A Profile in Courage

A belated biography of General T.N. Raina does justice to his life and times

Maj Yogesh Prasad (retd)

Chushul in Eastern Ladakh is in the headlines because of the prolonged military stand-off between India and China. But not many remember the officer who commanded the 114 Infantry Brigade, who commanded the famous Battle of Rezang La in October 1962. General T.N. Raina was an iconic Indian military leader whose contribution to the nation should be more widely known.

This biography of General Raina written by Brigadier Satish Issar, VSM who served as his military attaché when he was the Chief of Army Staff (1975-78) sets out to do precisely that. It is thanks to the leadership of General Raina, then a Brigadier, that India was able to save the airfield at Chushul from falling into the hands of the Chinese. Had Chushul been taken over, Ladakh would have been in China’s control today.

Issar brings alive this battle, for which General Raina was decorated with the Mahavir Chakra. But we are also reminded that in one brigade sector two Param Vir Chakras were awarded. Both posthumously to Major Dhan Singh Thapa and Major Shaitan Singh respectively. Almost a year later, Thapa had been taken prisoner by the Chinese. He was repatriated along with the other prisoner of war.

The book profiles how the most daring battle was led by 13 Kumaon. Though they were heavily outnumbered—there were 10 Chinese men for every Indian—the Indian post at Rezang La under Maj. Shaitan Singh was defended till the last man standing. For too long the Indian military has been trained to operate on lessons derived from World War II. But as Issar’s book shows there are many invaluable lessons to be learnt closer home.

Brig. Issar’s biography of General Raina quotes heavily from the memory of Ninette Raina, the General’s wife. Raina, nicknamed Tappy in the Army, met her in Saigon, when he was a 24-year-old Captain. In 1945, after the surrender of the Japanese forces, 500,000 of their men had to be disarmed. General Raina was posted in Vietnam as part of an Indian formation under the Allied Forces. Ninette’s rendition from those years, as documented in Issar’s book, says, ‘Young Indian Army officers and soldiers soon became popular with the locals because of their civilised and cultured behavi