Page 112 - Leadership in the Indian Army

Ali Jinnah, Sir Pheroze Sethna, and Major Zorawar Singh, MC. Based on
the recommendations of the Skeen Committee, the Indian Military
Academy (IMA) was later established at Dehradun. On 30 August 1926,

Thorat passed out from Sandhurst with an above average grading and
‘exemplary’ character. Among the 32 cadets who were commissioned, there
were only three Indians, with Thorat being placed 15th, Brar 17th, and
Gurbachan Singh 32nd, in the order of merit. Thorat and his two Indian
colleagues sailed for India in September 1926 on the P&O liner ‘Kaiser-i-
Hind’. Among the passengers were two well-known Indians—Lala Lajpat
Rai and Mohammed Ali Jinnah. As Thorat recalls in his memoirs, both of

them took a paternal interest in the newly commissioned Indian officers.
Lajpat Rai asked Thorat to check the proofs of his latest book, Unhappy
India. One day Thorat asked him: ‘Sir, do you think that we have done
wrong in joining the Indian Army on the strength of which the British are
ruling us?’ Lalaji thought for a while and then replied: ‘No, I don’t think so
at all. How long will the British continue to rule us? One day, India shall

become a free country, and then we will need trained men like you. So work
hard and qualify yourself for that moment.’
As was customary, Thorat had to be attached to a British battalion for a
year before being posted to one of the eight Indianised units. He did his
attachment with the 2nd Battalion of the Middlesex Regiment, then
stationed at Ahmednagar. He was the first Indian officer to serve in the unit
but since, like the other British officers, he held a King’s commission, he

was readily accepted by both the officers and the men. Thorat was given
command of a platoon and he soon got to know his men well. He and his
company commander, Lieutenant Phil Wray, shared a common passion for
shikar, and spent many a Sunday afternoon shooting partridge, quail and
sand grouse. Once in a while, they also bagged a black buck or a chinkara.
Wray taught Thorat the rules and etiquette of hunting, such as not shooting

a sitting bird or a female with young. Thorat also learned about closed
seasons for various types of game, and the art of stalking, which helped him
in later years when he took to hunting big game.
In October 1927 his attachment with the Middlesex Regiment ended, and
he was posted to the 1/14 Punjab Regiment, also known as ‘Sher-e-Dil Ki
Paltan’, then stationed at Manzai in the NWFP. He was given command of a
Pathan company and had his first taste of life on the frontier. The Pathans

were a recalcitrant race, with their several tribes continually fighting each