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Gayatri Paltan, hockey, Basra tag

MY father was enrolled in the First Battalion of the Third Brahmans (1776-1922) in 1908. It was colloquially known as Gayatri Paltan and had the motto “Goli aur gamchcha”.

Gayatri Paltan, hockey, Basra tag

The hockey team of First Battalion of Third Brahmans (later 4 Punjab). Sitting on the extreme left is Subedar Bhole Tewari, mentor of the legendary Major Dhyan Chand (seated next to him).



Triloki Nath Misra

MY  father was enrolled in the First Battalion of the Third Brahmans (1776-1922) in 1908. It was colloquially known as Gayatri Paltan and had the motto “Goli aur gamchcha”. Goli stood for bullet (ultimate sacrifice), and gamchcha (towel) for simplicity or austerity.

The battalion remained loyal during the revolt of 1857. While other Bengal infantries were disbanded, this unit continued as First Bengal Native Infantry. It became First Brahmans in 1901. It fought in the Burmese War (1885-1887). At that time, few educated men joined the Army.

My father was attached to the Adjutant, Capt Craig, mainly for record-keeping. Capt Craig encouraged him and he excelled in the ‘Assault at Arms Course’. He was relieved for combat duty. When the unit left for France in 1914, he was a Jemadar (Naib Subedar). Capt Craig was killed in action, a great personal loss for my father.

The Gayatri Paltan had mostly caste Brahmins picked up from Varanasi and other eastern districts of UP — Hardoi, Unnao, Rae Barelli and Garhwal — and practically everybody, educated or not, had taken the Gita with him. In the morning, one could see almost all of them silently chanting Gayatri Mantra (hence the name). If they would give their life in war as the Gita pronounces, the gateway to heaven would open (goli). Their requirements were simple, for ration gur (jaggery) and chana (gram). 

Brahmins, being Brahmins, would not eat food prepared or touched by lower caste people. What they wanted was food prepared by members of their caste or higher caste. This very much suited the British as the supply problem was easier for the Brahmin Regiment (Brahman as the British called it).

My father said that they had respite at Suez and taking full advantage of that, almost the whole battalion was cooking food as they had not had roti for long. It was a big show, people were surprised and were taking photographs. Bare-chested men with a sacred thread burning chulhas was a rare sight. 

A British officer asked my father his name, and then, “How many biswas?” (The degree of Brahminism had a norm in land measurement; in UP, 1 bigha, roughly half an acre, has 20 biswas and this was considered the highest. A higher biswa family will not marry his daughter to a lower biswa family.)

“Sir, 20.”

“So, you are an upper Brahman?” 

“Yes, sir.”

“Tell me, do you eat gur?”

The British officer had served in India, so he knew Indian conditions and customs. “But, gur is made by lower caste people... you eat that, but you do not eat chapatti touched by a lower caste man.” My father said he didn’t know what to say and cut a very sorry figure.

He was again at Suez as Lt Col SN Misra, commanding the 4th Gwalior Infantry (now 5 Mechanised Infantry) in the Second World War and said, “My people while rushing from one point to another and as ration was supplied to them, unmindful of any caste consideration, some started eating, some putting it in their pockets, some putting it in the kit bag. There was a complete change from what I had seen in the times of First World War.”

 To continue with his story of WW1, at that time there was religious sanction against sea journeys. So, back home, there were whispers in our village in Hardoi. “Shiv Nath has gone by sea.” Some of our dear relatives were sorry for Shiv Nath, because he was to be ostracised. Coming back in 1919 and then quickly packed off to Afghanistan and returning home after being given pension in 1921-1922 as part of reorganisation/demobilisation, he was ‘purified’ in a big puja which included sipping urine of a white heifer. This was transforming back from vilaytia (men who have been to vilayat).  

Major Dhyan Chand’s aura

My father used to play hockey for his unit. One day in Gwalior, at a hockey match of Scindia’s Eleven (Maharaja’s team) and the other, perhaps Kirkee Arsenal or Khalsa College, Amritsar, Major Dhyan Chand’s brother Capt Roop Singh of Gwalior Army smashed powerful goals. We were students and hockey was a craze. At that time my father was Quarter Master General of the Gwalior Army. Roop Singh was tall and well-built. 

Dhyan Chand had joined my father’s old battalion as a Sepoy when it was being reorganised after the Afghanistan War and had to become Punjab Regiment. “Our unit was outstanding in hockey. Our Subedar Bhole Tewari (Bele, as the Britishers called him) was known as the best Army player and was also an excellent coach. He handpicked Dhyan Chand, who was really Dhyan Singh, and groomed him. He was his guru”.

My father added that Subedar Tewari recommended Dhyan Chand to play for India in New Zealand. The rest is history, we know how Dhyan Chand became a hero in the Berlin Olympics and Hitler had an eye on him. Of the eight goals scored against Germany, his tally was six. It is said that Hitler had even offered him a commission in army.

British racism, ostracisation at home

Landing in Marseille in 1914, the Gayatri Paltan was transported to the advanced areas, where fierce fighting was taking place. “We fought day in and day out. Our unit won a French medal for gallantry. When we came across French villages, they would come with fruits (we did not accept food, for Brahminical reasons), laid cots for us to rest. For a while we felt very happy. Soon we were overtaken by British troops, they told the French not to mix up with us. All villages and towns were made out of bounds for us. Life was very difficult,” my father would recall.

He said they condemned amongst themselves this meanness of the British. “We had heard of gas warfare. The British instructors told us that we should soak our gamchchas in water and cover our faces, gas masks would be supplied. Some trenches were dry. They told us that in order to save our life, if water was not available, to soak it in urine. This was obnoxious and we refused. At that time we heard that in Mesopotamia some Muslim units had revolted; they said they would not fight against Turks, who were also Muslims. We were packed off to Mesopotamia.”

In 1960, when I visited the French War Memorial in Paris, I found in the exhibits of fighters for France a life-size mannequin with the caption: ‘The Hindoo troops’.

My father like many soldiers suffered from acute dysentery. He was admitted to a hospital in Cairo. An Egyptian soldier advised him to eat tarbooz (water melon). It had a magical effect. He recovered and joined his battalion, fighting in the deserts of Mesopotamia. He rested again at Basra, which had a big hospital. It was from there that he wrote a letter home. My mother and only brother were very sick and had no news of him. The letter gave my father the ‘Basra’ tag at home.

A huge offensive was launched in 1917, and they captured Baghdad. He was awarded OBI, Sardar Bahadur and the Indian Meritorious Service Medal in the campaign. 

The troops came to Allahabad in 1919. At home, my father was ostracised. My grandfather was in a lot of distress. After a meeting of village elders, it was decided that he should be purified as a Brahmin again and had to have janaiu (sacred thread) again. Shortly before, my mother had died of prolonged sickness, leaving my brother who was six at that time.

 My father was summoned to join the unit at Allahabad. News was rife of the Third Anglo-Afghan War. My grandfather suggested that he take my brother to Kanpur, where my mother came from. With the vilaytia tag, he was not welcome. 

My father wanted to quit, but his CO said, “Shiv Nath, he is not your son, he is the son of the battalion, let us take him with us.” 

After the war, my father applied for pension and was released from the army. He was given ‘Jangi Inam’ (war reward) of Rs 10 for life and 20 bighas near Robertsganj in Mirzapur.

My grandfather looked for a match for him, but his Basra tag came in the way.  He was finally remarried as my maternal grandfather was forward-looking. He joined for a year as Captain Commandant of Datia Govind Infantry and then left to join the Gwalior Army as Captain, DAG Musketry, a new post created by the British, in 1923-1924.

He commanded the First Gwalior Infantry at Lashkar and left for World War II in 1939; he has a hill named after him in Abbysinia. He was wounded and returned in 1943. He was appointed honorary ADC to Viceroy and got pension from Gwalior army in 1947.

The writer retired as Special Secy, UP

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