Thorat, the soldier who saw 1962 coming
In 1961, Lt Gen BM Kaul orchestrated the appointment of Gen Pran Thapar, a pliant figure who would facilitate Kaul’s rise.
Updated At : 07:09 AM Sep 24, 2025 IST
Foresight: Had Lt Gen SPP Thorat been made the Army Chief in 1961, the Army would have been commanded by a professional who had diagnosed the Chinese threat with accuracy. File photo
TODAY (September 24), in Pune, the Indian Army will pause to honour one of its most remarkable but under-recognised soldiers. The autobiography of Lieutenant General SPP Thorat is being re-released in the presence of the Chief of Defence Staff, General Anil Chauhan and other senior officers. The event is not simply a ceremonial reissue of an old book; it is a moment of reckoning with history. For Thorat was a man whose clarity of vision, had it been heeded, might have altered the trajectory of India's military story in the 1960s.
