Page 68 - Leadership in the Indian Army

to migrate to India. He tried his best to check this, and brought it to the attention
of the political leaders, who pleaded helplessness. He also had a row on this
matter with his Divisional Commander, Major General W. Fleming, and the Army
Commander, Sir Frank Messervy, who had him transferred as Commander,
Kamptee Sub Area, on 6 September 1947. Soon after taking up his new
appointment, he had a tiff with the GOC-in-C Lieutenant General Goddard. Nathu
Singh had learned that the garrison at Secunderabad was being reduced, and
anticipating that troops would be needed for the Hyderabad operations to be
undertaken later, he promptly put a stop to it. Goddard was furious and placed
Hyderabad under his direct command. He, too, got Nathu Singh transferred, this
time to Kurukshetra to oversee the refugee camp that had been set up after
Partition and the large-scale migration which followed. The camp had about
20,000 people, and it was not easy to keep its agitated inmates satisfied. Once,
after all his efforts to convince them to keep the camp area clean failed, he
collected his entire staff and, along with them, gave the refugees a demonstration
in cleanliness. After this, the inmates began to cooperate and he had no more
problem on this score.
While he was at the refugee camp, Edwina Mountbatten came for a visit. She
was impressed and told Nathu Singh: ‘You must be a genius.’ She said that he
should ask Mahatma Gandhi to visit the camp, which he did. When Singh met
Gandhiji, they had a discussion about non-violence. He asked the Mahatma how
he expected his principles of non-violence to work in the existing circumstances.
He also asked: ‘In 1921, you had said that we would achieve independence in one
year. What happened? You had said, division of the country over my dead body.
And the country has been divided.’ Gandhiji had no answer.
Very soon he was promoted again, thanks to the large number of British officers
who left when India became independent. He was made Major General and
appointed GOC Deccan Area, where he was involved in the planning of the
Hyderabad operations. While there, he was called to Delhi for a briefing, before
being handed over command of the operations in Jammu and Kashmir, which had
already commenced. But for some reason he could not reach Delhi in time, and
Brigadier Kalwant Singh, who was then Director of Operations at Army
Headquarters and familiar with the situation, was promoted Major General and
despatched as GOC JAK.
When Nathu Singh reached Delhi, he went to the Operations Room where he
was apprised of this development. After studying the situation, he went to call on
the Prime Minister as was customary for senior army officers at that time. He
found the Prime Minister sitting on the lawn, talking to a few ministers and
civilian officials. Presently, Nehru got up and went inside. The others asked Nathu
Singh for his views on the best way to deal with the crisis in Kashmir. Singh