Bharatiya military is the pride of Bharat. The Army, Navy, and Airforce invoke mixed emotions of patriotism, valor, courage, and a sense of duty and sacrifice for the country. No wonder the woke leftist lobby of Bharat constantly peddles propaganda against the army and tries to sell people the dangerous narrative of military being an exploitative and overrated institution.
If you want to enslave a country physically and mentally, the formula is simple. Make people doubt its most honorable institutions – the military, the police, the elected government, etc. Military officers and soldiers sacrifice their lives to keep the citizens of Bharat safe. It’s no mean feat. Yet, the woke leftist lobby of Bharat portrays military personnel as perpetrators and the actual perpetrators as victims. That’s the perfect woke recipe to puncture the pride of any country – make citizens question nationalism to the extent that they become anti-national and start regarding the most courageous people of the nation with suspicion and derision.
We live in times where anarchy is encouraged, rather celebrated and nationalism mocked. That is why the institution of military has become even more significant than ever. Bharatiya military with its myriad customs and traditions has evolved beautifully with the times. One of the features of this evolution is that this age-old institution is slowly but firmly shedding its colonial roots and baggage. Most military customs and etiquettes for private gatherings still follow the British system. If you know a bit about the military traditions governing the lives of officers outside the battlefield, you will realize that most of the customs and traditions followed are very English. The Bharatiya army parties, for example, would have a strict code of conduct for the laying of tables, serving of dinner, etc. This code of conduct is very English.
Or you might have heard about the most coveted army balls. Institutions of Defence Education like the Indian Military Academy (IMA) and National Defence Academy have ball dances as an end-of-term event. It’s a much-awaited event at these institutions hosted on the patterns of British ball dance. A “ball” is a European phenomenon that is traditionally associated with a particular kind of couple dance style, “ball dance” in Europe. However, with the passage of time, these “balls” became more open-ended and accommodative as they generally referred to huge parties where ball dancing was no longer a strict criterion. Many UK universities, for example, host balls for their students at least once a year. These balls, organized in open grounds, are a special attraction especially for international students as the idea is also to showcase aspects of traditional British culture. However, again over time, these balls have just become another occasion for merry-making and partying and are losing their traditional element.
However, coming to the tradition of hosting balls in the institutions of Bharatiya military, there is nothing wrong with it per se, but it definitely seems rather strange that we uphold a British custom as a part of the traditional repertoire of military etiquette. I think that’s stretching it a bit too far. The military of any country should be proudly rooted in its culture and ethos, even when it comes to its customs outside the battlefield. The French military is rooted in a French cultural milieu and ethos. Similarly, let’s say, the Chinese army would be rooted in the ethos of Chinese culture. From that point of view, it seems rather strange that the Bharatiya army should still be rooted in an English cultural ethos. I mean post-independence, there should have been a focus on decolonizing the ethos of military etiquettes outside the battlefield. But this topic never got the kind of attention it deserved.
But it seems now the Bharatiya military is on its way to doing away with many arachis British-era customs and traditions, and slowly reforming itself in the Bharatiya mould.
The messes of the Bharatiya Navy have now embraced Kurta-Pyjama as acceptable attire. The Navy’s norms that were hitherto rooted in the colonial era did not recognize kurta-pyjama as acceptable for the mess areas. But now, Bharatiya Navy officers would be allowed to wear kurta-pyjamas in the mess areas, thus signifying a shift towards indigenous customs. Although strict guidelines have been issued regarding the kind of kurta-pyjamas that can be worn by the officers. As per the guidelines, the kurta must have a solid tone, be cuffed at the sleeves, and fall just below the knee. Female officers too have been given comparable alternatives such as kurta-palazzo and kurta-churidar combinations.
These are not topics commonly discussed amongst civilians and most of us have no idea about the dressing etiquette of military officers in their messes. However, this revelation comes as rather strange, if not shocking that till now, navy officers weren’t technically allowed to wear Bharatiya attire in the mess area.
Various other initiatives have also been taken to end the colonial practices of the Bharatiya military. For example, Army Chief General Manoj Pande has initiated the process to do away with colonial-era practices like using horse-driven buggies for functions, pulling out ceremonies on retirement, and using pipe bands during dinner nights. As per various media reports, the Bharatiya army is reviewing various customs and traditions from the colonial and pre-colonial era, rules, policies, laws, unit establishment, institutes of colonial past, etc.
According to an article published by Times Now in September 2022, many colonial-era legacies of the army are all set for an overhaul. “Many things are set to get an overhaul. Among them the names of infantry regiments like Gorkha, Sikh, Rajput etc; roads, institutions, parks that are named after British officers; honours awarded by the British to rein in Indian states, ceremonies like Beating the Retreat and also uniforms and lanyards (the shoulder cords that once served a functional purpose but are now largely decorative)”, says the article.
The article also says that the Bharatiya government did away with the traditional hymn “Abide With Me” for the first time since 1950 in the Beating Retreat Ceremony on the 29th of January. Military bands instead played the tunes of “Ae mere watan ke logon”, according to the article.
The military tradition of The Beating Retreat dates back to 17th-century England when King James II ordered his troops to mark the end of a day’s combat through the ceremonial gesture of beating drums, lowering flags, and organizing a parade. This practice was reportedly adopted in the Bharatiya context in the army in the 1950s. As per various media reports, the army is now planning to drop the ceremony altogether.
Bharatiya army is also slowly trying to make its structure and organization more uniform by doing away regimen-based specific protocols. As per a report published by The Times of India in August 2023, army brigadiers and generals “shed all their distinctive regiment-specific accoutrements, lanyards and headgear, like Gorkha hats or maroon berets, with their dark olive-green uniforms. Instead, they donned standardized accoutrements, irrespective of their present cadres, regiments or appointments”. As per the decision, brigadiers and those of the rank above brigadiers will wear a common uniform bereft of any regimental identification or insignia.
Although the army as of now, has no plans to bring changes to the regiment system, nevertheless, a debate on the modern relevance of the regiment system of the Bharatiya army, which was introduced by the British is slowly brewing. The Bharatiya military regiments still borrow their names from the warrior classes identified by the British. An article published in Times Now News discusses this in detail.
It argues that the British had their own theories based on which they heavily recruited soldiers from Punjab and a few other areas. The practice of giving preference to personnel from certain regions continued post-independence but some amongst the political elite wanted to change this trend as they constructed the case for a more heterogenous composition of Bharatiya military to encourage nationalism, according to the article.
Yet another system of a colonial era that still persists in the military the article draws one’s attention to is the system of batmen or personal orderlies. Under this system, army officers were assigned soldiers to take care of their personal needs. These batmen or orderlies are now known as sahayaks in the context of the Bharatiya military. However, critics argue that this sort of hierarchical system has no place in the modern-day Bharatiya army. It’s also demeaning to the soldiers who are expected to do all sorts of personal chores for the officers under this system, as per the critics.
As the Bharatiya government has taken initiatives in almost every sector to shed the colonial baggage of Bharat from the renaming of roads to the construction of the new Parliament building, the move to reform the Bharatiya military and do away with archaic customs of the British era is a great one and a much needed one at that. However, military reform is a sensitive issue and therefore, it has to be a slow process wherein the viewpoints of all stakeholders are taken into account.
