Page 114 - Leadership in the Indian Army

Thorat spent about three years with the Territorial Battalion before being
reverted in 1934, to 1/14 Punjab, which was then located at Jhelum. In 1935
it was ordered to move to Peshawar, to take part in the Ghalanai operations

on the Khyber front. By now, several more KCIOs, such as Khan Ata Mohd
Khan, Rajinder Singh Kalha, Mahabir Singh Dhillon and Rajendra Nath
Nehra, had joined the battalion. In addition, some Indian officers had also
joined after passing out from the recently set up IMA at Dehradun. Among
them were Mohan Singh and Shah Nawaz, who later joined the Indian
National Army formed by Subhas Chandra Bose with the help of the
Japanese.

It was in the Ghalanai operations on the frontier that Thorat first saw real
action and was ‘blooded’. The operations lasted two months and involved a
force of two brigades, under the command of Brigadier (later Field
Marshal) Sir Claude Auchinleck. Thorat was once given the task of laying a
large ambush, with the aim of destroying a party of Pathan tribesmen who
had been harassing the Force HQ. Accompanied by about a hundred men,

Thorat set a night ambush on a route that was frequently used by the
tribesmen. After a long wait, the tribesmen walked into the ambush and
there was a bitter hand-to-hand fight in which Thorat wounded several of
the enemy with his kukri. The Pathans lost 17 men, while Thorat’s company
suffered eight casualties. The ambush was successful, and Auchinleck
himself summoned Thorat and his CO to congratulate them.
During his stay in Delhi, Thorat had met Leela, who was studying

medicine in Lady Hardinge Medical College. She was a brilliant student,
good at sports and dramatics, and an ardent admirer of Mahatma Gandhi.
Her father, Bakshi Bhagatram Anand, was a leading advocate in Amritsar.
The young couple fell in love and decided to get married. By now, Leela
had passed her final examinations and was doing her internship at the Lady
Hardinge Hospital. Thorat had also been promoted Captain in August 1935.

But there was a small hitch. Thorat came from a traditional Maharashtrian
family, while Leela was a Punjabi. Finally, he and Leela were able to wear
down their parents’ opposition and were married on 29 January 1936.
Thorat’s father, Dr P.C. Patil, attended the wedding, which was held at
Amritsar with great fanfare. Leela had obtained a scholarship to go abroad,
but she gave it up, in favour of marriage.
Soon after his wedding in 1936 Thorat was posted to the Training

Battalion at Ferozepur, where he remained for two years before returning to