mutual faith, trust and devotion took roots.
Zorawar Singh never looked back from here onwards. He served the king with true grit, unparalleled valour and complete devotion. He had a character built with the soil of trust, which he never betrayed even to the peril of his life. The king never failed to recognise the valour of his soldier and his sterling qualities and kept on suitably rewarding him ; so much so that Zorawar was first made a vazir and later a general of his fighting forces.
Zorawar and Gulab Singh had similar backgrounds ; both joined as foot soldiers and worked their ways up the ladder. It may be worth remembering that Gulab Singh was a sepoy in the army of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, popularly called the Lion of Punjab.
I think it was this unfailing devotion of Zorawar and the unflinching faith of Gulab Singh that sealed the bond between a soldier and a king. Rest, as they say, is history. This kind of human bonding paid rich dividends to Gulab Singh and, before him, to Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, both born more than a century apart.
Drawing a parallel, we learn that Shivaji, the great Maratha king and warrior, had a similar kind of relationship with his sepoy Bhairavnath Jadhav, who was a spy of almost magical prowess. He, along with three of his comrades, served the legendary warrior very dexterously and intelligently.
History records that the successes of Shivaji were, to a large extent, attributable to the inputs, advice and skillful planning of Bhairavnath Jadhav. And the great Maratha had so much faith in his subordinate soldier that he trusted him with his own life and safety.
Unfortunately, similar unflinching faith and trust in the officers of the valiant IAF ( Indian Air Force) was not shown by the political powers that were ruling the nation after the independence of India. This time, the king placed no faith in the information and advice of his soldiers. Let me recall and illustrate.
All countries indulge in gathering strategic information about their enemy nations and try to keep a tag on their military preparedness, strength and positioning of the military men and materials. This is an ongoing process. We know this process as spying. Depending on their affordability, all nations spy. So do we.
Before our infamous war with China in 1962, sometime around 1960, Indian aircraft were flying routine aerial reconnaissance sorties over Chinese territories.
Reconnaissance was done by flying Canberra aircraft which were armed with high power aerial cameras. To avoid being detected on the enemy radars, the Canberra was usually flown at about 40000 feet above mean sea level. That is when the cameras were started for photographing the desired enemy territory.
Risking his own safety and life, Wing Commander J M Nath ( Jaggi ) flew daring sorties and gathered vital information that confirmed little or no presence of China in Aksai Chin and Tibet. He flew low level sorties, which was rather a dangerous zone and confirmed the findings through visual examination as well as the photographs.
He prepared his reconnaissance reports, supported by physical photographs, and submitted that there was no sign of the Chinese air force in these territories. Even the anti aircraft guns were not seen. In any case, China had very small air force those days.
These reports were sent to the ministry of defence through air headquarters. The message was loud and clear that if India decided to employ the air force and sent in a few aircrafts, the disputed areas could easily be captured without much effective resistance.
Breaking well laid protocols, Jaggi Nath was summoned to the ministry to meet the prime minister. There, instead, he was ushered to the office of the defence minister V K Krishna Menon. Jaggi narrated to him the entire situation, what he saw with his own eyes and what the hard copies of the photographs also proved.
Krishna Menon heard him in complete silence and disbelief. Thereafter, he simply dismissed the officer and the vital secret information he had gathered at the peril of his life. India failed to take the initiative and seize the day. In 1962, China took the initiative and we were forced to face a defeat, losing the area and the precious lives of our soldiers and earning a bloodied nose.
Here was a golden opportunity for the country, but the leadership ( read the king ) did not place faith in Indian Air Force ( read soldier ), and the entire nation paid an unaffordable price.
Jaggi Nath eventually earned the coveted MVC ( Maha Veer Chakra ) twice for his exceptional display of courage and devotion. For records’ sake, there are only six soldiers to earn this second highest gallantry award twice.
Cut to the year 2019, when the nation faced a shocking terrorist attack in Pulwama. This time, the king placed great faith in his soldiers. The strong political will and resolve was displayed by the highest echelons of political leadership. The armed forces were given a go-ahead. With precise and meticulous planning, the IAF took the enemy by surprise and demolished the terror camps breeding at Balakot, Pakistan.
I narrated the above instances whilst presiding over the opening session of the seminar. I declared that there would have been no Zorawar Singh, as we know him, if there were no Gulab Singh to spot and nurture his exceptional talents, raising him from a humble sepoy to a towering general and displaying total faith in his capabilities. My view was duly validated by retired Captain of the Indian Navy, Alok Bansal who delivered the valedictory address.
Quite a few army officers were seen in their uniforms along with two generals, on both days of the seminar. Maj Gen Gaurav Gautam, GOC, 26 Div, won the hearts of the audience when he said that the nation, especially the Indian army, remembers the contribution of Zorawar Singh, with reverence. Gautam delivered a short and meaningful address. He spoke with a precision befitting his position and stature.
My greetings to Prof Umesh Rai, the vice chancellor of the University of Jammu, for providing the required leadership and inspiration to his team of professors like Shyam Narayan Lal and Suman Jamwal who were the backbone of this national seminar.
Citing the example of General S H F J Manekshaw ( later Field Marshal ), I may reiterate that it is the general of a well trained and suitably armed army that makes the real difference in a war. It is well said that the army of dogs led by a lion may win a war, but an army of lions led by a dog can only bring defeat and dishonour. The same can be said of a nation as well.
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