General A general officer is an officer of high rank in the armies, and in some nations' air forces, space forces, and marines or naval infantry. In some usages the term "general officer" refers to a rank above colonel."general, adj. and n.". OED On ...

Jayanto Nath Chaudhuri ( Bengali: জয়ন্তনাথ চৌধুরী; 10 June 1908 – 6 April 1983) was a

General Officer A general officer is an officer of high rank in the armies, and in some nations' air forces, space forces, and marines or naval infantry. In some usages the term "general officer" refers to a rank above colonel."general, adj. and n.". OED On ...

in 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- ...

. He served as the 6th Chief of Army Staff from 1962 to 1966 and the

Military Governor A military government is generally any form of government that is administered by military forces, whether or not this government is legal under the laws of the jurisdiction at issue, and whether this government is formed by natives or by an occup ...

Hyderabad State Hyderabad State () was a princely state located in the south-central Deccan region of India with its capital at the city of Hyderabad. It is now divided into the present-day state of Telangana, the Kalyana-Karnataka region of Karnataka, and t ...

from 1948 to 1949. After his retirement from the Indian Army, he served as the Indian High Commissioner to Canada from 19 July 1966 until August 1969.

Family background and early life

Chaudhuri was born into an aristocratic and distinguished Bengali Brahmin family which produced many renowned lawyers and writers. His family were the ''

Zamindar A zamindar ( Hindustani: Devanagari: , ; Persian: , ) in the Indian subcontinent was an autonomous or semiautonomous ruler of a province. The term itself came into use during the reign of Mughals and later the British had begun using it as ...

s'' (landlords) of Haripur and the family was known as the Chaudhuris of Haripur in the province of Bengal, British India. Chaudhuri's paternal grandfather, Durgadas Chaudhuri, was the landlord of Chatmohar Upazila of

Pabna Pabna ( bn, পাবনা) is a city of Pabna District, Bangladesh and the administrative capital of the eponymous Pabna District. It is on the north bank of the Padma River and has a population of about . Etymology * According to the histo ...

district of present-day

Bangladesh Bangladesh (}, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the eighth-most populous country in the world, with a population exceeding 165 million people in an area of . Bangladesh is among the mos ...

. His paternal grandmother, Sukumari Devi (wife of Durgadas), was a sister of the nobel laureate

Rabindranath Tagore Rabindranath Tagore (; bn, রবীন্দ্রনাথ ঠাকুর; 7 May 1861 – 7 August 1941) was a Bengali polymath who worked as a poet, writer, playwright, composer, philosopher, social reformer and painter. He resh ...

. Chaudhuri's mother, Pramila Chaudhuri, was the daughter of Womesh Chandra Bannerjee, who was the first president of the

Indian National Congress The Indian National Congress (INC), colloquially the Congress Party but often simply the Congress, is a political party in India with widespread roots. Founded in 1885, it was the first modern nationalist movement to emerge in the British ...

. Other members of Chaudhuri's family were also distinguished in their fields, mainly law, medicine and literature. Indeed, all six of his father's elder brothers, namely Sir Ashutosh Chaudhuri (distinguished judge during the

British Raj The British Raj (; from Hindi ''rāj'': kingdom, realm, state, or empire) was the rule of the British Crown on the Indian subcontinent; * * it is also called Crown rule in India, * * * * or Direct rule in India, * Quote: "Mill, who was himsel ...

), Jogesh Chaudhuri, Kumudnath Chaudhuri (barrister), Pramathanath Chaudhuri (distinguished writer), Capt. Manmathanath Chaudhuri (first Indian surgeon-general of

Madras Presidency The Madras Presidency, or the Presidency of Fort St. George, also known as Madras Province, was an administrative subdivision (presidency) of British India. At its greatest extent, the presidency included most of southern India, including the ...

) and Dr. Suhridnath Chaudhuri, were distinguished on their own right. Two of them (Sir Asutosh and Pramathanath) were married to their first cousins (mother's brother's daughters), the nieces of Rabindranath Tagore, and the others were married to women from distinguished Bengali families. The pioneering Indian actress,

Devika Rani Devika Rani Choudhuri (30 March 1908 – 9 March 1994), usually known as Devika Rani, was an Indian actress who was active in Hindi films during the 1930s and 1940s. Widely acknowledged as the first lady of Indian cinema, Devika Rani ha ...

, was Chaudhuri's first cousin, being the daughter of his father's brother, Manmathnath Chaudhuri. Among Chaudhuri's other close relatives were Barrister Kumud Nath Chaudhuri and Raisahib Babu Narendra Krishna Talukdar, Zamindar of Maligacha and honorary first class magistrate for Pabna District, Rajshahi. Noted writer Pramatha Chaudhuri, who married a niece of Nobel laureate poet

, was his uncle.

Education

Chaudhuri completed his early education in Pataldanga Academy (Now known as

Hare School Hare School is one of the oldest schools in Kolkata, India, teaching grades one to twelve under the West Bengal Board of Secondary Education and the West Bengal Council of Higher Secondary Education. It is a state government-administered boys ...

) in Calcutta. Later he studied at St. Xavier's College (

University of Calcutta The University of Calcutta (informally known as Calcutta University; CU) is a public collegiate state university in India, located in Kolkata, West Bengal, India. Considered one of best state research university all over India every year, C ...

). He also studied at

Highgate School Highgate School, formally Sir Roger Cholmeley's School at Highgate, is an English co-educational, fee-charging, independent day school, founded in 1565 in Highgate, London, England. It educates over 1,400 pupils in three sections – Highgate ...

in London, from May 1923 until July 1926, and the

Royal Military College, Sandhurst The Royal Military College (RMC), founded in 1801 and established in 1802 at Great Marlow and High Wycombe in Buckinghamshire, England, but moved in October 1812 to Sandhurst, Berkshire, was a British Army military academy for training infantry ...

. At Sandhurst, he got his nickname, "Muchhu" (owing to his

moustache A moustache (; en-US, mustache, ) is a strip of facial hair grown above the upper lip. Moustaches have been worn in various styles throughout history. Etymology The word "moustache" is French, and is derived from the Italian ''mustaccio'' ...

Ayub Khan Ayub Khan is a compound masculine name; Ayub is the Arabic version of the name of the Biblical figure Job, while Khan or Khaan is taken from the title used first by the Mongol rulers and then, in particular, their Islamic and Persian-influenced ...

, who became

President of Pakistan The president of Pakistan ( ur, , translit=s̤adr-i Pākiṣṭān), officially the President of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is the ceremonial head of state of Pakistan and the commander-in-chief of the Pakistan Armed Forces. Returning to India, he was attached to the 1st battalion

North Staffordshire Regiment The North Staffordshire Regiment (Prince of Wales's) was a line infantry regiment of the British Army, which was in existence between 1881 and 1959. The 64th (2nd Staffordshire) Regiment of Foot was created on 21 April 1758 from the 2nd Battali ...

from 19 March 1928. He was accepted for the Indian Army and joined the

7th Light Cavalry The 7th Light Cavalry previously the 28th Light Cavalry, was a regular army cavalry regiment in the British Indian Army. It was raised in 1784 under the East India Company. The regiment later saw service on the North West Frontier and in World W ...

on 19 March 1929. In 1934, he attended the course at the Equitation School, Saugor. He attended the Staff course at Command and Staff College,

Quetta Quetta (; ur, ; ; ps, کوټه‎) is the tenth most populous city in Pakistan with a population of over 1.1 million. It is situated in south-west of the country close to the International border with Afghanistan. It is the capital of th ...

from December 1939 to June 1940. In 1940, as an acting major, he went overseas on the staff of the 5th Infantry Division and saw service in

Sudan Sudan ( or ; ar, السودان, as-Sūdān, officially the Republic of the Sudan ( ar, جمهورية السودان, link=no, Jumhūriyyat as-Sūdān), is a country in Northeast Africa. It shares borders with the Central African Republic ...

Eritrea Eritrea ( ; ti, ኤርትራ, Ertra, ; ar, إرتريا, ʾIritriyā), officially the State of Eritrea, is a country in the Horn of Africa region of Eastern Africa, with its capital and largest city at Asmara. It is bordered by Ethiopia i ...

Abyssinia The Ethiopian Empire (), also formerly known by the exonym Abyssinia, or just simply known as Ethiopia (; Amharic and Tigrinya: ኢትዮጵያ , , Oromo: Itoophiyaa, Somali: Itoobiya, Afar: ''Itiyoophiyaa''), was an empire that historica ...

and the western deserts of Africa. For his services, he was

Mentioned in Dispatches 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 ...

on 30 December 1941, for distinguished services in the Middle East Feb to July 1941, and again on 30 June 1942 for the same from July to October 1941. He was awarded the

OBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

on 18 February 1943 for gallant and distinguished services in the Middle East between May to Oct 1942. Recalled to India, he was appointed as a senior Instructor at the Command and Staff College,

as a GSO-1 in 1943. In August 1944 he was transferred to the

16th Light Cavalry The 16th Light Cavalry is a regiment of the Armoured Corps, a primary combat arm of the Indian Army. Prior to India gaining independence from the British in 1947, it was a regular cavalry regiment of the British Indian Army. It was formed in 1776 ...

. Then a temporary Lieut-Colonel, he commanded this unit from September 1944 to October 1945 in

Burma Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John Wells explai ...

for which he was twice more

, (London Gazette 9/5/46) for gallant and distinguished services in Burma (Temporary Lt-Col 16th Light Cavalry) and (London Gazette 17/9/46) for gallant and distinguished services in Burma (Temporary Lt-Col, Indian Armoured Corps). At the end of the Burma campaign, he saw service in

French Indochina French Indochina (previously spelled as French Indo-China),; vi, Đông Dương thuộc Pháp, , lit. 'East Ocean under French Control; km, ឥណ្ឌូចិនបារាំង, ; th, อินโดจีนฝรั่งเศส, ...

and in

Java Java (; id, Jawa, ; jv, ꦗꦮ; su, ) is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea to the north. With a population of 151.6 million people, Java is the world's most ...

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guinea. In ...

with his regiment. In 1946, he was promoted to the temporary rank of

Brigadier Brigadier is a military rank, the seniority of which depends on the country. In some countries, it is a senior rank above colonel, equivalent to a brigadier general or commodore, typically commanding a brigade of several thousand soldiers. In ...

with the war-substantive rank of lieutenant-colonel, in Charge of Administration in

British Malaya The term "British Malaya" (; ms, Tanah Melayu British) loosely describes a set of states on the Malay Peninsula and the island of Singapore that were brought under British hegemony or control between the late 18th and the mid-20th century. Un ...

and in the same year was selected to command the Indian Victory Contingent to London.

Post-Independence career

Following a course at the

Imperial Defence College The Royal College of Defence Studies (RCDS) instructs the most promising senior officers of the British Armed Forces, His Majesty's Diplomatic Service and Civil Service in national defence and international security matters at the highest level ...

in London in 1947, he returned to India and was appointed Director of Military Operations & Intelligence at Army Headquarters in New Delhi in November 1947. Chaudhuri worked with Major General Mohite to complete military evacuation from Pakistan. He had to organise the Kashmir war effort up to May 1948, when he was succeeded by the then Brig.

Sam Manekshaw Field Marshal Sam Hormusji Framji Jamshedji Manekshaw (3 April 1914 – 27 June 2008), widely known as Sam Manekshaw and Sam Bahadur ("Sam the Brave"), was the Chief of the Army Staff of the Indian Army during the Indo-Pakistani War o ...

as DMO and Chand Narayan Das as Director of Military Intelligence. In February 1948, he was promoted to acting

Major General Major general (abbreviated MG, maj. gen. and similar) is a military rank used in many countries. It is derived from the older rank of sergeant major general. The disappearance of the "sergeant" in the title explains the apparent confusion of a ...

and became the officiating Chief of the General Staff. Op Polo Surrender

In May 1948, he took over command of the 1st Armoured Division which played a major role in the 1948 Hyderabad Operations. Following

Operation Polo Operation Polo was the code name of the Hyderabad "police action" in September 1948, by the then newly independent Dominion of India against Hyderabad State. It was a military operation in which the Indian Armed Forces invaded the Nizam-ruled ...

in 1948, he was appointed as the

. In the years following, he occupied important military posts and led an Indian Military Delegation to China. In 1949, he was appointed as the first Colonel Commandant of the Electrical & Mechanical Engineers, and was promoted to substantive brigadier on 1 January 1950. In January 1952, he was appointed as the Adjutant General, Army HQ, as a substantive major-general, and in January 1953, he again took over as the Chief of the General Staff. He was promoted to local lieutenant-general on 16 December 1955 and given command of a corps, with promotion to substantive lieutenant-general on 8 May 1957. He was appointed GOC-in-C Southern Command on 25 May 1959.

Chief of the Army staff

The debacle of the Sino-Indian War and subsequent government inquiries revealing India's military unpreparedness and mismanagement resulted in the Chief of the Army Staff (COAS) Pran Nath Thapar's resignation on 19 November 1962. On 20 November, Chaudhuri succeeded Thapar as officiating COAS with the acting rank of general. Chaudhuri was officially appointed COAS on 20 February 1963, and was promoted to substantive general on 20 July 1963. In March 1964, he was decorated with the Grand Cordon of the

Order of Merit The Order of Merit (french: link=no, Ordre du Mérite) is an order of merit for the Commonwealth realms, recognising distinguished service in the armed forces, science, art, literature, or for the promotion of culture. Established in 1902 by K ...

of the

United Arab Republic The United Arab Republic (UAR; ar, الجمهورية العربية المتحدة, al-Jumhūrīyah al-'Arabīyah al-Muttaḥidah) was a sovereign state in the Middle East from 1958 until 1971. It was initially a political union between Eg ...

by its President,

Gamal Abdel Nasser Gamal Abdel Nasser Hussein, . (15 January 1918 – 28 September 1970) was an Egyptian politician who served as the second president of Egypt from 1954 until his death in 1970. Nasser led the Egyptian revolution of 1952 and introduced far-re ...

. Chaudhari was COAS during the

Indo-Pakistani War of 1965 The Indo-Pakistani War of 1965 or the Second Kashmir War was a culmination of skirmishes that took place between April 1965 and September 1965 between Pakistan and India. The conflict began following Pakistan's Operation Gibraltar, which was d ...

, generally regarded as a victory for India. Chaudhari is regarded as one of the founding fathers of the

Border Security Force The Border Security Force (BSF) is India's border guarding organisation on its border with Pakistan and Bangladesh. It is one of the seven Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) of India, and was raised in the wake of the 1965 war on 1 December 1 ...

. In the aftermath of the 1965 war, he proposed a paramilitary force to patrol the Indo-Pakistani border in peacetime and would be relieved by the army when war was imminent. For his services to the nation, he was presented with the

Padma Vibhushan The Padma Vibhushan ("Lotus Decoration") is the second-highest civilian award of the Republic of India, after the Bharat Ratna. Instituted on 2 January 1954, the award is given for "exceptional and distinguished service". All persons without ...

– India's second highest civilian honour — by the President of India. He retired on 7 June 1966, after completing 38 years of military service.

Diplomatic career

After his retirement, Chaudhuri was appointed High Commissioner of India to Canada. After a three year stint at the High Commission of India at Ottawa, he relinquished office, handing over to A. B. Bhadkamkar in August 1969.

Later years and legacy

Chaudhuri wrote two books on military matters and served as a literary reviewer for a leading Indian daily '' The Statesman''. He was the first Indian army chief to write an autobiography in 1979. He loved Western music and founded and was first president of the Delhi Symphony Society, an organisation that promoted Western music. Chaudhuri was married to Karuna Chattopadhyay, with whom he had two sons. Chaudhuri died at his home in Pamposh Enclave, New Delhi of 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 possi ...

on 6 April 1983, and was survived by his wife and two sons. His funeral and cremation the following day, with full military honours, was attended by hundreds of serving and retired officers and soldiers, including his fellow Chiefs of Staff, Admiral A. K. Chatterji and Air Chief Marshal Arjan Singh. In his honour, the BSF awards its best infantry battalion with the GEN. J. N. Chaudhuri trophy annually.

Awards and decorations

Dates of rank

Notes

References

* Pradeep P. Barua, Gentlemen of the Raj: The Indian Army Officer Corps, 1817–1949

External links

*http://www.archives.lib.soton.ac.uk/mbindex/index179.shtml
Indian Army Bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Chaudhuri, Jayanto Nath 1908 births 1983 deaths Indian generals Chiefs of Army Staff (India) Bengali Hindus Military personnel from Kolkata Recipients of the Padma Vibhushan in civil service University of Calcutta alumni Indian Army personnel of World War II People educated at Highgate School Graduates of the Royal Military College, Sandhurst Officers of the Order of the British Empire British Indian Army officers People from Pabna District Military personnel of the Indo-Pakistani War of 1965 Generals of the Indo-Pakistani War of 1965 Alumni of the Royal College of Defence Studies Indian Officers of the Order of the British Empire