And when you put on your awareness cap and think of the defenders of the peace and security of India, your thoughts go to those who defended the Kashmir Valley in 1947 and those who rid of Kargil heights of aggression only recently. That was not the first major aggression they fought against with determination and valour and came out winners. They had also defended the country in the 1962, 1965 and 1971 wars. With a unilateral peace initiative declared by India, they are today fighting a war of courageous patience. Only the strong and the courageous can declare and maintain unilateral ceasefire to diffuse a situation of continuous conflict. The Indian Army, the senior most and the largest of the three defence services of the country, has also become the most experienced force in combating terrorism and disruption in its role of aid to civil administration.

As an impressive peacekeeping forces of the United Nations, this Army has played its role in Korea, the Congo, the Ghaza Strip and in several other areas of peacekeeping operations in Asia, Africa and Europe. The Indian Army has also earned itself a special place in the field of adventure sport. All these things and a very special Indianness makes this army like no other army. Its soldiers speak more than 40 different languages and dialects. They come from almost all the major religions and ethnic groups, everyone with its own tradition of value and valour. That is why in times of calamity and disaster it has ever acted as the most courageous and competent rescue and relief force.

Looking back, one would notice that when India inherited its present Army from the British in 1947, it was quite different. It was an army commanded by and large by non-Indians. Till India’s freedom, the British made it a point that while they commanded this army, no Indian could become a company or squadron commander even though senior enough. Promotion was strictly controlled. As well known military historian, Lt Col Gautam Sharma (Retd) has pointed out in his excellent work, Nationalisation of the Indian Army (1885-1947) "We inherited the present Indian Army in 1947 and within a couple of months we had to fight a war which lasted full 14 months under the most unfavourable conditions. The armed forces had been split. We were short of officers, VCOs and NCOs who were war veterans and had gone over or left. There had also been large scale disbandments. The Indian officers had no experience of leading brigades, divisions and armies in battle. Many had to be promoted mostly two or three ranks higher and they acquitted themselves well".

The British had made it a point to ensure that the command of the Indian Army always stayed with them. The men were enrolled from certain classes called martial. Quite a large number of them were from the higher strata. They were given direct commissions as Jemadars and Risaldars and addressed as "saheb". The angrez log were "sahebs" and the rank with the prefix gave the Indian recipients a "British" sense of pride and status. In time to come, they were promoted but had no authority. The seniormost of these with 30-35 years service were subordinate to the juniormost British officers. The British also downgraded the great traditional Indian army ranks. They downgraded the senapati, commander of a large army, as naik who commanded just ten jawans. For example, Dhokil Singh, later a General in the Sikh Army, was a Drill Naik and Raja Bakhtawar Singh of Oudh a Havildar.

It was for Gen K M Cariappa, the first Indian Commander-in-Chief of the Indian Army, to set the course of the "nationalisation" of the Indian Army. The General, a true father figure for the Independent India’s Army, later honoured by the rank of Field Marshal for his achievement in building a truly Indian command for the Indian Army, was responsible for giving the nation a truly "national army". It was this evolution of the new command which led to the historic 1971 victory of India under Gen Sam Manekshaw who was honoured by being made the first Field Marshal even before Cariappa.

The 1971 performance of the Indian Army was impressive in many ways. The largest ever territory of the aggressor was occupied by the Indian Army in the western Sector in operations led by Lt Gen K P Candeth. In the Eastern Sector, operations commanded by Lt Gen Jagjit Singh Arora led to the unprecedented surrender of the 80,000- strong Pakistani army commanded by Lt Gen A K Niazi. The conflict led to the emergence of Independent Bangladesh and the release of the father of Bangladesh, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib-ur-Rehman. Even more impressive than the 1971 victory was the smooth and unilateral return of the occupied territory and prisoners of war by the political and military leadership of India as a gesture of goodwill and good neighbourliness.

With the quality of leadership of the Indian Army, the indigenisation of its infrastructure and equipment also underwent steady change and development. It was no longer the old infantry based force of foot-soldiers. Infantry evolved into mechanical infantry-well equipped and well-trained. Old Cavalry transformed itself into impressive Armour. Indian-made missiles, radar and signal systems and a variety of arms, ammunition matching the needs and threat perceptions of Indian strategists were designed, developed and inducted into the Army. For this, one has to give credit to more than three dozen departmental and nearly a dozen Defence undertakings and almost three dozen research laboratories, dotted all over the country. They improved the effectiveness of our weapons and enabled our brave jawans and officers to fight better.

A military machine is as good as the heroic men behind it. The Indian Army has a great galaxy of heroes esteemed for their bravery and patriotism by the nation. Selection of a few names would show that they belong to not one community or religion. They were Indians first and Indians last. Just think of Hav Abdul Hamid, Brig Usman, L/Nk Karam Singh, Sub Joginder Singh, Nb Sub Bana Singh, Maj Ramaswami Parmeshwaran, Maj Somnath Sharma, Maj Dhan Singh Thapa, Lt Col A B Tarapore, 2/Lt Rama Ragnoba Rane and L/Nk Albert Eka. The golden list of heroes and martyrs is a long one. These are just some of the names that flash across the mind.