In Patel’s theatre of command

When I was in my teens at school, I reve-red the Mahatma, idolised Jawaharlal Nehru and admired Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. I met the Mahatma once for a few minutes and I interacted with Nehru in his office twice. I hardly ever met Patel.

In September 1946, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel became the Home Member of the Viceroy’s executive council in the interim government. Nehru was vice-president. They functioned as de-facto Prime Minister and home minister respectively. In August 1947, Nehru became the Prime Minister and Patel the home minister as also deputy Prime Minister. The Sardar was living in 1, Prithviraj Road, opposite Claridges Hotel. I was a captain serving in Military Operations Directorate at Army Headquarters. As a bachelor living in Officers Mess on Zakir Hussain Road, I used to go out jogging in Lodhi Gardens every morning. The Sardar used to come to the gardens for his morning walks. He would be accompanied by about half a dozen people. While jogging, when I saw him coming from the opposite direction, I would stop and respectfully do my “Pranam”. He responded by nodding his head, giving me a slight smile. In September 1948, I saw him from close quarters. Lt. Gen. K.M. Cariappa, the then Western Army Commander, was in Kashmir at Uri.

Being his General Staff Operations Officer, I used to frequently accompany him on his tour of battle areas in Kashmir. One afternoon we received an emergency message from Delhi wanting Cariappa to meet the Sardar immediately. We rushed to Srinagar airport and caught a special plane for Delhi. Perhaps Cariappa knew what this call was about. On arrival at Palam airport, we drove to the residence of the Sardar.

There were no air-conditioners in those days. The Sardar was in his drawing room and one could see him from the adjacent verandah. The ceiling fan was running, the front door was open and the curtain was swinging. Cariappa sat next to the Sardar and discussed some matter. I could not hear what they were saying from the verandah where I was sitting with an officer of the Sardar’s staff. The meeting lasted about 15 minutes. Cariappa came and we proceeded in the car to his house. He muttered that he had given a monosyllabic reply, “Yes Sir”, and he then said “Thank You”. I was curious to know what it was all about. A couple of days later I saw in the newspapers that the Indian Army had marched into Hyderabad.

Later I got to know what had transpired between Patel and Cariappa that afternoon. The Army Chief had advised him not to open a second front in Hyderabad as the Army was fully engaged in Kashmir. The Nizam had 40,000 well-trained troops. A professionally competent Turkish major-general, Syed Ahmed El Edroos, was the Chief of the Hyderabad Army. Besides, there was a ragtag Razakar militia of over 50,000 armed with an assortment of rifles, shotguns, swords and spears. Syed Qasim Razvi was the leader of this militia and had openly declared that he would have the Nizam’s green Asaf Jahi flag fluttering over Red Fort in Delhi. Military operations in Hyderabad could drag on for long. Foreign major powers, including Islamic states, may politically or otherwise intervene in operations in Hyderabad was another factor. Perhaps the Sardar felt that the military advice being given to him was tainted and more in British than Indian interests. At that time General Sir Francis Robert Roy Bucher was the Chief of the Indian Army. Lord Mountbatten was the Governor-General and Lt. Gen. Sir Archibald Edward Nye was the British high commissioner at Delhi. He had been vice-chief of the British Imperial General Staff during the Second World War and was known to be a confidant of Winston Churchill. The Sardar wanted military advice from Indian generals. The Southern Army Commander, Lt. Gen. Rajendrasinhji Jadeja, assured him that with the resources available to him he could defeat the Hyderabad Army in a short and swift military operation. Western Army Commander Lt. Gen. Cariappa assured him that in case Pakistan invaded Kashmir, Punjab and Northern Rajasthan, he would beat back Pakistan with the resources available to him without asking for any reinforcement.

A day or so earlier, when Cariappa had met the Sardar at his residence, an incident had taken place on the then Bombay-Hyderabad border. A police station near Chillakallu village on the Bombay Presidency border was attacked by the Razakars. When we sent reinforcement, a few armoured cars of the Nizam’s Army fired some shots from across the border. Already a large number of Hindu refugees had been fleeing from Hyderabad territory to adjacent Indian provinces. There were reports that Pakistan was attempting to assist Hyderabad through gun-running by air. The Nizam had provided funds to Pakistan for raising a fighter squadron in its Air Force. The Nizam was trying to purchase Goa from Portugal so that his landlocked state could have an outlet to the sea. The Nizam’s efforts to get Hyderabad to become a dominion in the British Commonwealth had not succeeded. He also had failed to get the UN to make Hyderabad a member of the UN. Fortunately, we had the right man at the right place to take the required decision at that critical time.

The Sardar ordered imme-diate military action and in a week of military operations the much-touted Hyderabad Army was routed.

The Turkish Chief of the Hyderabad Army, Major-General El Edroos, surren-dered to Maj. Gen. Joyanto Nath Chaudhuri of the Indian Army.

Soon thereafter, Sardar Patel arrived at Hyderabad airport where he was received by the Nizam of Hyderabad, the richest man of the world of that time.

Hyderabad, like all the other nearly 560-odd Princely States, now became an integral part of the Indian Union. There was no reprisal against the Nizam who became the Raj Pramukh of Hyderabad, meaning thereby that he was now the constitutional head of his erstwhile state, like many other princely rulers of other large states.

He was allowed to retain his personal property, whether movable or immovable. Besides, he was given a privy purse in accordance with the income he had been getting from his state.

This was in accordance with what had happened in the case of all other states.

Jammu and Kashmir state was not being dealt with by the Sardar; its accession and consequent measures were being handled by Jawaharlal Nehru.

Years later I read the Sardar’s letter to Nehru dated November 7, 1950, a few weeks before he died. He advised Nehru to be careful of China. China did not have good intentions towards India despite her show of friendship. China’s occupation of Tibet posed a serious threat. He asked Nehru to set in motion action to counter the threat posed by China. Alas, Nehru ignored his advice. We paid for this in 1962.

The infallibility of our foreign policy, the impregnability of the Himalayas and the invincibility of our Army lay shattered. Nehru was now a broken man and died a little over a year after the debacle. The writer, a retired lieutenant-general, was Vice-Chief of Army Staff and has served as governor of Assam and Jammu and Kashmir