WALKING DOWN THE MEMORY LANE

MY FRIEND BUSY BEE & CENTENARY CELEBRATIONS

Centenary of the Garhwal Rifles

(A tribute to late Behram Contractor popularly known as Busybee.

By

Lt Gen Mohan Bhandari, PVSM, AVSM & Bar, D Litt, FIMA

As we walked up the steep climb from Commandant’s bungalow after a sumptuous lunch towards the Garhwali Mess, Behram & his wife Farzana kept on asking me about the Regiment, Lansdowne & Garhwal. In between, he stopped a couple of times to scribble a few notes in neatly folded sheets of paper that he invariably kept in his jean’s pocket. He made short notes throughout our long sittings. I took them all over our Regimental Centre. Brigadier Grover of Ritz Hotel Mumbai fame had been instrumental in Behram’s visit to Lansdowne to cover in print the preparations of Centenary Celebrations.

Busybee was a lean & thin man with a white crop of hair who wore thick spectacles. Always smiling, he had a leisurely pace but was very sharp & observant. I vividly recall his sharp intellect & uncanny ability to grasp facts & figures. He had an elephant’s memory. He spoke little & reminded me of one of my University Professors. He always saw better things of life & enjoyed whatever he did. He was a great listener. Simplicity was his forte. We spent many hours in the Mess sitting in Gazebo drinking Rosy Pelican beer from Murthal, Sonipat.I took him around the Mess showing him the flooring made entirely of tiny pieces of broken crockery-some of them having regimental crests on them. There I told him about the number of beer bottles I had won as a young subaltern betting with my bachelor friends as to who will locate maximum crests in five minutes flat!

We also sat sipping beer at the dining table manufactured by C. Lazarus & Coy, Calcutta. Then I took him to Billiards Room & showed him the German flag taken out by our Bhulas at Nunquissart, Germany in 1915. In three days, I took them all over the place & did my best to tell him all that I knew of the Regiment & the remote places our Bhulas came from.

We drove together to Delhi in the same car Behram & Farzana had brought. Throughout we continued talking of the Regiment & related things. He was extremely fond of good food. I recall with nostalgia our lunch at a way side Dhaba where he told me that the ‘karhi’ & ‘begun bhurta’ were made extremely well & the ‘tandoori paranthas’ were just super. He declined to have ‘gulab jamuns’ saying that he wanted to retain the taste & not mix it. We reached Delhi at Dorab Ji’s house where Farzana made excellent coffee & served fresh baked biscuits. It was about 6 PM when I parted to arrange for the Press Meet at the Red Fort –location of 5 GARH RIF.While I & my wife met Behram & Farzana a couple of times at the office of Afternoon Despatch & Courier at Fort, Bombay & over lunch at Ritz Hotel in later years- with Brigadier Grover’s hospitality at his very best, I never met Behram again. Behram sent me a few copies of his paper dated 5 May 1987 .Excerpts of his preview of the Centenary celebrations with minor editing are given out in preceding paragraphs

This is a testimony of his love for the Regiment, I am sanguine that the spirit of regimentation, valour, group dynamics, chivalry & camaraderie as witnessed by him will continue to motivate & inspire All Ranks of our illustrious Regiment with a prayer to our Presiding Deity Lord Badri Vishal Lal that we celebrate 200 years of dedicated service to our mother land in 2087 in a befitting manner.

“We were guests of the Garhwal Rifles in their mountain eerie in Lansdowne, 6000 ft in the pine forested hills. We were given the Pauri Suite, a small cottage at the edge of the ridge, with its own private ledge, a not-too-strong railing to stop us from falling into the ravine below.

An officer explained: “This is Dev Bhoomi, the Ganga starts from here. There directly across, as the mountain eagle flies, is Lord Badrinath. It is the Presiding Deity of the Regiment.” The Garhwali battalions have always launched their attacks with the battle cry Badri Vishal Lal Ki –CHARGE!!!!. It is from these hills and mountains that the regiment has recruited its men for 100 years. Men who have won 31 Battle Honours, three Victoria Crosses , one Ashoka Chakra, five Maha Vir Chakras, nine Kriti Chakras, 35 Vir Chakras . The Regiment also has the highest number of gallantry awards won by any single infantry battalion in a single operation; 18 Vir Chakras and one Maha Vir Chakra in 1948 in the Tithwal Sector of Jammu and Kashmir.

There were others officers, some of them had taken leave from their battalion stations and come to Lansdowne to help out with the centenary preparations. You could see the pride for the regiment in all of them. One of them was Lieutenant Colonel Mohan Bhandari, commissioned into the 7^th Garhwal Rifles in 1967. A cousin, Lt Bipin Bhatt was in the 8 GARHWAL killed in a mountaineering accident in 1962; an uncle, a major in the RAJPUT Regiment, was killed in battle in the same year. So there was nothing left for Colonel Bhandari but to join the Garhwal Rifles. He was an M.A. in Military Science and Business Management.

ACTUALLY, Lansdowne is a very unique hill-station. Almost the entire town is a military station, with a very small area for the local population. There are no hotels, no restaurants, and no facilities for ordinary tourists. If you want to visit Lansdowne, you have to go as a guest of the Regiment.

We traveled by car from New Delhi in a private taxi kindly hired by the Regiment , leaving the Red Fort, where it has a battalion stationed through Meerut and Bijnore and Moradabad, straight North to Kotdwara, which is the market of the District. The mountains stand directly behind Kotdwara, giving the town a craggy look. The sun was sinking as we began the climb through eucalyptus forests, deodars, pines shedding their needles, the fragrance of crushed jasmines (through there were no jasmine trees around).

You have to go over the final ridge to have a view of the central Himalayas, homes of perennial snow. But it was too dark to see them, too dark to see anything. The road meanders through a maze of bungalows built by British officers at their departure, given to the Regiment. The army never forgets its past, so they are still known by the names of their original owners. Lyell’s, Orton’s, Roberts – a story goes that the last mentioned was building his bungalow across a track that moved to Badrinath; so he was told in a dream not to ignore the dream and went ahead and was struck blind. There is another story of the Regimental Ghost, who continued to visit the Quarter Guard on lonely wintery nights, riding a white charger ordering ‘Grand Rounds’.

The night was eerie and full of jungle sound by the time the car was passing through the main gates with two artillery pieces captured by the Second Battalion in 1917 at the battle of Ramadi from the Turks dominating the driveway. Brigadier Bhullor received us, and then personally conducted us at a brisk trot through the night to the top tier of the ridge housing the famous Garhwali Mess. At an altitude of 6000 feet, up an incline and and having just arrived from the plains, it was not the easiest walk I have had in my life.

Next day, Colonel Bhandari began educating me in the 100 years of history of the Garhwal Rifles.

PRIOR to 1887 , Garhwal did not have a separate Regiment of their own and for many years past Garhwalis were enlisted in the five Regiments of the Gurkhas belonging to the Bengal Infantry and the Punjab Frontier Force.

The proposal to raise a separate Regiment of the Garhwalis was mooted in January 1886 personally by Field Marshal the Hon’ble Sir FS Roberts. VC, KG, GCB, GCSI, GCIE, the then Commander –in-Chief in India, who acknowledged the martial qualities and the distinct entity of the inhabitants of Garhwal. Consequently in April 1887 raising of the 2 Battalion The 3^rd Gurkha Rifles was ordered having the class composition of six companies of the Garhwalis and two companies of the Gurkhas.

On May 5 1887, Lt. Col. EP. Mainwaring raised the Regiment at Almora in Kumaon. The Battalion moved on November 4, 1887, to Kalundanda in Garhwal .Kalundanda was subsequently renamed as Lansdowne after the then Viceroy of India. In 1891 the two Gurkha companies moved away to form the nucleus of 2/3 Queen Alexandria’s own Gurkha Rifles and the remaining Battalion was redesignated as the 39^th Garhwali Regiment of the Bengal Infantry.

The regiment saw action in the NITI pass area, Chin Hills in Burma, North West Frontier and Chitral between 1889 to 1898 and was awarded Battle Honour “Punjab Frontier”.

The 2^nd Battalion the 39^th Garhwal Rifles was raised in 1901 and both the battalions were selected to represent the Indian army at the Coronation of King Edward VII. In 1911 again both the battalions of the Regiment represented the Indian army at King George V’s Durbar at Delhi.

During World War I, both the battalions saw action in France as part of the famous Garhwal Brigade and two Victoria Crosses were won, by Naik Darwan Singh Negi and Rifleman Gobar Singh Negi (posthumous). Naik Darwan Singh Negi was the first Indian who received the Victoria Cross from the hands of King Emperor at Locon (France) on March 10, 1915. Battle Honours LA Basse, Armentieres, Festubert, Neuve Chapelle and Aubers, were awarded to the Regiment.

After leaving the Western Front in 1915, the Regiment saw action in Egypt, Mesopotamia and Turkey. The actions of the Regiment were recognized by the award of Egypt, Macedonia, Mesopotamia, Khan Baghdadi and Sharqat as Battle Honours.

The Third and the Fourth Battalion were raised in 1916 and 1918 respectively and saw active service in the Third Afghan War. In recognition of their services, the Regiment was awarded the Battle Honour Afghanistan.

In 1919 the Fourth Battalion took part in operations in Kohat, Tank, Jandoola and Kotkai. At Kotkai the Regiment won its third Victoria Cross when Lieutenant W.D. Kenny was posthumously awarded this highest decoration for gallantry.

On February 2, 1921, on the historic occasion of laying of the foundation stone of the All India War Memorial at New Delhi, (India Gate), the Duke of Connaught announced that, in recognition of the distinguished services and outstanding gallantry during World War I, the King Emperor had confirmed the title Royal on the Garhwal Rifles. The Regiment was thus privileged to wear the Scarlet Lanyard on the right shoulder. This rare honour placed the Regiment among the very few cavalry and infantry regiments which had been thus honoured.

The Shrine of the Regimental Deity, Lord Badrinath, the Regimental War Memorial and Scarlet Lanyard are the three emotionally rallying points for the Regiment and are sources of motivation and fortitude to all ranks of the Regiment, said Colonel Bhandari.

During World War II, five more battalions, 4^th (Reraised), 5^th, 6^{th, 7th} and Garrison Battalion were added to the Regiment. The entire Regiment was on active service in the Eastern and Western Theatres. Battle Honours Yenangyaung, Monywa, North Arakan, Nagakyedauk Pass, Ramree, Tanugup, Kuantan, Citta-di-Castello, Gallabat, Barentu, Keren, Massawa and Amba Alagi and numerous gallantry awards were bestowed upon the Regiment during this period.

On the parade ground, standing in the shade of a large deodar tree, the Regimental Brass Band was playing Gangotri composed by Subedar Major G.S. Negi. The command guard sweated it out the tarmac in the sun, rifle butts clicking, the tar melting under their stamping boots.

Military Bands and Parades have always affected me. And here it was more than ever- the War Memorial of the Garhwal Rifles, a rifleman standing on the marble pedestal, the Maltese falcon crest of the Regiment, the Regimental Flag, the buglers sounding the fanfare, the sound of a single bugle echoing and re-echoing through the mountains, the rhododendrons in scarlet bloom, the hillside covered in pansies. The Brass Band had all veterans: Naik Subedar Bikram Singh Shah, 19 years with the band. Havaldar Madan Singh Rawat, 24 years playing the French Horn, though he could also play the Trumpet, Clarinet & Saxophone. For our pleasure, Subedar Major G.S. Negi took the band through Colonel Boogey, Over The Waves, Colonel of the Regiment March. A Pipes and Drums Band, at the opposite end of the parade ground then came up and stood at attention, looking for a request. The request was given –La Paloma with the rest of the repertoire.

Next to the parade ground is the Regimental Museum, a repository of Garhwali Battle Honours. Plates taken from Turkish guns, the Victoria Cross, the highest gallantry awards in the British Indian Army, a letter written by Rudyard Kipling, a photo graph of Jaswant Singh Rawat, who halted a complete division of Chinese , Italian SMGs, captured during the Mesopatamia campaign, a scarf of a Japanese Officer. A letter from Field – Marshal Slim: “I have commanded battalions of every regiments of the Indian army, but I never had better one than yours and Snob Taylor’s 3^rd Garhwalis, and that is something for such a dyed-in-wool Gurkha as me to say. But it is true, they were splendid.”

But the heart of the Regiment, both living and past is in the Garhwali Mess. It is said that there is nothing like it anywhere in the world. The walls are entirely packed with game trophies -a white lion shot by Caption Tucker in Tanganyika in 1932, a tiger by Mr. Garola, District Forest Officer of Lansdowne, a tiger by Colonel D.H. Loundes in Nepal in 1926. There are snow leopards, black leopards, bisons, thars, barking deers, mountain goats with curling horns, etc. The biggest trophy and one every visitor to the Mess has to see and admire is a Thian Shan Wapiti, a stag with antlers spanning 49 inches; the antlers are in 13 segments, the normal maximum being 12 segments. It was shot in Thian Shan province of China and is said to live for five centuries.

Colonel Bhandari explained: “British officers would walk down the Mess Hill, shoot a few pheasants, and then come back for dinner. There is still a lot of game in the Valley; a panther was seen the day before.”

I spent some time in the library also, the most complete library of its size I have ever come across, reflecting the tastes of the officers of an erudite and liberal Regiment. There were books on dogs and horsemanship, poultry , a handbook on tropical trees, the complete Indian angler, journals of the Bombay Natural History Society , Mammals of India, 20 years in the Himalayas , Fowler, History of British Army in 15 volumes, Polo in India , Indian Insect Life, the assassination of John F. Kennedy.

The Regiment not only read books, but also wrote them. Across the Roof of the World is a masterpiece. There was one by Lieutenant Colonel K. Henderson, written in 1923 after 25 years in Lansdowne, under the guidance of Mrs. Bateman-Champion and verbal assistance of P.C. Kanjilal. It was a guide to gardening in Lansdowne and went into such details as the advantages of having one chisti and one bullock instead of two chistis to fetch water of the gardens. “The local hills bullock is procured from any adjacent village and can be trained in within a fortnight. Care should be taken of the back of the bullock: a well-folded blanket and over it a substantial padding of cotton wool stuffed into sacking and surmounted by two rolls lying on each side of the spine.” There are also instructions on the care of the massaks used for carrying the water. “Grease the massaks at least weekly with melted charbi (mutton suet)”.

The flowing season was just starting in Lansdowne when we left. April and May are the months for flowers sown last years by hundreds of recruits on fatigue duty, both the June-sown perennials and the autumn-sown annuals were in a blaze; sweet peas, pansies in flower-beds along the extremes of the Kalundanda ridge, the first flowering of the roses, the yellow banksias and the white single rose.

Shortly before leaving, we sat in the gazebo with large glass panels shuttering out the cold wind, and had a final look at the mountains, the Mess with its red-tiled roof, gables pointing to the skies, one of them with a TV antennae.

We also said farewell to Rifleman Dan Singh detailed to look after us.He had been a great help, though he continuously folded our things into dark cupboards, neatly packing them away, making us search for them when we needed them. We had also learnt how to hold on to our plates, because food was removed from the tables as fast as it was put there. After the ‘satapbadi ‘he would be joining one of the battalions in the forward areas, he said.

The taxi-driver who had brought us to Lansdowne from New Delhi was a Garhwali. His village was near Lansdowne, so we had let him visit it, spend a night there, while we were in Lansdowne. On the morning of our coming back to Delhi, he returned with a nephew. He had a request, if the Sahib would kindly speak to the Commandant, he would like his nephew to be recruited into the Garhwal Rifles. I did that. And I hope he passes all his tests and recruited.It would be my contribution to the Garhwal Rifles in its centenary year.”

Dear readers I took it upon myself to ensure that the Bhula got recruited in our Regiment & he was! He should be a Subedar by now, hopefully!