Red-letter day at Sandhurst

WALKING down the halls of the prestigious military academy from where my maternal grandfather, Maj Gen Dinkarrao Appasaheb Surve, passed out as a King’s Commissioned Indian Officer (KCIO) in 1928 was a surreal experience. It was a proud moment for me and my family.

In the late 1920s, he was selected by the Kolhapur Durbar for becoming an officer in the Indian Army and sent to Britain to join the Royal Military College at Sandhurst as a cadet. He was the second and last young man to be selected for training at Sandhurst from Kolhapur, the first being Lt Gen SPP Thorat, who retired as the Eastern Army Commander.

A KCIO was an Indian officer of the British Indian Army who held a full King’s commission after training in the UK — at the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, for infantry officers, Woolwich for artillery officers and Chatham as well as Woolwich for engineer officers. They had full command over British and Indian troops and officers.

In contrast, the Indian commissioned officers, who were trained at the Indian Military Academy, Dehradun, and the Viceroy’s commissioned officers only had authority over Indian troops and officers. KCIOs were introduced in the early 20th century under the Indianisation process. They were equivalent in rank and privileges to the British officers holding a King’s commission (known in India as King’s commissioned officers, or KCOs). In essence, they were commissioned by the King himself at a special induction ceremony. Most KCIOs served on attachment to a British unit for a year or two early in their careers.

Simultaneously, in the first measure taken by the British government to ‘Indianise’ the army, the Eight Unit Scheme was announced in 1923. Only eight units of the Indian Army were accepted by the British for Indianisation — five infantry battalions out of 104; two cavalry regiments out of 21; and one pioneer battalion out of seven.

Many officers who later held high ranks in the post-Independence Indian and Pakistani armies began their careers as KCIOs. Field Marshal KM Cariappa, Gen KS Thimayya, Lt Gen BM Kaul and Field Marshal Ayub Khan were among the Sandhurst-trained officers.

When grandpa left for Sandhurst, grandma went to New Delhi to study medicine at Lady Hardinge Medical College. However, she dropped the idea of becoming a doctor as soon as my grandfather returned as a KCIO in the early 1930s, eloped with him and got married. During World War II, he served in Persia and Iraq under the Tenth Army.

I was gifted a beautiful coffee table book by the Sandhurst team. We were taken on a private tour by a veteran soldier. He acknowledged with great reverence the role of brave Indian soldiers during wartime.