50 years of the 1971 War | Major General Ian Cardozo shares untold stories of heroism, camaraderie in wartime

A conversation with Major General Ian Anthony Joseph Cardozo can get your blood rushing. India’s first war-disabled military officer to head a brigade and a battalion, Major General Cardozo knows war. He has lived wars. The battlefront is tangible in his words. The blood. The enemy. The weapons. The loyalty. The honour of battling bravely not battling through. The war and the warriors. It has been 50 years since the Indo-Pak war of 1971 and the birth of Bangladesh, but the war is still fresh in the mind of this 84-year-old.

Major General Cardozo’s book, 1971 Stories of Grit and Glory from the Indo-Pak War, is dedicated to the men and women of the Indian Armed Forces, the Mukti Bahini and the people of India and Bangladesh, who stood together in this moment of trial and ultimately tasted victory in war, the liberation of East Pakistan and the birth of Bangladesh.

Major General Ian Anthony Joseph Cardozo.

The Sena Medal (he was India’s first recipient) and the Ati Vishisht Seva Medal recipient relives the 1971 war with the precision of a sniper in 14 chapters in the book. Beginning each chapter with a quote - from Bible, Rumi to Themistocles and Winston Churchill, Major General Cardozo gets into the gritty tales of war with a soldier’s unwavering zeal. Borrowing heavily from memory and his journals, the author rummaged through reams and reams of research and official documents to write the book.

The stories curdle the blood and inspire by turns. They include the hunt for INS Vikrant (Karachi, November 8, 1971), the gates of Rattoke, Mission Karachi (Prelude to the War of 1971), the Beeb’s best broadcast, the Long shot at Longewala (December 3, 1971)…

Beeb’s best broadcast for example is the story of how an uncharacteristic mistake by the BBC, which was reporting from the frontlines, “helped 4/5 Gorkha Rifles substantially in working out a strategy to deal effectively with a force more than twenty times its size. It was this historic error by a media house known for its authentic reporting that helped the Gorkhas to turn the tables on a far superior force”. The mistake: The BBC overestimated the strength of the Indian soldiers by a wide margin, and reported it.

The stories in the book also zoom in and out by turns, giving readers glimpses into what was happening in the power corridors of New Delhi and the military headquarters, as well as on the battle front.

In one story, readers follow Major General Cardozo as he is transported by helicopter to a battle front in Sylhet, deep inside East Pakistan. It is here that he steps on a Pakistani minefield, injures his leg, and has to use his own khukri - a curved blade - to amputate his leg.

“During the battle, our Regimental Aid Post (battalion-level medical facility) was destroyed by Pakistani artillery, and when I got wounded, there were no instruments to amputate my leg. So, I cut it off with my khukri. A proper amputation was done later in the day, by a Pakistani doctor, as by that time all Pakistani forces in Sylhet had surrendered to my battalion,” he remembers.

In the book, Major General Cardozo is generous about glory. He does not shine the light on himself, he shares it with his colleagues, battalion and the people who supported him during and after the war. The stories of war are interspersed with tales of friendship and loyalty and moments of mirth and merriment.

An illustration by Major General Ian Cardozo in his book '1971 Stories of Grit and Glory from Indo-Pak War.

He has also illustrated the book - making war ships, a maze of tank tyre marks, military aircraft in the sky.

Major General Cardozo has retired from the battlefield, but the remnants of lived wars has not left his side. He has chaired the Rehabilitation Council of India, run marathons and is the chairman of the Centre for Armed Forces Historical Research.

What next? Major General Cardozo is working on more book projects:

Param Vir Chakra Series: Major General Cardozo is working on a series on Param Vir Chakra (PVC) recipients. So far, he, along with graphic designer Rishi Kumar, has published illustrated booklets on 12 of the 21 Param Vir Chakra recipients of India. The 13th in this PVC series is almost ready to go to press. Available on Amazon.in, the paperbacks are priced individually at Rs 150; set of 12 is priced at Rs 1,196.

Autobiography titled ‘Cartoos Sahib’: These days, Major General Cardozo is preoccupied with a re-run of his life for his autobiography titled Cartoos Sahib, a name given by the men of the Gurkha Regiment who often had difficulty pronouncing Cardozo correctly. The name Cartoos Sahib stuck and the decorated Major General picked it as the title for his autobiography which is slated for release later this year.

Marigold as a Remembrance Symbol: Major General Cardozo has been relentless in his attempts to get marigold accorded the status of Flower of Remembrance, quite like the poppy is an enduring symbol of remembrance of the First World War.

“Marigold is a flower for all occasions. The bride wears it, the deities are adorned with it and the flower is laid on the pyre. There is nothing more beautiful than a marigold. And it is so symbolic of Indian-ness. Despite my petitions and requests, we still do not have a symbolic flower of remembrance. I wait for the day when the marigold officially becomes one,” Major General Cardozo says.

1971: Stories of Grit and Glory from the Indo-Pak War (304 pages; Rs 399) is published by Ebury House. An imprint of Penguin Random House. Available on Amazon, Flipkart and offline bookstores.

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