Page 33 - Leadership in the Indian Army

and offered to resign when told that he was not being sent back to his
brigade after his recovery from an illness; he got back his command, though
he was only officiating as a brigade commander. Cariappa did not believe in

making an issue of personal matters, such as promotion or posting. If he
could get what he wanted by using the designated channels, well and good;
if he could not, he accepted it like a good soldier.
Cariappa spent about a year on the Reorganisation Committee, which had
six British officers and one Indian officer, with Lieutenant General Sir
Henry Wilcox as the Chairman. Stationed in Delhi, he had the opportunity
to observe at close quarters the workings of General Headquarters and the

Viceroy’s Secretariat. This was to prove invaluable when he took over as C-
in-C after four years. It also provided the British hierarchy, which included
Lord Wavell, the Viceroy, and Field Marshal Auchinleck, the C-in-C, the
opportunity to assess Cariappa. The committee was the brainchild of
Auchinleck, who knew that after the war the Army would need to be
reorganised. He wanted the committee to come up with a perspective plan

for Indianising the army over the next 15–20 years. When the committee
submitted its report, it was found that only 50 per cent Indianisation had
been recommended, and that too by 1960. The VCO, peculiar to the Indian
Army, was also to go. Cariappa did not agree with these recommendations
and put his dissent on record. Auchinleck was also unhappy with the report,
and felt that it had not examined the issues in sufficient depth. However,
before any action could be taken, the issue was overtaken by events and

instead of reorganisation, the Indian Army had to undergo division along
with the country.
In November 1945, Cariappa was finally given command of a brigade,
and posted as Commander of the Bannu Frontier Brigade, in Waziristan.
Having served in the NWFP as a young officer, Cariappa was conversant
with the terrain, as well as the habits of the Pathan tribesmen who lived in

the area. Since he had seen that the British policy of trying to keep them
under control by force had not succeeded, he resolved to adopt a different
approach. He decided to win the hearts and minds of the tribesmen, by
extending a hand of friendship. He knew that they could be warm and
hospitable if treated with respect and as equals.
One day, while passing through a village, he saw a group of Pathan
women carrying pitchers of water. When he discovered that they had to

fetch water daily from another village four miles away, he immediately