Page 268 - Leadership in the Indian Army

Soon after World War II started, Sagat joined the IMA as an Indian State
Forces cadet. Passing out in 1941, he returned to the Bikaner State Forces
after a short attachment with a British battalion, the South West Borders,

which was then at Bannu in the NWFP. He joined the Bikaner State Forces
at Secunderabad, from where the unit moved to Chaman on the frontier and,
later, to Faizabad in the United Provinces. Finally, in October 1941, the unit
was moved to Iraq to suppress the Rashid Ali revolt. After a few months in
Iraq, the unit was moved to Kut-el-Amara, and then to Syria and Palestine
before returning to Iraq as part of 6 Indian Division. In 1943, Sagat was
nominated to attend the junior staff course at the Staff College in Haifa.

When Sagat reported to the Staff College, he found that the waiters
serving in the mess were all Italians and did not understand English. Sagat
asked the British Major, an old re-employed officer who was in charge of
the mess, to instruct the waiters that he should not be served beef. The
Major called the Staff Sergeant, and told him to ensure that the waiters were
given the message. The Sergeant nodded his head and told Sagat not to

worry: the waiters were familiar with the eating habits of Indians as they
had had an Indian on the previous course. When Sagat was served his first
meal, he thought the meat did not look like mutton. When he asked a
colleague, he was informed that it was indeed beef. After a great deal of
expostulation, it was discovered that the ‘Indian’ on the previous course
was the son of Sir Sikander Hayat Khan. The waiters had been told that he
did not eat pork, and they assumed that Sagat, being an Indian, would have

the same preferences. To be on the safe side, Sagat decided to stay away
from meat altogether, and remained a vegetarian for the rest of his stay in
Haifa.
The course at Haifa, though of seven months’ duration, was called the
junior staff course, and did not have the same weightage as the full staff
course at Camberley or Quetta. In 1945, he was nominated to the staff

course at Quetta, and thus had the chance to attend two staff courses, within
three years. After the course, Sagat returned to Bikaner to join his unit.
However, after the merger of the Indian States with the Indian Union in
1947, he decided to opt for the Indian Army. His application was accepted,
and on 15 January 1949 he was granted a permanent commission. His
service in the Bikaner State Forces was taken into account, and he was
given seniority from 27 October 1941 and assigned to the 3rd Gorkha

Rifles. Since he was one of the few officers in the Indian Army who had