Ayushman
Seventy two years ago, Maharaja Hari Singh of Jammu and Kashmir signed the Instrument of Accession to India as the region was under siege from Pakistani forces. The accord mobilised the Indian Army to repel the invaders weeks after the nation gained Independence. Every year we celebrate that successful military campaign as Infantry Day.
The story that many won’t know, however, is that of Brigadier Rajinder Singh Jamwal and his band of warriors who died defending the Kashmir valley, days before the Indian army joined the fight. It was a 4-day operation from October 22 to 26 where the Dogra General and his brave men took on the might of a 6000 strong Pakistani force. It played the pivotal role in uniting J&K with the Union of India – a sacrifice honouring one simple order from the Maharaja – ‘fight till the last man and the last bullet’. The Dogra general was honoured with India’s first Mahavir Chakra.
On 21 October 1947, weeks after gaining independence, Pakistani forces comprising of tribal fighters and army regulars besieged Jammu and Kashmir. They sacked Muzaffarabad, their so-called ‘liberation’ being the rape, murder and pillaging of Kashmiris, no matter what their faith. Like marauders of the past, the Mehsud tribe of Pakistan came with a large convoy of trucks to carry loot and women back with them while the Pakistani army commanders eyed the Srinagar airfield to cut off all reinforcements and consolidate their control of the region. It was a 2-day march from Muzaffarabad to Srinagar and there was nothing standing in their way.
On 22 October 1947, Maharaja Hari Singh ordered Brigadier Rajinder Singh Jamwal, who served as the chief of army staff of Jammu and Kashmir to repel the invasion force while he held negotiations with the Indian Government. Maharaja Hari Singh’s son, former union minister Dr Karan Singh, still remembers the day the order was given. In fact, he was present in the room when Maharaja Hari Singh gave that historic command.
“It was a worrying situation as the state was slipping out of our hands,” he says. “Brigadier Rajinder Singh Jamwal was summoned by my father, he was given the order and he just saluted and headed for the front.”
Even though he was the chief of the state forces, the Brigadier did not pass on the order to any his commanders and led the operation himself. He gathered around 100 soldiers from the Badami Bagh cantonment in Srinagar and moved to Uri to counter the invaders. He used guerrilla tactics to delay their advance, blowing up the Uri bridge and stalling them in Mahura and Buniyar, inflicting heavy casualties. For four days, the Dogra soldiers hindered the advance of the Pakistani force.
As the Brigadier and his men fought, on 26 October 1947, Maharaja Hari Singh signed the Instrument of Accession. The first Sikh regiment flew into Srinagar to back the Dogra force, however the Brigadier was ambushed in Buniyar and fatally wounded. The Pakistani force was delayed long enough for the Indian army to push them back, saving thousands from a brutal onslaught.
Brigadier Rajinder Singh Jamwal carried out his orders in letter and spirit, setting an unparalleled example of courage and patriotism. In his homeland of Jammu, he is known as the ‘Immortal Dogra’ and ‘Saviour of Kashmir’, and serves as an inspiration in a region where almost every household has one or two members serving in the armed forces, many defending the border and the Kashmir valley.
October 26 is commemorated as a ‘Black Day’ by the separatists, who call it the day India occupied the Kashmir valley. In Brigadier Rajinder Singh Jamwal’s sacrifice lies the most potent counter to the separatist narrative. Post Article 370, in a nation more firmly bonded with Jammu and Kashmir, he is a symbol of unity, a soldier from Jammu who died defending the Kashmir valley and the integrity of a newborn India. His service sowed the seeds of Kashmir’s bond with the Union and is a powerful message to our brave jawans who battle terrorists and stone-pelters. He was truly deserving of India’s first Param Vir Chakra.
On Infantry Day we must remember that our history is a testimony to how the idea of India is a more enduring force than the blind fury of terror and separatism. The soil of Jammu and Kashmir is laden with the blood and spirit of heroes like Brigadier Rajinder Singh Jamwal sustaining the eternal truth that ‘Kashmir is India, and India is Kashmir’.
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