Page 115 - Leadership in the Indian Army

his battalion as Adjutant in 1938. By then, 1/14 Punjab was in Bannu in
Waziristan. Though it was a frontier post, families were permitted in Bannu
and Leela not only joined him there, but soon began doing medical work in

the villages around the camp, which was surrounded by barbed wire and
heavily protected. One day, when Thorat came home for lunch, he was told
that his wife had still not returned from a delivery case she had gone to
attend to in the morning. By the time she returned, late in the evening,
Thorat was anxious for her safety and scolded the two Pathans who had
accompanied her, saying: ‘I thought that you people had murdered her.’ One
of them laughed and replied: ‘Why should we kill her who saves the lives

of our women and children? We would gladly cut off your head, but why
hers?’
The year 1939 saw the commencement of World War II. In September
1940, 1/14 Punjab was moved to Secunderabad to join the newly raised 11
Indian Brigade, which was to proceed to Malaya. However, Thorat was not
destined to go with the battalion. He was selected to do the staff course and

left for Quetta. On completing the course in 1941, he was posted to the Staff
Duties Directorate in Army HQ, then located in Simla. His section, SD 2b,
was responsible for weapons and equipment. The Indian Army was then on
low priority, and there was an acute shortage of weapons and ammunition.
Most units had less than half their quota of rifles, and even less of mortars
and other service weapons. The workload was heavy, but routine and
boring. Thorat began to agitate for a transfer to regimental duty, but since

there were very few staff-trained officers, his request was turned down.
Then his luck changed, with the decision to convert some Indian State
Forces into regular units. One of these was the Rajaram Rifles of Kolhapur
State, and Thorat found himself posted to this unit since he happened to be
a native of Kolhapur.
He served for about a year with the Rajaram Rifles, but he was not very

happy. He wanted to serve in an active unit and not in one that seemed to
have no chance of ever going to war. Since his own battalion, 1/14 Punjab,
had been captured by the Japanese, he asked for a transfer to any battalion
of the 14th Punjab Regiment. Finally, after a great deal of badgering, he
was able to get a posting to 4/14 Punjab, that was part of 114 Brigade of the
7th Indian Division, then involved in pushing back the Japanese from the
Naga hills. Thorat was in the reinforcement camp at Dimapur when the

famous battle of Kohima took place, but he was able to take part in the