When my father Colonel Shamsher Singh died at the age of 96 on August 6, 2012, I became the custodian of his papers, photographs and memorabilia. A few days ago, as I sat down to sort out his papers, I remembered the remarkable life of this outstanding soldier who became a legend in his lifetime.

He was born on July 8, 1916. His father, Atma Singh, was a Thanedar in the Patiala State Police. Shamsher’s mother died when he was three years old. He mostly stayed at the village with his grandparents and six uncles and aunts, who were relatively young step-siblings of his father. With limited land holding, life was tough. Atma Singh was an exception — a very honest Thanedar. He was the sole breadwinner and the Thanedar’s pay was barely adequate to make both ends meet for the extended joint family.

Shamsher had a tough childhood. Lice in hair were omnipresent, sweaters were worn inside out to safeguard them from dirt and his hardened soles were all that he had for shoes. The hard village life made this virtual orphan a survivor and inspired him to succeed in life. His grandfather also motivated him to study. School meant an eight-kilometre round-trip made on bare feet with his gunnysack mat, takhti (wooden board for writing with a reed pen), primer, chor dawat (spill proof ink pot) and kalam (reed pen).

In summer, he walked/ran the distance twice as he went back to school for games in the evening. In later years, his father bought him a second-hand BSA Cycle for Rs 10. There was no money to replace the worn-out tubes. Shamsher took old pieces of cloth and jute, and twisted them into a round shape to replace the tubes. The tyre was then tied to the rim with strings. He used this contraption for two years.

All spare time was spent in playing marbles (which being unaffordable were replaced with the kernel of Shikakai) and gulli danda. Another hobby was to chase and kill rabbits and partridges for larder. Partridges have short high-speed flights and tire out after three to four such flights and can be nabbed from the bush. Similarly, a rabbit tires out after three to four short high-speed runs. This pastime made Shamsher a natural sportsman and he excelled in all games.

The tough village life also led Shamsher to imbibe sterling character qualities. He realised that to improve his lot, he had to pursue excellence despite all odds. He learnt that to survive one has to stand up to and fight bullies. His tenacity, despite his relatively small frame, became the talk of the village. He developed a sense of fair play and always stood up for the weak. His first response to a bully used to be a stern warning by looking him in the eye. If that did not work, he attacked. This was his way of describing his habit of warning before attacking: “Pashay se seekhay koi sheva-e-mardangi, jab kat-ey  khoon ko aaye toh pahle pukar de.” (Learn manliness from the mosquito, despite his small size it makes a buzz/noise before biting.)

He noted the respect his father enjoyed for being upright and honest in the rampantly corrupt state police. Like his father, he remained upright and honest through out his life. He used to say he deviated from the virtuous path only for the welfare of his soldiers, his unit, the weak and the oppressed, and as a child when pangs of hunger hit him, to steal pinnis (sweetmeat balls made from wheat flour, reduced milk, sugar/jaggery and desi ghee) from his step-grandmother’s ‘peepa‘ (canister made from kerosene container).

His will — the faculty for initiating decisive action — was very strong and the fall-out was that he seized and maintained initiative in whatever he did.

As a teenager, he lived with his father in various Thanas and studied in small towns of Malwa. He learnt the use of firearms and became a very a good shikari. His father sent him to a Dera of Nihangs to learn riding. He learnt all riding tricks including standing with one leg each on two horses at full gallop.

Once as a 15-year-old, he went out with a posse of police and local people led by his father looking for a notorious dacoit. While the posse searched the sugarcane fields, Shamsher borrowed his father’s shotgun and went hunting in the nearby wooded scrubland. Suddenly, he came face to face with the dacoit mounted on a dachhi (female camel). The dacoit, though armed with a rifle sensed an opportunity to get hold of a gun and jumped from the dachhi to charge towards Shamsher.

Shamsher kept his wits and shouted a lalkara (a warning/battle cry in loud stern language), warning the dacoit to surrender and when the dacoit did not pay heed, he shot him below the knees. The wounded dacoit was physically overpowered by Shamsher. He kept the dacoit pinned down for 10 minutes until his father arrived with the posse. This action of his made him a local hero.

After clearing his Matriculation, he joined the famous Mahindra College Patiala in 1934. He was average in academics but excelled in sports and captained the college hockey, football, basketball and athletics teams. When he was in his third year in 1938, the newly-crowned Maharaja Yadvindra Singh of Patiala held a screening board for selecting potential officers for his Army. The Patiala State Forces were approximately a brigade strength with two infantry battalions and one cavalry regiment. One battalion and the cavalry regiment was funded by the British and organised like the Indian Army. After initial screening, the candidates had to be enrolled as sepoys but the designation given was ‘officer cadet’. The candidates then had to pass the Special Class Education examination of the Indian Army and face a selection board under the Division Commander at Ambala. The rejection rate was very high.

Shamsher topped the screening board but since he was not from the landed gentry, he was enrolled only as a Junior Commission Officer (JCO) Cadet and was not eligible for selection as an officer. After a few months, when the Maharaja came for an inspection, Shamsher boldly approached him and said, “Sir I am better than all the Officer Cadets, yet I am only a JCO Cadet.”

The Maharaja admired the audacity of Shamsher and directed that he would also be allowed to go for the Special Class Examination and the selection board being held by the Indian Army. Eight candidates appeared in the examination and before the selection board and only Shamsher was selected. The Patiala State Army Headquarters was reluctant to send a JCO Cadet for training at the Indian Military Academy (IMA), Dehradun. Shamsher again sought an interview with the Maharaja who overruled the Army Headquarters.

Shamsher joined the IMA in January 1940 and was commissioned as an officer in June 1941. This was the last regular course to pass out of the IMA as thereafter only emergency/temporary commission was granted during the Second World War. At the IMA, he was a member of the hockey and football teams. And this was a singular achievement as the then IMA hockey team had two Olympians.

In 1968, when I was at the IMA, I was allotted the same room where my father stayed in 1940-41.

Shamsher was commissioned into the First Patiala Rajendra Lancers, the cavalry regiment of the Patiala State, which was then operating under the Indian Army and stationed at Loralai in the North West Province of India. The lice-ridden little village boy had come a long way. But this was just the beginning. He went on to become a legend in his lifetime owing to his sterling character and role model performance in war and peace in the Indian Army.
(Second part of ‘Colonel Shamsher Singh And The Making of An Indian Army Officer’ will be out next week.)