Colonel Colonel (abbreviated as Col., Col or COL) is a senior military officer rank used in many countries. It is also used in some police forces and paramilitary organizations. In the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, a colonel was typically in charge of ...

Hoshiar Singh Dahiya, PVC (5 May 1930 – 6 December 1998) was an officer of the

Indian Army The Indian Army is the land-based branch and the largest component of the Indian Armed Forces. The President of India is the Supreme Commander of the Indian Army, and its professional head is the Chief of Army Staff (COAS), who is a four- ...

who was awarded India's highest military honour, the

Param Vir Chakra The Param Vir Chakra (PVC) is India's highest military decoration, awarded for displaying distinguished acts of valour during wartime. Param Vir Chakra translates as the "Wheel of the Ultimate Brave", and the award is granted for "most conspicu ...

during

Indo-Pakistani war of 1971 The Indo-Pakistani War of 1971 was a military confrontation between India and Pakistan that occurred during the Bangladesh Liberation War in East Pakistan from 3 December 1971 until the Pakistani capitulation in Dhaka on 16 Decem ...

Early life

Hoshiar Singh Dahiya was born in

Sisana Sisana is a village of Sonipat district, Haryana, India. This village comes under the Tehsil of Kharkhoda. The vehicle RTO falls under the same, the vehicle numbers starts from HR79 and HR10 for private vehicles. The village was first inha ...

village,

Sonipat Sonipat is a city, municipal corporation and administrative headquarter in Sonipat district of Haryana state of India. It comes under the National Capital Region and is around from New Delhi. It is also around 214 km (128 miles) southwest o ...

district,

Haryana Haryana (; ) is an Indian state located in the northern part of the country. It was carved out of the former state of East Punjab on 1 Nov 1966 on a linguistic basis. It is ranked 21st in terms of area, with less than 1.4% () of India's land ar ...

to Choudhary Hira Singh in a

Jat The Jat people ((), ()) are a traditionally agricultural community in Northern India and Pakistan. Originally pastoralists in the lower Indus river-valley of Sindh, Jats migrated north into the Punjab region in late medieval times, and su ...

family. After his schooling and one year's study at the Jat College,

Rohtak Rohtak () is a city and the administrative headquarters of the Rohtak district in the Indian state of Haryana. It lies north-west of New Delhi and south of the state capital Chandigarh on NH 9(old NH 10). Rohtak forms a part of the National ...

, he joined the Army. He was married to Dhano Devi, who is still alive as of December 2021.A date with war heroes
The Tribune, 15 Mar 2019. He was commissioned in

The Grenadiers The Grenadiers is an infantry regiment of the Indian Army, formerly part of the Bombay Army and later the pre-independence British Indian Army, when the regiment was known as the 4th Bombay Grenadiers. It has distinguished itself during the tw ...

Regiment A regiment is a military unit. Its role and size varies markedly, depending on the country, service and/or a specialisation. In Medieval Europe, the term "regiment" denoted any large body of front-line soldiers, recruited or conscripted ...

of the

on 30 June 1963, and was promoted lieutenant on 30 June 1965. His first posting was in NEFA. In the 1965 Indo-Pakistan war, he saw some action in the Rajasthan sector, for which he was

mentioned in despatches To be mentioned in dispatches (or despatches, MiD) describes a member of the armed forces whose name appears in an official report written by a superior officer and sent to the high command, in which their gallant or meritorious action in the face ...

. He was promoted to captain on 30 June 1969.

Param Vir Chakra Citation

The

citation on the Official

Website reads as follows:

Later career

Singh was promoted to substantive major on 30 June 1976, subsequently serving for two years as an instructor at the Officers Training School, Madras (now Chennai). In 1981 he was posted as an Instructor at the Indian Military Acdemy, Dehra Dun and was promoted to lieutenant-colonel on 8 April 1983, he eventually rose to command of his battalion. Having reached retirement age for his rank, Singh retired from the Army on 31 May 1988 with the honorary rank of colonel. He settled in Jaipur, but frequently visited his village of Sisana and successfully encouraged many local residents to join the armed forces. He succumbed to a

cardiac arrest Cardiac arrest is when the heart suddenly and unexpectedly stops beating. It is a medical emergency that, without immediate medical intervention, will result in sudden cardiac death within minutes. Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and possib ...

on 6 December 1998, aged 61, and was cremated with full military honours at Jaipur. He was survived by three sons, two of whom followed their father into the army as commissioned officers in the Grenadiers, with one joining the 3rd Grenadiers.

In popular culture

Major Hoshiar Singh statue at Param Yodha Sthal Delhi

Mohanlal Mohanlal Viswanathan (born 21 May 1960), known mononymously as Mohanlal, is an Indian actor, film producer, playback singer, film distributor, and director who predominantly works in Malayalam cinema besides also having sporadically appeare ...

reprised Major Hoshiar Singh's character as Major Sahadevan in the 2017

Malayalam film Malayalam cinema is an Indian cinema, Indian film industry of Malayalam-language motion pictures. It is based in Kochi, Kerala, India. The films produced in Malayalam cinema are known for their cinematography and story-driven plots. In 1982, ...

, 1971: Beyond Borders.

References

External links