Pradeep Kanthan 27 July 2020
I am prompted to reflect on the National Defence Academy (NDA) after reading an article by Admiral Arun Prakash who was a commandant of the Academy also a former Chief of Naval Staff and General HS Panag’s recent book ‘The Indian Army: Reminiscences, Reforms & Romance’. There have been views and comments by high ranking alumni pointing to a need for reform, except in one case that questioned such a need as there were requests for ex NDA officers in the battalions/units. (Links below).
Ragging and the goals of the academy could well be the subject of any reforms.
NDA was constructed in an area which lies in the undulating plains around Fort Sinhagad, near Pune, Maharashtra, where several battles were fought. Yashwantrao Chavan, the last Chief Minister of the erstwhile Bombay State and the first of Maharashtra had lobbied for the Academy to be built at this location. Earlier it ran as the Joint Services Wing in Dehra Dun. A lake was essential to an interservice academy and thus the Khadakwasla Dam on the Mutha River gave the beautiful Peacock Bay and a catchment area for training budding sailors.
The idea of NDA was spawned from one of the lessons learnt in the Second World War, i.e.: Inter-services cooperation. While cadets who joined at 15 to 16 years had a different one; to get a guaranteed commission in the armed forces. Academics may have been a surprise element to many who escaped a life for another!
Ragging or hazing was central to life in the academy. The Admiral and others question it, while I reflect on my experience. Every cadet is not inclined to perpetuate it, but everyone is subjected to it. Happens in the early terms and also as a rite of passage at the end of the last term, which has led to fatalities.
There were six terms, term breaks provided the much-needed break from the rigours of academy training. The beginning of the new term was always with stories filled with testosterone, of ‘exploits’ during leave, on the trains, and at home.
While most cadets clambered on to a special train going North, those from Mysore State (that was what Karnataka was called in those days) had to do with whatever trains were going to Bangalore. A train journey stands out which needs some narration in context.
While returning on the Bangalore -Pune Express a gentleman and I travelled together in a coupe. He appeared older and was dressed in neat white shirt and trousers. We spoke in Kannada exchanging pleasantries and familial conversations typical of rail journeys in India.
I mentioned my returning to the Academy after a short leave. He said that he too was going to join the NDA. I was surprised as he looked a bit old to be a first termer. Before I could carry on my conversation further, two fellow traveller cadets who were senior to me joined us. I introduced Mr Rao, whose name I had learnt much later, and made the mistake of saying that he was going to ‘join’ the Academy. The fellow cadets did not wait long before they started asking him awkward questions like the ones asked of first termers. ‘Which place do you disgrace?’ was usually the opening line of an Academy style ragging. Before returning to their coupe they even went as far as telling him that he was not fit enough to join the NDA.
Mr Rao was surprisingly calm and silent throughout the brief awkwardness. I felt embarrassed. We settled for the night to arrive at Pune station in the morning. There was a three-ton vehicle to take the cadets to the Academy which I had mentioned to Mr Rao. He followed us and was about to climb in when a smartly dressed soldier came up and asked for Mr Rao.
There was a staff car waiting for him!
Mr Rao called out to us to join him in the car, which we embarrassingly declined. Little did we know that he was to join the Academic staff to teach Physics. He did not know my academy number or squadron and I soon forgot the incident. Months later, he saw me in the corridors of the Science Block. (NDA has some magnificent purpose-built buildings). We greeted each other in Kannada and he excitedly told me that he had been allotted an accommodation and his wife would be joining him soon.
Mr Rao invited me for a Sunday brunch. My first and only Idli and Uppit and proper Dosa brunch at the Academy!
Ragging or hazing in the Academy was quite common in the first few terms. One cannot ascribe a reason for allowing it on the grounds that it helps toughening the cadets. There are quite a few who take it to sadistic levels. The system has no way of getting to know these few. Often it is the cadet appointments (a ranking of cadet captains, adjutants etc.), who continue a system of punishments that blend into the ragging construct. Mass punishments were quite the norm, even as they were universally known not to be of any value.
A definite outcome was the physical toughening up due to these activities. The uncertain aspects were in the development of mental attitudes in an age of adolescence. There is a very thin line between the positive and negative outcomes of such confidence in the absence of an ethical ethos or public sanction.
A direct and indirect disdain for the civilian was unintentionally being built. There were raids on sugarcane fields and the local café and had even heard of a death of a civilian on one such raid in the past. These incidents got pushed away. The military legal system seemed to form a layer of protection. A regimental spirit and authority of the uniform in public service which developed in colonial times seemed to prevail even after 20 years of independence and beyond.
There was however no public sanction to exercise such authority in a free and democratic system. The Academy had no way of addressing this aspect, even while the vision of the founders and builders of the academy had put a thought in the direction.
The ethos of the Armed Forces evolved from a colonial army around which great myths were built for a reason. Britain had had its share of defeats. Recall the number of battles fought for a single victory in all the Anglo wars against the Moghuls, Tipu Sultan, the Gurkhas, and the Sikhs.
Another example was Khartoum in Sudan where General George Gordon (Gordon Pasha) was glorified for people back home. Who would join an Army without its ideals and motivators? Kitchener, who failed as the C in C in India mainly because of his insensitive handling of ‘native’ troops and going against the grain of the ruling class, became a hero of Boer War even after his excesses against the Boers.
In art and literature, the Empire was glorified. The Academy ambiguously imbibed this colonial myth.
One such author was Rudyard Kipling and the other to a lesser extent to my hypothesis, John Masters. While both their books were inspiring and about the adventurous life of soldiering in India and India itself, they seemed to have a purpose.
Rudyard Kipling’s poem ‘If’ found its way into the cadet’s cabins. It is an inspiring poem but a praise for British male rectitude and stoicism. While rectitude could be doing the right thing, stoicism was for enduring pain and hardship. Ragging was working against these two requirements, appealing only to a perverse morality of few. There was ignorance in the irony to the whole thing starting with the cadet’s cabin.
Mr A. Subbuswamy, my late maternal uncle, was an engineer with the contractors that built the Academy. Upon my joining, he was curious to know the state of the cadet’s mess building, which he said sank during construction and was one challenging task. We then spoke about the cadet’s cabins and he was curious to know about the cross ventilation and light situation. (Bangaloreans are quite fussed about cross ventilation due to humidity and eosinophilic conditions).
Each squadron building was built of the local grey stone and had three floors of cabins. A central corridor ran with cabins on either side. Each cabin was roughly 4 by 3 meters with a door that opened into the corridor. Opposite to the door was a large window overlooking manicured gardens. The window was a typical design seen in the older parts of many tier two cities of Maharashtra. It was a two-part window with glass shutters on top and a wooden one in the bottom. The lower half had balusters to let the cool breeze flow. Venetian blinds kept the glare of the sun away. There were no fans in the cabins and cross ventilation was achieved through air flowing from the window through the cabin into an ‘empty’ space above the door and width of the cabin overlooking the corridor.
I wish they had left that space empty as what was put there added some irony to any good intentions.
I told my uncle about ragging, and something called ‘seventh heaven.’ He was a little taken aback and told me that the original plan was to have glass ventilators in the ‘empty’ space to allow light into the corridors and that it was he who had suggested that since it would suffocate the cabins with no cross ventilation a wire grill would be better. That place had a grill made of thick gauge wire going right up to the ceiling. Cadets were asked to hang from the seventh row of the grill, thus the ‘seventh heaven’.
He smiled and then asked me about the Dronacharya statue. I had not seen one in the Academy. He told me it was planned to be put into the Sudan Block, but the idea was discarded as it was felt the depiction of the statue was more appropriate for the final leg of commission training. NDA did not fit into that slot.
Mr Swamy was well read, a dramatist and could quote from Shakespeare and Hindu scriptures with ease, besides of course being a civil engineer. I suspect he would also have had something to do with the ‘If’!
I recently read an article by General Habibullah’s son with another version of the Dronacharya’s statue. Nehru had disapproved of it as Dronacharya choose only the upper castes to train. The culture was not without its prejudices and NDA was meant to be great leveller.
Each squadron building, the cadet’s accommodation, was named after a state of India. This was etched on the portals. I remember spending four terms in ‘Bihar’ and two in ‘Mysore’ (or the other way round), quite rare to be in two sqns without a relegation to a lower term.
The reason, I think was Peacock Bay and also in an indirect way the effects of ragging that adds some crookedness to one’s character or just escapism!
My first squadron was competitive for its cross-country runners and swimmers. The latter sport had a junior national champion and a few state level swimmers. Being champions at cross country running all 14 kms of it, was a Sunday ritual followed by a punishment session for some faring badly in it.
Going to Church for my friend George also was a Sunday ritual, for which he had permission. Not a religious type, he never actually went to church, but he asked me to come along with him. It was a relief from the post-run punishment session. I joined him. It was on the presumptions of the seniors that I too needed to go to church.
We would go to Peacock Bay and he taught me to sail. Being the son of a naval officer, he had had some sailing experience. It became a weekly feature over four terms to escape the Sunday morning post run sessions, till Lt Milind Valerio Karnick, of the Indian Navy, the Divisional Officer in the Squadron (NDA staff) a regular church goer was surprised to learn of our devotion!
Sunday mornings after that were spent in cross country runs followed now by an even more rigorous punishment session. Cross country running improved, and we did shift our sailing to the afternoons it was not the same thing as seniors mostly naval cadets would be all around the bay.
Much later in the final term, while in the other squadron, some of us would cycle to the other side of the bay and swim in the lake in our birthday suits! The academy did provide opportunities to pursue hobbies, even those not quite sanctioned by the authorities.
There are quite a few debates about the Academy mainly on standards, intake and perhaps the output. Principally each cadet builds and benefits in those areas they already had a level of knowledge and expertise before they joined the academy. So, there were cadets who had had riding or sailing or boxing experience prior to joining the NDA and they continued to excel in them. Basic military training was a core addition. Academics were a progression in the ladder. Foreign language was subject to minimum Hindi, more than an aptitude!
Though one may argue that the goals of NDA were not meant to be a sports academy, it is a little different for the academics. Cadet’s graduated with an intermediate from Jawaharlal Nehru University, which is a travesty of sorts when they had world class academic staff to teach at a PhD level! Quite the opposite as currently I believe they pass out with a BA or BSc degree and there are comments on the quality of academic staff and deficit of funds to get the best.
A Bachelor’s Degree was universally accepted as qualifying in the liberal arts. It was considered the basic level of being educated to understand life and its challenges. Towards education NDA had the right subjects taught across the board. It aimed at giving a holistic education, in a philosophical way, which extended beyond a normal college or school. There were plenty of opportunities that the army provided to further educational qualifications, but rarely did one use them. I would like to mention the Army Education College and Center at Pachmarhi which offered extramural education affiliated to a University.
While the academics were balanced it lacked the experience one gains in colleges and universities around the country, which could enrich a military career (at the least in a democracy). Perhaps a better civil-military understanding at a younger age, more than inter-services cooperation could be fostered by making the NDA a university across genders and services to include civil services.
Cadets came from all types of schools from various backgrounds through a highly competitive selection process. There was a course bonding at the squadron first and then at the Academy level. There were also groupings by schools, mostly the Sainik and Military Schools. Those from other schools generally tended to be free radicals not part of any specific group. The strongest all-round bonding was perhaps smokers. The academy’s attempt at parenting made It a taboo to smoke. A punishable offence in the academy, even as one found almost everyone smoking later when they reached their regiments/battalions.
A vertical grouping of ex NDA officers did emerge but not as a clique with a purpose or nepotism. NDA was not a clique as strong as some schools, rather it was a label, a brand, and had some assumptions around it, like being smart (whatever that meant), a crook and perhaps well trained. It became a privilege conferred by others, more than one that is earned. Partly as the system has several entries with different starter blocks to a military career. Thus, NDA provided the youngest to be commissioned, a better ticket to reaching the top rungs while others perhaps would get superannuated or retire earlier due to their terms of service.
Ex NDA officers were a minority in regiments and battalions. There really should have been no difference in quality as all entries go through a similar military training.
There is a need for an extremely high standard of rectitude in the training provided at the Academy. Ragging unfortunately goes against the very quality we wish to develop, instead it brings out some unknown, uncertain qualities in a few of both the victims and the perpetuators.
A review has been suggested by many commentators. I feel the review must extend to the purpose of the NDA, an institution that locks in a career at 16 years of age, with little choice in an environment where the services also offer a short-term career with trailing benefits. Youth today are more aware of career choices and benefits than in the 60’s. At best NDA is one of the entry schemes for the armed forces, a school, or a college with basic military training. Statistically the best entry to reach the top.
https://www.nationalheraldindia.com/opinion/when-jawaharlal-nehru-ordered-dronacharya-out-of-the-nda
