General K.M Cariappa | India's First Field Marshal

India's First Field Marshal

BORN-28 January 1899.

BIRTH PLACE- Shanivarsanthe, Kodagu(INDIA).

CAREER-British Indian army,Indian Army.

NICKNAME-Kipper.

DIED-15 May 1993(age 94)

General K M Cariappa was one of those foundation of our armed forces whose principles and selfless service to the nation resulted in the building of world most disciplined forces called Indian Army,he was born and brought up in a disciplined family of farmers belonging to the kodandera clan of coorg which he carried through out his life as a gift from his father and has also got education from well qualified british professionals which helped him a lot in the several operations he did outside of India.

He was a character full of resilient attitude and eternal patriotism,he served India for three decades and was one of the two soldiers to earn five-star rank of Field Marshal.

Early Life and Education

Cariappa was born on 28 January 1899 in a family of farmers belonging to kodandera clan ,his father Madappa was a revenue official and he was the second child in a family of the four sons and two daughters,he was known as "chimma" to his relatives.

his senior secondary education was completed from central high school of madikeri in 1917 and later he attended Presidency College,Chennai to pursue his higher education,in his college days he came to know about the joining of indians in army and will also be trained in india itself therefore he applied for training and was selected among one of the 42 cadets to take training in Daly cadet college,he excelled there and completed his training with seven rank among all.

Military Career 

cariappa graduated on 1 december 1919 but as under british rule indians were supressed, he was commisioned in the army temporarily but soon after three years in 1922 he was commisioned permanently but was given junior rank as he was indian and he had to be under the british officer who were graduated from royal military college,he was commisioned into the 2nd battalion of 88th carnatic infantry on the post of first lieutenant and was transfered two time in a regiment of 2/125 Napier rifles and 22 dogra regiment but was later permanently commissioned in 1/7 Rajput regiment,
in the mean time he went through several operation conducted by British Indian army outside the india. In 1925 he went to europe as well as united states,china and japan.this tour has proved to be educational for him as he lived there with officers and civilians of different country and in 1927 he was promoted to the post of captain but he was not officialy gazetted until 1931.
 He was the first indian officer to clear the Quetta staff college entrance examination and to attend the staff college, Quetta but the hypocricy of the british government did not end here,every british officer who went through this course was immediately appointed after the completion of the course but he was made to wait for 2 years and was then promoted to the post of staff captain of the deccan region.

It was after heavy protest throughout the country and also within the british indian army a skeen committee was setup to examine the indianisation of  Indian army officer rank and as Cariappa was senior in the army they held several discussion with him in which he expressed how indians are suppressed in the British army and are deprived of every benefits which a soldier deserve to get.

Post Independence

In november 1947 K M Cariappa was promoted to the post of lieutenant general and was appointed as eastern army commander but as the situation got worse he was called back to the capital and was appointed as GOC-IN-C delhi and east punjab from where he started to train troops under his supervision with help of his best officers and led three attack with an operation named kipper,Easy and Bison to capture naushera,jhangra,zozi la,dras and kargil areas,his motive was to take control over these areas completely so that there could be no threats to India post independence but the attack was intervened by united states.On july 6 1948 strict instruction was issued by army head quarter to not conduct any major operation without its permission but cariappa protested against this stating that this policy would threaten areas like leh,kargil and ultimately the kashmir valley which would put the country at stake,though cariappa asked for two brigades he was only given one and was permitted to advance to kargil (Congress hypocricy) . He disobeyed the orders and continue to attack on ladakh to take control over the region along with this he led several attack on pakistan.

Commander In Chief 

initially the defence minister of india then Baldev Singh was not in favour of appointing Cariappa as the c-in-c but the other officers who were asked for this post shrinagesh and mnathu singh they both denied and so K.M Cariappa was appointed to this post.

The day Cariappa took over the rein of Indian army i;e 15 January 1949 was marked as official army day and is now celebrated annualy every year,his support to NCC and territorial army later proved very beneficial for india during the war they fought later.

he made several reforms in Indian army like keeping it out of any kind of political organisation and also raised the slogan JAI HIND which now is used by our armed forces to greet each other

Congress government did not like his way of working and was put under pressure several time by Nehru as well but nehru relented only when he threatened to resign from his post.

he also turned down the proposal to reserve vacancies for schedule caste and schedule tribe in the Indian Army,he later retired on 14 january 1953 from his post.

Personality

during 1965 war his son nanda(air marshal) plane was shot down by the pakistani army and was made prisoner of war on identifying the wounded soldier at kargil radio of pakistani announced the capture of younger Cariappa.General Ayub khan himself contacted General Cariappa,who was living a retired life at Mercara,his hometown,with information about his son's safety.when Ayub Khan offered to release his son immediately,Cariappa is repirted to have scoffed at the idea and told him to give his son no better treatment than any pow.He replied that "he is my son no longer.He is the child of his country,a soldier fighting for his motherland like a true patriot.My many thanks for your kind gesture,but i request you to release all or release none.

Timelines

1899: Kodandera Madappa Cariappa was born to Kodandera Madappa in Coorg, Karnataka, India.
1919: Became Temporary Second Lieutenant, British Indian Army.
1921: Became Temporary Lieutenant.
1922: Promoted as a permanent Second Lieutenant.
1923: Yet again promoted to the position of the Lieutenant.
1927: Becomes Captain.
1938: Bags the position of the Major.
1942: Became Temporary Lieutenant-Colonel.
1944: Became Temporary Brigadier.
1946: Became Lieutenant-Colonel and then Brigadier.
1947: Promoted as a Major General, Indian Army.
1948: Became Lieutenant General.
1949: Became Commander-in-Chief.
1953: Relinquished his office as the Commander-in-Chief.
1953: Made the India's High Commissioner to Australia and New Zealand.
1983: Honored with the title of Field Marshal by the then President of India.
1993: Died at the age of 94.