The College of Combat is the elite Northern Command of the Indian Army!

They have been fighting, they are fighting and they will continue to fight! If it’s a game on they would always be there as they have always been! No second thoughts here!

-‘One thought that comes to mind after visiting this massive college of combat is choose your battles wisely. After all, life isn’t measured by how many times you stood up to fight. It’s not winning battles that makes you happy, but it’s how many times you won with élan but with a heavy heart as many perished, both friends and those who forced you into a fight with minds blurred by rabid intent!’ The officers and men of this great command know this and the history is massive’!

-‘If you by chance land up right in front of the main gate, the citadel or could be called as the fortress you will find a massive board on which it is clearly written, ‘Always in Combat’. The words thud the temples of the readers head and thus carry his/her mind into the glorious past, present and ponder over the fact that what would the future be. The answer would be, ‘glorious as it was!’

-‘Once a friend of mine from 9 Para Commandos (based in Udhampur), to be honest my commando buddy, though the match up was a bit extraordinary. He was a huge young man and I was a bit thinner from the waist. That day it was Saturday and it was a sand pit fight. I knew that the grizzly bear was not that agile (the entire course called him by that name, not that he was not handsome but because of his Punjabi build). He always was second in the sand pit and that day he definitely was. But at the end of the mock fight late in the evening he cheekily said, “You know why I lost to you?’ I responded by saying that is because you are a slow mover on sand particles’. His reply was, ‘I lost because I knew you were going for a dinner date with Sangeeta (she was later to become my wife) today evening’! That is the spirit of those who have, will and would serve the Northern Command! I had come on course from the Eastern!’

-‘Confidence is like a dragon where, for every head cut off, two more heads grow back. Trust me every officer or man of any generation who has served the Northern Command would say that If we don’t fight for what we ‘stand for’ with our passionate words and honest actions, do we really ‘stand’ for anything? His answer is they stand for the people and the Nation!’

-‘Captain Bana Singh Param Veer Chakra the super star of Siachen was a resident of RS Pura. Since I too have a small little farm house there I always made it a point to visit him. It was just a couple of years before his demise when I visited him in the evening. That twilight I saw the man talking to his grandchildren and spilling out some gems which I definitely understood along with the elders but children would have by now. Lines such as these can only come out of the mouthpiece of a warrior, ‘I do not care about happiness simply because I believe that joy is something worth fighting for.’ ‘It’s strange, but once you learn to fight, you seem to attract enemies…sooner or later, those who master the art of combat must end up fighting. Sometimes fighting against evil is not a choice, but an imperative.’! He was not wrong and he could never be because he was a warrior from the Command that matters to India and that has to be Northern Command, Indian Army at the moment being commanded by the great man Yogesh Kumar Joshi also Colonel of the Regiment the J&K Rifles the proud regiment of Jammu and Kashmir!

 

-‘So many warriors of Northern command must have said this back home after retirement, ‘another of the hard things about being in a war, grandchildren, is that although there are times of quiet when the fighting has stopped, you know you will soon be fighting again. Those quiet times give you the chance to think about what has happened. Some of it you would rather not think about, as you remember the pain and the sorrow. You also have time to worry about what will happen when you go into battle again’!

The Northern Command is a Command of the Indian Army. It was originally formed as the Northern Army of the British Indian Army in 1908. It was scrapped upon India’s independence in 1947 and later re-raised in 1972. Currently, the XIV Corps (Leh), XV Corps (Srinagar) and XVI Corps (Nagrota) control it’s operational units. Its present commander is Lieutenant General Yogesh Kumar Joshi.

*Everything has a history and so does this Command. I will just spell it out briefly:

* The Presidency armies were abolished with effect from 1 April 1895 when the three Presidency armies became the Indian Army. The Indian Army was divided into four Commands: Bengal Command, Bombay Command, Madras Command and Punjab Command, each under a lieutenant general.

* In 1908, the four commands were merged into two Armies: Northern Army and Southern Army. This system persisted until 1920 when the arrangement reverted to four commands again :- Eastern Command, Northern Command, Southern Command and Western Command.

* In 1937, Western Command was downgraded to become the Western Independent District. In April 1942, the Western Independent District was absorbed by Northern Command which itself was re-designated as North Western Army to guard the borders at North West Frontier during World War II’.

* It controlled the Kohat, Peshawar, Rawalpindi, Balochistan and Waziristan Districts.

* The formation reverted to the title Northern Command in November 1945. In 1947, India moved towards partition, with Northern Command HQ at Rawalpindi becoming the Army HQ of newly formed Pakistan Army, with the rest of commands passing to the Indian Army.

* In 1972, GoI decided to raise a separate command to oversee operations in the northern borders with Pakistan and China. Lt. Gen. P. S. Bhagat was appointed as it’s GOC-in-C in June 1972. Bhagat’s main activities as Army Commander were the improvement of defense and the living and working condition of his troops. Headquarters for the command was established at Udhampur, J&K.

* The XIV Corps (Leh), XV Corps (Srinagar) and XVI Corps (Nagrota) control the operational units in Northern Command. 71 Independent Sub Area is part of the Command. In 2001-02, during Operation Parakram the III Corps and its 57th Mountain Division were temporarily shifted into the command as a reserve.

Thus the command as I mentioned before is the most important and at the moment deployed on four fronts and those are, China (LAC), Pakistan (LOC), Counter Insurgency Operations and the last trying to ensure that the people and the younger generation moves forward in the right direction as they should be! Needless to mention the same is happening big time and General Joshi has ensured that the journey continues on towards another glory as time travels on and the Northern Command express keeps moving. The same spirit the General was dispersing amongst the troops as he visited the forward areas on the LOC in District Poonch and interacted with the officers and men and took the first hand account of the operational preparedness. Needless again to mention it had to be in top form and that is the reason as to who in the very beginning I said, if you stand or halt your vehicle that you are driving (obviously you will be whistled away by the sentries) you can read the lines ‘Always in Combat’ This one liner belongs to the Northern Command Indian Army! It always did!

 

 

By: MS Nazki

(Additional inputs by Major Kulbir Singh)