THE CORPS HISTORY – SOME RANDOM THOUGHTS
“History
is bunk”
-
Henry Ford
Henry Ford is said to have made this famous comment
in 1916. Ironically, Ford later created history himself, when he conceived the
assembly line system that revolutionised not only automobile production but
almost every other industry in the World. Today, like his other famous quote “People
can have the Model T in any colour - so long as it's black”, these remarks
are quoted only in jest by almost everyone, with one exception - the Corps of
Signals of the Indian Army. For some unfathomable reason, we signallers seem to
take Henry Ford’s comments at face value and consider our own history as
nothing but bunk.
The third volume of the History of
the Corps of Signals covering the period 1947 t0 1972, was released on 15
February 2015. Actually, it had already been ‘released’ during the Centenary
celebrations in Jabalpur in 2011, but could not be made available to units or
veteransbecause MI clearance had still not been obtained.But that is another
story that will come later. The point at issue is that out of 800 copies that
were finally printed, only 13 – yes thirteen-
have been bought by veterans. This is strange, as there are thousands of veterans
– officers, JCOs and Other Ranks- who took part in the operations in J&K in
1947-48, in Goa in 1961, and against Pakistan in 1965 and 1971 that have been extensively
covered in the book. In fact, the name of almost every officer who was serving
during these operations has been mentioned in the book. Is it not odd that none
of them wants to read about what he has done, let alone his unit and the Corps
as a whole?
I
will now dwell for a while on the history of the Corps History. In Volume II,
which covered the period 1939 to 1947, an appendixtitled “History of the
History” describes the travails and tribulations the book went through before
it saw the light of day in 1975. A brief synopsis is given below.
Though the Corps formally came into existence in 1911, it was only in
1953 that the SO-in-C, Brigadier CHI Akehurst, took the first step in recording
its history, when he informed everyone that “It is intended to undertake the
preparation of the Corps History covering the period from the early days of
signalling in INDIA (Approx 1850) up to the constitutional changes in 1947.”Lt
Col M Cohen, the Corps Monographer, produced a monograph before he left for
England in 1954. Cohen’s monograph covers a period of about a hundred years,
and is in fact a brief history of the Corps from the earliest times. The
appointment of Corps Monographer lapsed in December 1954, and was never
revived. By this time all Royal Signals officers, including Brigadier Akehurst,
had returned to England.
The history of the
Corps History might have ended at this point, were it not for Brigadier
TeryBarreto, who voluntarily had begun collecting material in 1951, when he was
at the Staff College, and continued his efforts during his subsequent tenures
at Delhi, Poona, Simla and Mhow, from where he retired as Commandant School of
Signals in 1965. Though Brigadier
Barreto had begun working on the Corps History project on his own initiative in
the early fifties, it was only in 1957 that the Corps Committee formally
requested him to undertake the assignment, and he became the official Corps
Historian.
Unfortunately,
Brigadier Barretohad to seek premature retirement in June 1965, due to certain
reasons that have been briefly mentioned in Volume III. By that time he had not
only completed the draft of Volume I, but had also collected a considerable
amount of material for the subsequent ones. Before he retired, he handed over
all the material collected by him painstakingly over the previous ten years. Strange
as it may seem, the project went into limbo after his departure, with the Corps
not being able to get it printed until 1975, ten years after its completion by
Brigadier Barreto. The book was a verbatim reproduction of the original draft,
except for three changes. The title was changed from ‘HISTORY OF THE INDIAN
SIGNAL CORPS’ to ‘THE HISTORY OF THE CORPS OF SIGNALS’; no credit was given to
Brigadier Barreto for his efforts, and the Compiler’s Note (Preface) written by
the author was omitted. The reasons for these changes are not difficult to
fathom, but it was an unjust reward to TeryBarreto for his labours,
extending over almost 15 years.
In 1983, a serving
officer, Colonel VA Subramanyam, was entrusted with this task of compiling the
Corps History. He was allotted an office room in Signals Enclave, with a team
of officers to assist him, as well as secretarial facilities. This was the
first time a deliberate effort was made towards writing the Corps History, with
adequate resources being provided by the Corps. (Brigadier Barretto had worked
on the project in his spare time, with no additional resources). By now the
parameters of the assignment had undergone several changes. Instead of being
compiled as Volume II, covering the period 1939 to 1947 as originally planned,
the proposed history would cover the entire history of the Corps, from the
earliest times to the present day. Since it was intended to release the book
during the Diamond Jubilee of the Corps in February 1986, Col Subramanyam was asked
to produce only a ‘concise’ history of the Corps, as mentioned in the Foreword
and the Preface of the book, which was published in 1986 with the title ‘THE
SIGNALS – A HISTORY OF THE CORPS OF SIGNALS’.
While working on the coffee
table book titled ‘THROUGH – Saga of the
Corps of Signals’ which was published in February 2001, I had written to
the SO-in-C regarding he need to bring out Volume II of the Corps History,
which was long overdue. As I should have expected, I was asked to take on this
task in 2001. The dimensions of the projectbecame clear only when I started
working on it. By the end of 2001, the Corps History Team Office (CHTO) was set
up in Signals Enclave along with the support staff and office equipment. Since
I was then posted in the Cabinet Secretariat (RAW), I was able to visit the
CHTO only on weekends. It was only after June 2004 when I finally retired that
I was able to work full time on the project, which was completed towards the
end of 2005. Volume II covering the
period 1939-47 was published in February 2006.
Ideally, work on Volume III should
have commenced immediately after the publication of Volume II. However, it was only in mid- 2007 that I was
asked to undertake the project. Though insignificant when compared to the interval
of over thirty years between the publication of the previous two volumes, this gap
resulted in some additional delay. The CHTO that had been functioning since
2001 was wound up in 2006; the manpower and equipment redistributed to units; and
the reference material returned to Jabalpur andMhow. Consequently, it was only
towards the end of 2007 that the cell was established and work started in
earnest on the project. The draft of Volume IIIwas completed by end of 2010 and
one copy was formally released during the Centenarycelebrations at Jabalpur in
February 2011.
I was looking forward to a respite
after almost ten years of work on the two Corps History projects, but this was
not to be. The previous two volumes had been published by the Corps of Signals
Association, while Volume III was published by the Signals Directorate. Unlike
the previous two volumes that covered the period before Independence, Volume III
covered the period from 1947-72. When the book was submitted to MI Directorate
for clearance, they forwarded it to the MO Directorate, since major operations
conducted in 1947-48, 1962, 1965 and 1971 had been covered, as well as relatively
minor operations such as the police action in Hyderabadin 1948, the liberation
of Goa in 1961, the skirmish at Nathu La in 1967 and so on. Since military
records after 1961 had still not been officially de-classified, several
objections were raised by the MO with regard to the accounts of these operations.
After almost four years of nerve racking delay, during which the manuscript
travelled up and down several times, each time with new observations, deletionsand
amendments, the book was finally cleared only towards the end of 2014, with the
caveat that the entire chapter on the Sino-Indian war of 1962 will be removed;
all references to the MuktiBahini during the 1971 war would be deleted; names
of tactical features including trig heights and local names would not be
mentioned; there would be no derogatory references to units and personalities,
and several others.
Naturally, I was exasperated at
this ostrich-like head-in-the sand attitude of the authorities, as the official
histories of the 1962, 1965 and 1971 wars had been written by the History
Division of the Ministry of Defence and were available on the net. In fact, a
printed book titled “The Indo-Pakistan
war of 1965 – A History”had also been published in 2011. This was a
verbatim copy of the book uploaded on the Internet and the copyright was with
the Ministry of Defence. It quoted classified military records including war
diaries, after action reports etc. I showed this book as well the downloaded
copies of 1962 and 1971 war to all and sundry but is did not cut much
ice. On a personal level, I even met the
then COAS – he was my namesake, but I had never met him before - but it was too
late. We had no choice except to publish the book with all the deletions and
amendments directed by MO and MI Directorate. More than me, the veterans who
took part in the 1962 war, many of whom are still living and have authored books
about theirexperiences, wereseverely disappointed.
The frustration was further
aggravated when I discovered that very few people were interested in reading
the book. Of course, copies were distributed to all Signals establishments and
units, keeping some for sale to veterans. It was discovered that the few
veterans who purchased copies were those who had given significant inputs and whose
role in various operationshad been covered in detail. The others just did not
seem to be interested. Perhaps the price of Rs. 940 fixed by Signals
Directorate was too high, compared to the previous volumes. The cost of Volume
I was Rs. 300 and that of Volume II was Rs. 525 for veterans, a higher figure
being charged from units.I think a similar equation would have encouraged more
veterans to buy personal copies.
One cannot inculcate esprit-de-corps by forcing people to
read the history of the Corps. However, I recall an excellent suggestion that
was made by one of our senior veterans when the Coffee Table Book titled “Through – Saga of the Corps of Signals”
was published in 2001. It is now customary to present accoutrements to young
officers commissioned into Signals when they pass out from IMA. Instead of
accoutrements, why not give each one a set of the three volumes of the Corps
History? Another idea isto have a quiz competition on the Corps history, on the
lines of KaunBanegaCrorepati, for
those attending the YO’s course. Two teams comprising men and women officers
can compete against each other. The event can be held in the auditorium, with
officers and families being invited. It
is certain to generate a lot of interest and instil esprit-de-corps.
The good news is that Maj Gen PK
Mullick, who retired last year after a stint at the NDC, has accepted the
assignment of writing the next volume. “Dada” Mullick is one of our most
erudite veterans and his blogs are read by professional soldiers, scholars and
strategic experts all over the World. I am sure he will produce a book that
will be even better than the previous volumes.
30 Apr 2016
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