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Show India's Army Force ' For Unifying Country . s Common Language and Habits Tend to '"ill Break Down Former Prejudices; Troops I - j Take Leadership in Communal Affairs. J k.wM.to-.i.ijg.) ,-,1-vi , f, iff By BAUKHAGE News Analyst and Commentator. WNU Service, 1616 Eye Street NV, Washington, D. C. One heartening postwar picture arose out of the welter of hope, fear and expectation which held Washington Wash-ington in its grip through the news of the atomic bombs, the entrance of Russia into the war and then the reciting flash from Japan that kept us on tenter-hooks so long. When there seemed little to contemplate about but the lush growth of evil which had sprung from the planting of the dragon's teeth of war, I found, strangely enough, in the office of the representative of India In Washing-- Washing-- ton the belief that the war would turn out to be, in one respect, a blessing to that perturbed country. India has furnished an army of 2Vi million men (the largest volunteer force in the world) In the prosecution prosecu-tion of this war and that army has turned out to be "the greatest school of adult education" in the world. That's what the Indians proudly call it True, soldiers in other armies have been "taught while they fought," but few have ever been able to add so much to the total knowledge knowl-edge of their nation. I am told that after the last war, when an Indian village was found, especially in the Punjab, which was a little better run, with more progressive pro-gressive Ideas and a more active social consciousness, it would also be discovered that its moving spirit was an ex-soldier an Indian (Hindu (Hin-du or Moslem, Rajput or Sikh, no matter) who had brought home ideas on sanitation and hygiene, cooperation co-operation and understanding, absorbed ab-sorbed during his period of service at home cr abroad. But now the potentialities po-tentialities of this military mission-aryship mission-aryship are immensely greater. Not merely because the Indian army is ' so much bigger, but because already al-ready it has served as a great melting melt-ing pot, breaking down ancient prejudices prej-udices and taboos which heretofore have made Indian unity impossible. General's Spirit 1 Hopeful Sign If tall, lean and eager General Cariappa, with whom I talked at length when he was here on a mission mis-sion connected with the founding of a new military academy in India, is typical, the army is indeed a force. His enthusiasm, his optimism op-timism and his energy are hopeful signs in themselves. I enjoyed that Interview, seated in the office of the Agent General for India, where I heard this earnest man speak with an apparent sincerity and conviction which could not help but impress anyone who heard him. country "Something," he said, "which every one of our soldiers who has been fighting for the ideals of the United Nations expects." Like his fellow-countrymen and the British Brit-ish officers with whom I have talked, General Cariappa is proud of the seds of unity which have been sown in the army. In the first place, the army speaks and also reads and writes one language. lan-guage. Most of the soldiers when .they enlist are of the peasant class and are illiterate. When their training train-ing commences they are immediately immedi-ately taught to read and write in Roman Urdu, which is a simplified Hindustani written with English (Roman) (Ro-man) letters. Aside from the value of eradicating illiteracy, the knowledge knowl-edge and use of a common language removes one of the chief obstacles to harmony and understanding among the people. (There are 12 principal languages and 100 dia-' dia-' lects spoken in India.) Many prejudices preju-dices go when the language barrier is broken down. When the war is over at least 2Vz million Indians will have the bond of a common tongue. But more than that, they will have lived together, eaten together, in the field at least, lived in close companionship com-panionship in barracks and developed devel-oped teamwork and tolerance. There has been some suggestion that Basic English be made the official language lan-guage of the army in India, and while, for the present, Hindustani appears more practical, the former for-mer has been taught on a large scale. General Cariappa has a sense of humor and a perfect command of English (basic, colloquial and classic) clas-sic) in which to express it. (He went to school in England as a boy.) He told me the following story to illustrate il-lustrate the ramifications of the language lan-guage problem in the Indian army: A young British officer remarked to his native sergeant that it was really remarkable that in his comparatively com-paratively small unit of only 300 men, six different languages were spoken. "Oh, more than that, sir," the ser geant answered. "Nine different languages are spoken here. There are the six provincial languages. Then there is English, which you and I speak. Then there is Hindustani, which we all must speak. Then there is YOUR Hindustani." Army With a Language Problem It is true that most of the Indian army has remained within the continental con-tinental limits of the country, but that is not really strange, General Cariappa explained, since it takes General Cariappa was one of the first Indian cadets to be commissioned com-missioned in the Indian army in 1920. As a young man he had not yet attained his majority. He has been in the army ever since and was the first Indian officer to command com-mand a battalion. He raised a machine-gun outfit himself and as lieutenant - colonel led his men through the bitter days of the Burma Bur-ma campaign. Now he is a general staff officer, one of India's four brigadiers, brig-adiers, and also a member of the army reorganization committee. It was in the latter capacity that he has just completed a tour of inspection inspec-tion of the British military schools at Woolwich and Sandhurst, then the Canadian school at Kingston, and finally West Point and some of our specialist schools. He hopes to take acceptable features of all these schools and combine them in the new Indian Military academy, the site of which has not yet been determined de-termined but the plans for which are well under way. The committee commit-tee on reorganization also hopes to revise Indian preliminary education so that it will develop leadership. When I saw General Cariappa he was politely but npne the less deeply deep-ly pained over some of the reports In the American press which belittled belit-tled India's participation in the war. He explained (which we in Washington knew) that there were two Indian soldiers to every one British soldier in the Burma fighting. fight-ing. General Cariappa is working to prepare a completely independent Indian army. It is also, I dare to suggest, for an independent India. As a soldier, the general refused to discuss politics, but he said that naturally nat-urally every loyal Indian looks forward for-ward to the independence of his 18 men in the tail" as he put it, to keep one fighting man going. Many foreigners, seeing so many uniforms in India, received the impression im-pression that the whole army was "sitting down." These men, of course, are not combat troops held back for political or other reason?, the general said, but are largely the work troops, the great service of supply required to keep the armies in the field going. The general claims that Indian soldiers are second to none as fight-ing fight-ing men. The greater proportion oi them are Madrasi, not at all the traditional fighting tribes who in the past have constituted what was called the "martial race." That term, long outmoded, has long since been dropped. The excuse for its use disappeared much earlier. In the past there may have beer, some basis for this concept. Fight' ing begets fighters. As the British conquest of India moved slowlj northward it left peace behind it, but ignited war ahead of it. So the northerners were the last whose vocation, or at least avocation, was mortal combat. The southerners returned re-turned to the gentler arts. But to return to the general. He quoted that truism which all military men know is sound: "There are no bad soldiers. There are only bad officers." of-ficers." Let me end this column as I began be-gan it. If General Cariappa is typical typ-ical of India's officers, there is hope, not only for a powerful Indian army, which I, with the rest of you, pray India will never need, but hope that here among these 2'2 million men who have found a common tongue and a common purpose has been planted the leaven of tolerance that may bring about the unity of a free India. |