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GEN THIMAYYA MEMORIAL LECTURE :
INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS BY LT GEN AVADHESH PRAKASH, PVSM,AVSM,VSM
1. It is indeed a matter of immense pride and privilege for me today to be
standing in front of this august gathering which amongst others also has Mr
Gopal Krishna Pillai, the Home Secretary present amongst us. As the Col of the
illustrious KUMAON & NAGA Regt, it is indeed a rare honour to have been invited
to introduce the Gen Thimayya Memorial Lecture, instituted in the memory of an
officer who is a legend not only within the Regt but also in the Indian Army. I
must, therefore, thank the Gen Thimayya Trust and its patrons to afford me the
opportunity, not only to speak to all of you but also to experience first hand
the hallowed portals of the Bishop Cotton School, Gen Thimayya’s alma mater.
2. It would be difficult for me to chronicle the exploits of Gen Thimayya in
the short time that I have today but I would definitely like to dwell on the
character of a man who was the very epitome of an officer and a gentleman. Gen
Thimayya, as we all know, hailed from an affluent family and was sent out at an
early age to a boarding school to acquire quality education considered so
essential during the times. Bishop Cotton School was a significant milestone
that the General touched along this journey. Interestingly, his arrival at the
school, accompanied by his brother, was by itself, very eventful. Addressed
derogatorily by a group of students, he retaliated in a manner that he
considered appropriate, with his fists. On being admonished for landing the
first blow and held responsible for initiating the fight, Thimayya chose to
leave immediately and not join the school at all. This primarily because he was
convinced that the course he had adopted was correct and one which he proceeded
to defend zealously. However, the principal’s adroit and cheerful handling of
the episode left a lasting impression on the young man’s mind and eventually
paved the way for the boys to be admitted into the school. The school provided
him the wherewithal to express himself in multifarious fields, especially as a
sportsman and also notably as a singer in the school choir. Very significant
progress though was made in the way Thimayya began to see the British. In his
earlier school, he had seen them as a master race, haughty displinarians who
lacked sensitivity. Here he observed a new side to them, warm, wiser and
gifted. He began to admire them, their ways and also the manner in which they
conducted their social lives. These were experiences that were to pave the way
for the young man to consider a career as an Army man although the final
decision to do so was taken in consultation with his father and led to Thimayya
joining the Prince of Wales Royal Indian Military College a necessary stepping
stone towards the Indian Army in those days.
3. Thimayya’s military career began at Sandhurst for which he was one of the
only six Indian cadets nominated after a stringent selection process which
culminated with an interview by none less than the Viceroy of India himself.
Needless to say, he gave a fitting account of himself despite the somewhat
biased conditions that prevailed in the academy for Indian cadets. On
commissioning in 1926, he spent his initial year in the 2nd Battalion of the
Highland Infantry, a pure British troops unit. Later he was assigned the 4/19
Hyderabad Regiment which became his parent unit for the rest of his military
career. It was also the beginning of a glittering career that saw him handling
various appointments of repute on his way to reaching the pinnacle i.e. the
COAS.
4. Before I wax eloquent on Gen Thimayya’s contributions to the Army, I must
speak of his association with the KUMAON Regt, which is today the largest and
amongst the most decorated in the Indian Army. It also has the unique
distinction of being the only Regt which has had three of its doyens rising to
be Chiefs of Army Staff. Gen Thimayya, as I mentioned earlier was commissioned
into the 4/19 Hyderabad Regiment which was amongst the battalions that later
formed the KUMAON Regt of today and is presently called 4 KUMAON. The 4/19 was
peculiar in its class composition in that it drew troops from the Kumaon hills
as also Ahirs from areas south of Delhi. Compared to other battalions which
were pure in their composition, such a mix was considered a man-management
challenge but Timmy as he was popularly called, brought his inherent
communication skills to the fore and made certain that the hyderabad’s did not
suffer in comparison to their illustrious peers in any activity, operational,
administrative or extra-curricular. Thimayya commanded the 8/19 Hyderabad Regt
in Burma during the second world war and here too he achieved perfect
synchronization amongst the Kumaonis and Ahirs, to achieve outstanding success
where supposedly more superior British units had failed. A very interesting
episode highlights the canny ability that Timmy possessed of alleviating the
troubles of his men. The Ahirs in his unit depended on milk as a primary source
of their nutrition but were getting almost none in Burma. The deficiency was
beginning to affect their health. Timmy hit upon an ingenuine idea of offering
them nutritious soup made from pork and beef kidneys. It was ofcourse
blasphemous to expect the Moslem Ahirs or Hindus to drink it but Timmy drank
the soup in front of a Subedar and remarked how lip smacking it was. Further,
before the officer could question him about the contents, he proceeded to give
him a sermon on the heating mechanism of the tin that carried the soup. The
nonplussed Subedar drank the soup, endorsed it as delicious and soon the entire
lot of troops was drinking it in loadfulls. His conscience did not bother him
in the slightest in making the men do something that may have been considered
morally reprehensible. The men were innocent; they suffered nothing spiritually
and physically they showed visible improvement (which was in any case the aim
of the whole exercise). The 8/19 Hydrabads especially distinguished themselves
under his leadership in the now famous battle of Kangaw.
5. Thimayya’s innate talents of professional soldiering and leadership were
soon recognized by Field Marshal Sir Claude Auchinleck, the Commander-in-Chief
of the Indian Army and he was specially selected to lead the 268 Infantry
Brigade as part of the British Commonwealth Occupation Force in Japan. H proved
to be an outstanding commander and his diplomatic skills emerged wonderfully in
his dealings with General Douglas Macarthur, the supreme allied commander of
the South Pacific Theatre, the other allies and the vanquished Japanese. He
represented the country during the surrender of the Japanese in Singapore
followed by the one in Phillipines.
6. Thimayya returned to India in 1947 and was a member of the committee to
agree to the allotment of weapons, equipment and Regiments that were to remain
in India after partition. Later as GOC of 19 Infantry Division he gave a
glowing account of his generalship when he first halted the raiders in the
Kashmir valley and then drove them beyond Uri. The master stroke however was to
employ tanks of the 7 Light Cavalry at the dizzying, snow ladden heights of
Zoji La Pass thereby striking terror into the hearts of the raiders who had
entrenched themselves on dominating heights. Timmy yet again had thought beyond
the ordinary and won the day for his country. His plan was to drive the raiders
all the way back to Muzzaffarabad but his pleas for three months to do this
fell on deaf ears and the rest as they say is history.
7. General Thimayya took over as the COAS in May 1957 and continued till May
1961, completing a glittering career spanning 35 years. His standing up to Mr
VK Krishna Menon, the then Defence Minister in 1959 in protest to what he
considered interference in purely military matters was symptomatic of his
forthright personality. Timmy then went to head the United Nations Mission in
Cyprus and here his earlier experience as the Commander of the UN Repatriation
Commission in Korea stood him in good stead. Needless to say, he excelled and
after his death in Jul 1964, while still in Cyprus, he was accorded the rare
privilege of a road being named after him in Larnaca, Cyprus and also here in
Bangalore.
8. At the end I must salute one of the finest soldiers and officers to have
donned uniform and I feel extremely proud to be part of the Regiment that the
great General served in all over the world. I also assure all who sit here
today and many others who matter and have not been able to make the journey
that the KUMAON & NAGA Regiment is carrying on the worthy legacy of General
Thimayya and will continue to do him proud in times to follow.
Jai Hind!
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