If only Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru had given a free hand to the Indian Army when hostilities broke out in Kashmir soon after Independence, the Kashmir problem would not have festered all these years.

At the time, the Army had its ‘tail up’ and was confident of clearing most of Kashmir and re-investing Gilgit, according to a new book “Field Marshal K M Cariappa”, a biography authored by Air Marshal K C Cariappa (Retd), the airman son of India’s first Commander-in-Chief of the Indian Army.

Field Marshal Cariappa was asked on many occasions why the Army did not evict the frontier tribesmen who had attacked India, supported by the Pakistani Army and why it was decided to have the ceasefire line dividing the state. According to the book, orders were received to “Cease Fire midnight 31st December/1st January 1948-1949.” Cariappa was quoted as saying the Army was very disappointed by the decision, but orders were orders.

A few years later Field Marshal Cariappa asked Pandit Nehru for the reason of the ceasefire to be told, “you see the United Nations Security Council felt that if we go any further it may precipitate a war. So, in response to their request we agreed to a ceasefire.” Pandit Nehru went on to say: “Quite frankly, looking back on it now, I think we should have given you a few more days, ten or fifteen days more. Things would have been different then.”
Though Cariappa had a warm and cordial relationship with Nehru, the book says that Nehru had a lurking fear, that Cariappa might engineer a coup.

“Father always had a warm cordial relationship with Pandit Nehru and Indira Gandhi. Towards the end of his tenure as Commander-in-Chief, however, an undercurrent of suspicion seemed to have set in where the Prime Minister was concerned. Father was perceived as being too popular, not only in the Army but among those in other walks of life too. Perhaps there was a lurking suspicion that father might engineer a coup. Nothing could have been further from the truth,” says Air Marshal Cariappa in his book.

Probably, this could have been the reason why Cariappa was packed off to Australia as High Commissioner when he retired in 1953 from the Army. “It was rumoured at the time that his being sent abroad may have had something to do with his great popularity in the country. Therefore, out of sight, out of mind might have been a good way to go!” according to the book.

It was apparent that Cariappa and Nehru had differences on the China front because the former had cautioned Nehru about the disquieting developments when Chinese troops had been apprehended with maps showing some parts of North-East Frontier Agency (NEFA) as part of China.

“Father considered it his duty to caution the political leadership of the possibility of an attack in the region. He was told by the Prime Minister that it was not for the army to decide who the nation’s likely enemies would be!”
If only the Prime Minister had heeded to Cariappa’s warnings on the Chinese motives, India would not have suffered such a humiliating defeat in the India-China war of 1962.

The book has covered extensively on the illustrious three-decade-long career of Field Marshal Cariappa in the Army and his love for the Jawan and his patriotism.

The biography has a strong visual narrative comprising archival matter sourced from private and state-owned archives.

One of the interesting aspects of the book is an epilogue by the Field Marshal’s daughter, Nalini, who has put down her reminiscences of her Father. Nalini recalls that her disciplinarian father allowed her to drive his Plymouth car “which no one else was allowed to touch!”

Title of the book:  Field Marshal K.M. Cariappa
Author:  Air Marshal K.C. Cariappa (Retd)
Publisher:  Niyogi Books, New Delhi-110020
Number of pages:  200
Price:  Rs 1,250