Haripal Kaushik, VrC (2 February 1934 – 25 January 2018) was an Indian

field hockey Field hockey is a team sport structured in standard hockey format, in which each team plays with ten outfield players and a goalkeeper. Teams must drive a round hockey ball by hitting it with a hockey stick towards the rival team's shooting ...

player, military officer and television commentator.

Field hockey

He won gold medals in the 1956 Summer Olympics and the 1964 Summer Olympics. He was assistant captain of the team that won the gold medal in the 1966 Asian Games, and was later a field hockey administrator and television commentator. He received the Arjuna Award for excellence in athletic competition in 1998.

Military service

Commissioned into 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- ...

in 1959, Kaushik served in the 1st Battalion of the

Sikh Regiment The Sikh Regiment is an infantry regiment of the Indian Army. Sikh regiment is the highest decorated regiment of the Indian Army and in 1979, the 1st battalion was the Commonwealth's most decorated battalion with 245 pre-independence and 8 ...

. In the early days of the 1962

Sino-Indian War The Sino-Indian War took place between China and India from October to November 1962, as a major flare-up of the Sino-Indian border dispute. There had been a series of violent border skirmishes between the two countries after the 1959 Tibet ...

, Kaushik was commanding the forward company at the Battle of Bumla along the border between India and China when the Chinese People's Liberation Army invaded on 23 October. During heavy combat with much larger enemy forces, he led a successful retreat, saving the unit's heavy machine guns and mortars. Kaushik was awarded the

Vir Chakra Vir Chakra (pronunciation: ʋ iː ɾ a tʃ a kɾa) is an Indian wartime military bravery award presented for acts of conspicuous gallantry in the presence of the enemy on the battlefield and is third in precedence in wartime gallantry awards a ...

for "exemplary courage and self-disregard" on the battlefield. He rose to the rank of

lieutenant-colonel Lieutenant colonel ( , ) is a rank of commissioned officers in the armies, most marine forces and some air forces of the world, above a major and below a colonel. Several police forces in the United States use the rank of lieutenant colo ...

. Haripal Stadium at the Indian Army's

Mechanised Infantry Regimental Centre Mechanization is the process of changing from working largely or exclusively by hand or with animals to doing that work with machinery. In an early engineering text a machine is defined as follows: In some fields, mechanization includes the ...

in Ahmednagar is named in his honor.

Vir Chakra

The citation for the

awarded to him reads:

Family and later years

He was married to Prem Bala Kaushik, who died before him. They had one daughter, Veronica. He died at his home in the

Jalandhar Jalandhar is the third most-populous city in the Indian state of Punjab and the largest city in Doaba region. Jalandhar lies alongside the Grand Trunk Road and is a well-connected rail and road junction. Jalandhar is northwest of the state ...

cantonment, after suffering from dementia for several years.

References

External links

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Braveheart and hockey wizard, farewell: Lt Col Haripal Kaushik was a rare combination of valour and sporting proficiency
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kaushik, Haripal 1934 births 2018 deaths Field hockey players from Jalandhar Olympic field hockey players of India Olympic gold medalists for India Field hockey players at the 1956 Summer Olympics Field hockey players at the 1964 Summer Olympics Indian male field hockey players Recipients of the Arjuna Award Olympic medalists in field hockey Asian Games medalists in field hockey Field hockey players at the 1966 Asian Games Medalists at the 1964 Summer Olympics Medalists at the 1956 Summer Olympics Deaths from dementia in India Asian Games gold medalists for India Medalists at the 1966 Asian Games