A biography remembers General TN Raina, Army Chief with a vision for the future

Lt Gen Baljit Singh (Retd)

In the annals of India’s military history post Independence, the battlefields of World War II in Italy, Egypt, Sudan, Iraq and Burma stand out as the exclusive sprouting beds of the Army’s future Chiefs, viz, Gentleman Officers Cariappa, Rajendra Sinhji, Srinagesh, Thimayya, Thapar, Chaudhuri, Kumaramangalam, Manekshaw, Bewoor and Raina. Three of them were decorated for Distinguished Service in battle (DSO), one for valour in the face of enemy (MVC) and another three were Mentioned-in-Despatches (MD) for bravery on the battlefield.

All of them, except Cariappa, Manekshaw and Raina (the trio), were the scions of affluent families and educated in exclusive high-end schools (one even at Eton!) and also carried a chip on their shoulders as graduates from the premier Royal Military Academy, Woolwich or Sandhurst in England. However, the “trio” were totally home-grown, schooled in India, commissioned from Officers Training Schools at Indore, Dehradun and Mhow, respectively, and emerged as destiny’s chosen ones for exceptional achievement, that is, two among them becoming Field Marshals and Gen Raina becoming the one and only Chief “who carried Independent India’s second highest gallantry award, the MVC” and that too against the formidable PLA in eastern Ladakh!

Second Lieutenant Tapishwar Narain Raina (“Tapu” to family but “Tappy” to friends and Army circles) was commissioned in 1942 and assigned to 1/19 Hyderabad Regiment (present day Kumaon Regiment). He saw active service in Iraq as part of Persia and Iraq Force. Tappy was grievously wounded from a grenade burst, inflicting a deep gash on each thigh and splinter injuries on the chest, right hand and right eye. Despite the best medical intervention, he lost the eye but unfazed, a month later, Tappu wrote to his father: “…even with the loss of one eye, I am still ‘A-5’, which means that I can go back to my unit and be fit for active service. I will be taking on my duty in May.” This attribute of pluck would bolster him against many hyper-stressful situations on the battlefields in Burma, Ladakh and Bangladesh, almost till the end of his Army career.

By mid-1944, the 1/19 Hyderabadis were switched to Burma where they successfully captured Myitson during which Capt Raina was again “Mentioned-in-Despatches” for bravery. On termination of WW II, this battalion set sail on the mission to restore civic order in Saigon, in 1945. And during that process of three months, the shy and reticent Capt Raina plunged into a rollercoaster, fairytale romance with a Franco-German girl (Ninette), sustained the courtship without a hiccup back in India even when Ninette and family had resettled home in France, eventually concluding the tender affair in a happy marriage, solemnised at Dehradun under Arya Samaj rites in 1949.

In the decade of 1950s, Maj Raina moved in quick succession between command, staff and instructional appointments in ascending levels. This was also the decade when India’s diplomatic and intelligence apparatus had misread the PLA’s hostile intents in Ladakh and Arunachal. However, Lt Gen SP Thorat, GOC-in-C of Eastern Command, Gen KS Thimayya, the COAS, and Lt Gen Daulat Singh, GOC-in-C of Western Command, had persistently alerted the government “…of an impending self-created disaster… no short-cuts to military preparedness…. danger of losing territory India claimed as its own…”

HQ Western Command further stressed the need for “progressive build-up of forces in Ladakh… an Infantry Division of four Brigades…. an MMG battalion… one Regiment of Medium Artillery… etc.” But to no avail.

Yet, against this backdrop, Lt Col Raina was promoted to command 114 Infantry Brigade, comprising just three regular Infantry battalions located on the outskirts of Leh, but now ordered “to take over personal command of the Chushul sector… vital to defend Ladakh in general, and Leh, in particular”.

To defend a frontage of approximately 480 km in the most demanding terrain was the most unenviable mission, but Brig Raina stood his ground, leading from the front. Admittedly, two J&K Militia battalions were also available but they were scattered in penny packets to hold 65 posts in the chimera of “Forward Policy”.

Again, in the assessment of HQ Western Command, “…where Indian Army moved 20 personnel with so much difficulty, the Chinese were able to press 200 with ease. Rarely had so few been pitched against so many!” So the PLA had little difficulty in reducing to rubble our soldiers and materials making up 16 of the 18 posts in the Depsang sub-sector in a matter of just 24 hours. But in the Chushul sector, Brig Raina’s selection of ground and preparation of defences ab initio proved so astute that despite 20:1 numerical superiority (even 40:1 at Rezang La) and eight days of high-intensity combat, the PLA failed to defeat 114 Infantry Brigade!

I am tempted to recall a famous utterance from Field Marshal Slim’s 14th Army that “the ‘Difficult’ can wait, we shall tackle the ‘Impossible’ first!” In much the same vein, Lt Gen Raina’s supreme self-confidence in excelling on the battlefield was once again on display when tasked to create and knit together from scratch, Headquarter 2 Corps at Krishnanagar and in less than two months lead it in war against East Pakistan. Seven days into the 1971 war, this fledgling Corps fully achieved its mission with as much success as did the WW-II hardened 4 and 33 Corps!

His promotion to GOC-in-C, Western Command, was a natural corollary but in the next breath, fate dealt a shattering blow to the Rainas’ personal lives; their son, the handsome and vivacious 24-year-old Capt Jyoti Narain Raina, was killed by a speeding rogue automobile in Jalandhar Cantonment. He had been commissioned into 14 Kumaon, the battalion of his father’s first command back in the mid-1950s. And glory is to this father and son who partnered in the 1971 war, in the same war zone, in the Indian Army’s finest victory.

Attaining the peak of his distinguished career as the COAS (1975-1978), Gen Raina summoned his considerable professional acumen to think through clearly on how to better prepare the Army for future wars. So he handpicked three proven professionals (two would succeed him down the timeline) to prepare a “Vision Document” for the Army of the year 2000 and another competent, multi-disciplinary team for relocating some Cantonments, facilitating rapid mobilisation for war. And once he had the two refined blueprints, he sought an appointment with Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. He presented his case with such clarity and conviction that she approved the proposals without any caveats.

It was during Gen Raina’s tenure that Prime Minister Gandhi imposed Emergency. He, however, “politely and firmly refused” the Army’s involvement and at a function at Hotel Imperial, New Delhi, publically declared that “the Indian Army was an apolitical organisation”.

And we may be sure that the incomparable legacy of Gen TN Raina, MVC, shall never fade out as the War Memorial at Chushul embraces in eternity two PVCs, nine MVCs and 31 VrCs from 1962 in this mini Valhalla upon mother earth!

Measured against any yardstick, the Chief’s biography by Brig Satish K Issar will earn loud applause from lay readers and scholars of military history alike, for presenting a well researched and gripping reading experience. It is a pity though that the publishers failed somewhat in the map-making craft.