Jayanto Nath Chaudhuri

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(Redirected from
Joyanto Nath Chaudhuri
)

Military Governor of Hyderabad State
In office
17 September 1948 – 25 January 1950
Preceded byOffice Established
Succeeded byMir Osman Ali Khan as Rajapramukh
Personal details
Born(1908-06-10)10 June 1908
Second World War
  • East African Campaign
  • Western Desert Campaign
  • Burma Campaign 1944–45
Officer of the Order of the British Empire
Order Of Merit
(Arab Union)

High Commissioner to Canada from 19 July 1966 until August 1969.[2]

Family background and early life

Chaudhuri was born into an aristocratic

Womesh Chandra Bannerjee, who was the first president of the Indian National Congress
.

Other members of Chaudhuri's family were also distinguished in their fields, mainly law, medicine and literature. All six of his father's elder brothers, namely Sir Ashutosh Chaudhuri (judge during the

Bengali
families.

The Indian actress, Devika Rani, was Chaudhuri's first cousin, being the daughter of his father's brother, Manmathnath Chaudhuri. Among Chaudhuri's other close relatives were Barrister Kumud Nath Chaudhuri and Raisahib Babu Narendra Krishna Talukdar, Zamindar of Maligacha and honorary first class magistrate for Pabna District, Rajshahi. Writer Pramatha Chaudhuri, who married a niece of Nobel laureate poet Rabindranath Tagore, was his uncle.

Education

Chaudhuri completed his early education in Pataldanga Academy (Now known as Hare School) in Calcutta. Later he studied at

Ayub Khan, who became President of Pakistan
in 1958, was one of the batch-mates of Jayanto in Sandhurst; Ayub was in the same platoon where Jayanto was trained.

Military career

Early career

He was commissioned from Sandhurst as a second lieutenant onto the Unattached List, Indian Army on 2 February 1928.[4] Returning to India, he was attached to the 1st battalion North Staffordshire Regiment from 19 March 1928. He was accepted for the Indian Army and joined the 7th Light Cavalry on 19 March 1929.[5] In 1934, he attended the course at the Equitation School, Saugor. He attended the Staff course at Command and Staff College, Quetta from December 1939 to June 1940.

In 1940, as an acting major, he went overseas on the staff of the

Mentioned in Dispatches on 30 December 1941, for distinguished services in the Middle East Feb to July 1941,[6] and again on 30 June 1942 for the same from July to October 1941.[7] He was awarded the OBE on 18 February 1943 for gallant and distinguished services in the Middle East between May and Oct 1942.[8] Recalled to India, he was appointed as a senior Instructor at the Command and Staff College, Quetta
as a GSO-1 in 1943.

In August 1944 he was transferred to the

Mentioned in Dispatches, (London Gazette 9/5/46) for gallant and distinguished services in Burma (Temporary Lt-Col 16th Light Cavalry) and (London Gazette 17/9/46) for gallant and distinguished services in Burma (Temporary Lt-Col, Indian Armoured Corps). At the end of the Burma campaign, he saw service in French Indochina and in Java, Indonesia
with his regiment.

In 1946, he was promoted to the temporary rank of Brigadier with the war-substantive rank of lieutenant-colonel, in Charge of Administration in British Malaya and in the same year was selected to command the Indian Victory Contingent to London.

Post-Independence career

Following a course at the Imperial Defence College in London in 1947, he returned to India and was appointed Director of Military Operations & Intelligence at Army Headquarters in New Delhi in November 1947. Chaudhuri worked with Major General Mohite to complete military evacuation from Pakistan. He had to organise the

Kashmir war effort up to May 1948, when he was succeeded by the then Brig. Sam Manekshaw
as DMO and Chand Narayan Das as Director of Military Intelligence. In February 1948, he was promoted to acting
Major General
and became the officiating Chief of the General Staff.

Major General Syed Ahmed El Edroos (left) offers his surrender of the Hyderabad State Forces to Major General (later General and Army Chief) J. N. Chaudhuri at Secunderabad
Nizam VII
and Jayanto Nath Chaudhuri after Hyderabad's accession to India

In May 1948, he took over command of the

Military Governor of Hyderabad State. In the years following, he occupied important military posts and led an Indian Military Delegation to China. In 1949, he was appointed as the first Colonel Commandant of the Electrical & Mechanical Engineers, and was promoted to substantive brigadier on 1 January 1950.[1] In January 1952, he was appointed as the Adjutant General, Army HQ, as a substantive major-general, and in January 1953, he again took over as the Chief of the General Staff. He was promoted to local lieutenant-general on 16 December 1955 and given command of a corps,[9] with promotion to substantive lieutenant-general on 8 May 1957.[10] He was appointed GOC-in-C Southern Command on 25 May 1959.[11]

Chief of the Army staff

The debacle of the Sino-Indian War and subsequent government inquiries revealing India's military unpreparedness and mismanagement resulted in the Chief of the Army Staff (COAS) Pran Nath Thapar's resignation on 19 November 1962. On 20 November, Chaudhuri succeeded Thapar as officiating COAS with the acting rank of general.[12] Chaudhuri was officially appointed COAS on 20 February 1963,[13] and was promoted to substantive general on 20 July 1963.[14] In March 1964, he was decorated with the Grand Cordon of the Order of Merit of the United Arab Republic by its president, Gamal Abdel Nasser.[15]

Chaudhari was COAS during the

Indo-Pakistani War of 1965
, generally regarded as a victory for India.

Chaudhari is regarded as one of the founding fathers of the Border Security Force. In the aftermath of the 1965 war, he proposed a paramilitary force to patrol the Indo-Pakistani border in peacetime and would be relieved by the army when war was imminent.[16] For his services to the nation, he was presented with the Padma Vibhushan – India's second highest civilian honour — by the President of India.[17] He retired on 7 June 1966, after completing 38 years of military service.

Diplomatic career

After his retirement, Chaudhuri was appointed High Commissioner of India to Canada.[18] After a three-year stint at the High Commission of India at Ottawa, he relinquished office, handing over to A. B. Bhadkamkar in August 1969.[19]

Later years and legacy

Chaudhuri wrote two books on military matters and served as a literary reviewer for a leading Indian daily The Statesman. He was the first Indian army chief to write an autobiography in 1979. He loved Western music and founded and was first president of the Delhi Symphony Society, an organisation that promoted Western music. Chaudhuri was married to Karuna Chattopadhyay, with whom he had two sons.

Chaudhuri died at his home in Pamposh Enclave, New Delhi of a cardiac arrest on 6 April 1983, and was survived by his wife and two sons.[20] His funeral and cremation the following day, with full military honours, was attended by hundreds of serving and retired officers and soldiers, including his fellow Chiefs of Staff, Admiral A. K. Chatterji and Air Chief Marshal Arjan Singh.[21] In his honour, the BSF awards its best infantry battalion with the GEN. J. N. Chaudhuri trophy annually.

Awards and decorations

Padma Vibhushan General Service Medal 1947
Sainya Seva Medal
 Indian Independence Medal Officer of the Order of the British Empire (Military Division) 1939–1945 Star
Burma Star War Medal 1939–1945 India Service Medal Grand Cordon of the Order of Merit
(United Arab Republic)

Dates of rank

Insignia Rank Component Date of rank
Second Lieutenant British Indian Army 2 February 1928[4]
Lieutenant British Indian Army 2 May 1930[22][23]
Captain British Indian Army 2 February 1937[24]
Major British Indian Army 1940 (acting)
22 September 1941 (temporary)[25]
8 February 1943 (war-substantive)[26]
2 February 1945 (substantive)[27]
Lieutenant-Colonel British Indian Army 22 September 1941 (acting)[25]
8 February 1943 (temporary)[28]
21 January 1946 (war-substantive)[1]
Colonel British Indian Army 21 January 1946 (acting)[29]
Major Indian Army 15 August 1947[note 1][30]
Major-General Indian Army February 1948 (acting)[note 1]
Brigadier Indian Army 21 January 1946 (acting)[29]
1 January 1950 (substantive)[1][note 1]
Brigadier Indian Army 26 January 1950 (recommissioning and change in insignia)[30][31]
Major General Indian Army January 1952 (substantive)
Lieutenant General
 Indian Army 16 December 1955 (local)[9]
8 May 1957 (substantive)[10]
General
(COAS)		 Indian Army 20 November 1962 (acting)[12]
20 July 1963 (substantive)[14]

See also

Notes

  1. ^
    Ashoka Lion
    replaced the crown, with a five-pointed star being substituted for the "pip."

References

  1. ^ a b c d "Part I-Section 4: Ministry of Defence (Army Branch)" (PDF). The Gazette of India. 24 June 1950. p. 70.
  2. ^ "High Commissioners of India in Canada – High Commission of India, Ottawa (Canada)". Archived from the original on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 18 August 2014.
  3. ^ Tucker, Rodney C (1950). Highgate School Register 1838–1950 (5th ed.). London. p. 245.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  4. ^ a b "No. 33353". The London Gazette. 3 February 1928. p. 766.
  5. ^ "No. 33510". The London Gazette. 28 June 1929. p. 4274.
  6. ^ "No. 35396". The London Gazette. 26 December 1941. p. 7353.
  7. ^ "No. 35611". The London Gazette (Supplement). 26 June 1942. p. 2856.
  8. ^ "No. 35908". The London Gazette (Supplement). 16 February 1943. p. 858.
  9. ^ a b "Part I-Section 4: Ministry of Defence (Army Branch)" (PDF). The Gazette of India. 14 January 1956. p. 8.
  10. ^ a b "Part I-Section 4: Ministry of Defence (Army Branch)" (PDF). The Gazette of India. 25 May 1957. p. 131.
  11. ^ "Part I-Section 4: Ministry of Defence (Army Branch)" (PDF). The Gazette of India. 27 June 1959. p. 154.
  12. ^ a b "Part I-Section 4: Ministry of Defence (Army Branch)" (PDF). The Gazette of India. 5 January 1963. p. 2.
  13. ^ "Part I-Section 4: Ministry of Defence (Army Branch)" (PDF). The Gazette of India. 6 July 1963. p. 227.
  14. ^ a b "Part I-Section 4: Ministry of Defence (Army Branch)" (PDF). The Gazette of India. 31 August 1963. p. 292.
  15. ^ "UAR Decoration for General Chaudhuri" (PDF). Press Information Bureau of India – Archive. 30 March 1964. Retrieved 1 February 2020.
  16. ISBN 9780691077246
    .
  17. ^ "PRESS NOTE" (PDF). pibarchive.nic.in. 9 November 1965.
  18. ^ "PRESS NOTE" (PDF). pibarchive.nic.in. 30 April 1966.
  19. ^ "INDIA'S NEW ENVOY TO CANADA" (PDF). pibarchive.nic.in. 23 August 1969.
  20. ^ "General Chaudhuri Passed Away, An Outstanding Military Leader, Says Shri R. Venkataraman" (PDF). Press Information Bureau of India – Archive. 6 April 1983. Retrieved 27 March 2022.
  21. ^ "General Chaudhuri Cremated" (PDF). Press Information Bureau of India – Archive. 6 April 1983. Retrieved 27 March 2022.
  22. ^ "No. 33613". The London Gazette. 6 June 1930. p. 3572.
  23. ^ "No. 33632". The London Gazette. 8 August 1930. p. 4946.
  24. ^ "No. 34381". The London Gazette. 19 March 1937. p. 1827.
  25. ^ a b Indian Army List for October 1945 (Part I). Government of India Press. 1945. p. 153.
  26. ^ January 1946 Half Yearly Army List
  27. ^ "No. 37085". The London Gazette. 18 May 1945. p. 2577.
  28. ^ The Quarterly Army List: December 1946 (Part I). HM Stationery Office. 1946. pp. 2512a–c.
  29. ^ a b The Quarterly Army List: December 1946 (Part I). HM Stationery Office. 1946. pp. 220v–z.
  30. ^ a b "New Designs of Crests and Badges in the Services" (PDF). Press Information Bureau of India – Archive. Archived (PDF) from the original on 8 August 2017.
  31. ^ "Part I-Section 4: Ministry of Defence (Army Branch)". The Gazette of India. 11 February 1950. p. 227.
  • Pradeep P. Barua, Gentlemen of the Raj: The Indian Army Officer Corps, 1817–1949

External links

Diplomatic posts
Preceded by
B K Acharya
High Commissioner
of India to Canada
1966–1969 		Succeeded by
A B Bhadkamkar
Military offices
Preceded by
Chairman of the Chiefs of Staff Committee

1966–1966 		Succeeded by
Air Chief Marshal Arjan Singh
Preceded by
Chief of Army Staff

1962–1966 		Succeeded by
Preceded by
General Officer Commanding-in-Chief Southern Command

1959–1962 		Succeeded by
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