AFVOA Newletters of Year 2004

Page 92 of 153 79. They come in a rush, all these thoughts, but they come. As I gaze at pictures of Kalia, Kapadia and Gadgil, as I understand the spirit in their bright Indian eyes, as I see it in the Major who lunches with me -- the questions spin through my mind. And I stop there. Because I must not ask. Because I’m a patriot. Am I? By Dilip D’Souza (Dilip D’Souza is a Scholar of Peace Fellow with WISCOMP (Women in Security. Conflict Management and Peace). Dilip D’Souza writes regularly on the living conditions of India’s downtrodden people. He is also the author of two books Branded by Law: Looking at India’s Denotified Tribes [Penguin 2001], and more recently. The Narmada Dammed. An Inquiry into the Politics of Development. * (Source: http://www.Indiatogether.org 2004/jul/ <illegible> .html) You can’t build a reputation on what you’re GOING to do. ~ Henry Ford Remember 1945? 80. In June and July, Europe, the US and Russia have been celebrating the 60 th anniversary of the Allied victory over the Axis forces in World War II. You’d have thought the victory was entirely due to the British, the Americans and the Russians. Wrong! There were 2.5 million men from the Indian sub continent. They played a crucial, perhaps decisive, role in the Allied victory. On D-Day, when Allied troops landed on the Normandy coast, the battle of Kohima in North East India was reaching a climax. The Japanese forces were eventually repulsed in a battle that Lord Louis Mount-batten later described as “one of the greatest in history”. It saw some of the closest, bloodiest fighting of the war. In a cemetery on Garrison Hill, surrounded by trees and rhododendron bushes, lie 1,378 brave men. The inscription reads: “When you go home Tell them of us and say: For their tomorrow We gave our today.” 81. That battle saved India from being invaded by the Japanese. Indeed, they suffered their biggest defeats on land not at the hands of the Americans but the Indian Army. At the second battle of Sittan River in Burma, 13,000 Japanese men perished. The loss to British and Indian troops? Ninety five! Meanwhile, on the North African and European front, troops from the Indian subcontinent covered themselves with glory. The Fifth Indian Division fought the Italians in Sudan, then the Germans in Libya, after which it was shifted to Iraq to protect the oil fields, before being moved to the Burma and Malaya front, finally going to Indonesia to disarm the Japanese there. Personnel from the Indian subcontinent received 4,000 gallantry awards and 31 Victoria Crosses, the highest gallantry award given by the British army. 82. I got all this information by spending a day at the United Services Institute library in New Delhi. How come the ministry of defence played dumb? The 60 th anniversary of the Allied victory should have been a perfect occasion to relate a great and courageous story in the media, as was done all over the West and the former USSR. I saw nothing. Okay, the Indian army consisted of what are now Indians, Pakistanis, Bangladeshis and Nepalis. So what? (Source: Shri Rahul Singh in Outlook August 9, 2004)