*Major General Ian Cardozo, AVSM, SM (V, Gorkha Regiment), military historian and author*
Writing about Maj. General Ian Cardozo is like writing about the sky and sea – even if he belonged to land forces! Everybody knows the sea and sky and writing about them would be superfluous. But I must write about General Cardozo – the much written about veteran – because I promised to tell you about the five veterans who offered comments on my book ... and I write with the ardent hope that there may some exceptions in my audience who are blissful about one of India’s best-known generals. Gen. Cardozo was born in 1937 in Bombay, where he grew up and studied at the two famous St. Xavier institutions, though his father brought the family during summer holidays to the ancestral mansion at Bamonvaddo in Candolim, Goa. When the future general passed out of the National Defence Academy wearing both the gold and silver medals (for being the best all-round cadet and first in the order of merit, respectively), it was only the start of what would be a string of historic firsts. Within a year of commissioning, he was awarded the Sena Medal for gallantry when on a patrol on the China border in 1959. He fought in the 1962, 1965 and 1971 wars, but the last is the most interesting. Based on faulty intelligence that said Pak forces were withdrawn from ‘fortress’ Sylhet to reinforce Dacca or Ashuganj, the overworked and undersized Gorkha unit was heli-landed across the Surma River in Sylhet, then in East Pakistan. They met an enemy twenty times its size. But the indomitable CO, Lt Colonel (later Brigadier) Arun Bhimrao Harolikar (“Harry”) and his second-in-command, then Major Ian Cardozo, feigned a brigade frontage, launched a silent *khukri* night attack – the last in modern military history – decapitated 32 enemy, sent a clear message ‘Don’t mess with the Gorkhas or you will lose your head’, held out an incredible nine days and nights, and finally accepted the surrender of two Pak brigades and the Sylhet garrison! Almost at the end of hostilities Maj Cardozo lost a leg. It meant the end of an active career. But not in this case. With a prosthetic leg, the intrepid soldier rehabilitated himself and proved better than able-bodied officers. His case made the army change its rules towards war disabled officers who were now given command of formations. Lt General Vijay Oberoi (the former Vice Chief of the Indian Army, also thanked in *Goa, 1961* – he was a recently commissioned officer in the action in Daman in 1961, but it’s not the reason I have thanked the veteran who, besides being helpful and positive, possesses rare wit) was the first to be given command of a battalion. Maj General Cardozo went on to command a battalion, a brigade and a division. General Cardozo retired in 1993. Other than work with NGOs and as Government of India-appointed chairman of the Rehabilitation Council of India, the veteran wrote copiously and authored more than a dozen books. They include: *Param Vir*: *Our Heroes in Battle *(Lotus, 2003), *The Sinking of INS Khukri – Survivor's Stories *(Roli, 2006), *The Indian Army: A Brief History* (ed., 2007),* First Five Gorkha Rifles: An Illustrated History *(2008), *Param Vir Chakra: Manoj Pandey* (Lotus, 2013), *Param Vir Chakra: Abdul Hamid* (Lotus, 2016), *The Bravest of the Brave: The Extraordinary Story of Indian VCs of World War I* (Bloomsbury, 2016), *Param Vir Chakra: Bana Singh* (Lotus, 2016), *In Quest of Freedom: Personal Accounts of Soldiers from India and Bangladesh* (Bloomsbury, 2016), *Lieutenant General Bilimoria – His Life and Times* (2016), *The Indian Army in World War I: 1914-18* (Routledge, 2019), *1971: Stories of Grit and Glory from the Indo-Pak War* (Penguin, 2021), autobiography *Cartoos Saab* (Roli, 2022) – and the forthcoming book, *Beyond Fear: **True Stories on Life in the Indian Armed Forces* (Penguin, 2023). I am truly humbled that such a versatile author has blessed my unpretentious book! -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Goa-Research-Net" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/goa-research-net/CAGoMsAB520Qw0mpaNgG7On4wjUkZjLb25OrzF5BHYNFU0bzjUg%40mail.gmail.com.
