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Journalism of Courage
The Lansdowne Cantonment Board has decided to rename the quaint hill station 280 km from Delhi in Uttarakhand as Jaswantgarh after Rifleman Jaswant Singh Rawat, Maha Vir Chakra, one of the heroes of the 1962 war with China.
Henry Charles Keith Petty-Firzmaurice, the fifth Marquess of Lansdowne, was a British politician who served as Viceroy of India from 1888 to 1894. At the time of the Anglo-Manipur War of 1891, Manipuri heroes Bir Tikendrajit and General Thangal were hanged in public, and many others were sent to kala pani.
Official records of the Lansdowne Cantonment Board show that in 1886, on the recommendation of Field Marshal Sir F S Roberts, the Commander-in-Chief of the British army in India, it was decided to raise a separate Regiment of the Garhwalis.
The Cantonment and Regimental Centre for the training of recruits of the Garhwal Rifles was located in a forest area popularly known as Kalundanda, at an elevation of 6,000 feet above sea level. The new site was approved by Brig Gen J I Murray, GOC, Rohilkhand, and the First Battalion of the Garhwal Rifles, under Lt Col E P Mainwaring, moved into Kalundanda on November 4, 1887.
On September 21, 1890, Kalundanda was renamed as Lansdowne after the Viceroy.
Rifleman Jaswant Singh Rawat was awarded the second highest gallantry award, Maha Vir Chakra, for his role in the Battle of Nuranang against the Chinese Peoples’ Liberation Army (PLA) in the North-East Frontier Agency (now Arunachal Pradesh) on November 17, 1962.
Jaswant Singh was serving in the 4th Battalion of the Garhwal Rifles. As per official records, his battalion had beaten back two Chinese charges on their position. During a third attack, a Chinese medium machine gun (MMG) came close to the Indian defences and was firing accurately at the Indian positions.
Jaswant Singh volunteered to silence this PLA machine gun. Under covering fire given by Lance Naik Trilok Singh Negi and Rifleman Gopal Singh Gusain, he closed in within grenade-throwing distance of the machine gun position, and neutralised the Chinese detachment of five sentries, seizing the medium machine gun in the process.
However, while returning, Gusain and Negi lost their lives and Jaswant was seriously injured, although he managed to return with the captured weapon.
While Jaswant Singh’s company had to withdraw under repeated Chinese assaults, the lone Rifleman continued to man his post. Local folklore says he was aided in his efforts by two local girls, one of whom was killed and the other taken captive. Rifleman Jaswant Singh managed to hold back successive Chinese attacks until he succumbed to his injuries.
Jaswant was awarded the Maha Vir Chakra posthumously while his battalion received the Battle Honour Nuranang. Today, the post at which Jaswant Singh fought is named Jaswantgarh. A memorial to his bravery has been erected at the spot.
