http://in.news.yahoo.com/021110/58/1xlh0.html
Monday November 11, 2:39 AM
Neighbour's gift, India's pride - National emblem traced to
officer who became Pak
commander
By SUJAN DUTTA
New Delhi, Nov. 10: A former army commander of Pakistan gifted to
India a symbol the
country wears with pride � its national emblem. Habibullah Khan
Khattak was then the
second-in-command of the Bihar regiment.
Claiming to be the Indian Army's oldest family, the Bihar
regiment last week celebrated its
61st raising day in the traditional style of armed forces � a
reunion over cocktails in the
Delhi cantonment and speeches in memory of its martyrs.
The regimental system in the army is a leftover of the Raj. The
defence establishment still
panders to it, indeed pampers it, in the belief that it promotes
an esprit de corps among the
infantry that is so crucial in battle.
The colonel commandant of the Bihar regiment � its pater
familias, so to speak �
Lieutenant-General Onkar Singh Lohchab, told his men at the
reunion that the regimental
history was being compiled and updated.
Lohchab is the director-general of military intelligence, the key
man at army headquarters whose job it is to keep an eagle eye on all
that goes on in
Pakistan. The lieutenant-general also recounted the valour of the
'Biharis', recalling how its battalions had performed in almost every
major
operation in the army's history.
In the process of updating the regimental history, serving and
current officers from some 18 battalions of the regiment � that make it
one of the
army's largest with nearly 20,000 men � stumbled across nuggets
from its past that hold important lessons for the present.
The first � and this is played down by the army � is the story of
the rebellious soldier. One of the 'Biharis' was the first to raise the
battle cry
against the British. Sepoy Mangal Pandey, a hero of the 1857
revolt that is described variously by historians as the "first war of
Indian
Independence" or "Sepoy mutiny", was from the Bengal Native
Infantry that mostly comprised Biharis and was the forerunner of the
Bihar
regiment.
The second is the story of Habibullah Khan Khattak.
Back in 1941, Khattak was a "native" officer in the Indian Army,
a young captain, who was asked to do duty as second-in-command of the
Bihar
regiment under the commanding officer, Lieutenant-Colonel J.R.H.
Tweed.
Tweed chose for the regiment an insignia that had the words "THE
BIHAR REGT" in the centre with "ASOKA SHER SHAH" in a semi-circle
below. This was used as a badge that soldiers and officers pinned
to their caps.
When army headquarters asked Tweed to create an emblem for the
regiment, he chose one that depicted two Bihar rivers. The officers and
men
did not like it but the headquarters approved of it. On a visit
to the Calcutta Museum, Khattak chanced upon the Ashoka Lions from
Sarnath and
found it suitable for the regiment because of its historical
association with Bihar.
His proposal to the headquarters was not accepted at first but
Khattak was a resourceful officer. His father, a Pathan aristocrat, was
personally
acquainted with General Auchinleck, the commander-in-chief of the
British Indian Army. The emblem was adopted by the regiment after some
coaxing.
Months later, then British Governor of Bihar Sir Thomas
Rutherford requested the army that the government of Bihar be permitted
to use the
symbol as its emblem. The Bihar government's emblem at the time
was "A Fish in a Bowl".
The army was proud that its discovery should be in such demand
and readily acceded to the request. Subsequently, after the transfer of
power in
1947, the government of India adopted Khattak's find. To this
day, the crest of the Bihar regiment is "The Ashoka Lions of Sarnath on
top of the
tomb of the mausoleum of Sher Shah Suri at Sasaram".
After Partition, Khattak migrated to Pakistan where he rose to be
a lieutenant-general and commander of its army. He led Pakistani army
units to
war. The battles killed Indian and Pakistani soldiers, including
some from his Bihar regiment.
The Pakistani who chose India's national emblem died in 1997.
