Commissions - Genesis

The East India Company had its own native Army in India and its units were commanded by British Officers only. After the 1857 Sepoy Mutiny , or our First war of Independence, the control of all resources of the Company was taken over by the Crown by promulgation of the the Government of India Act 1858. The native Army was rechristened ' The British Indian Army' and re-organised on the lines of the British Army. The Era of the British Raj commenced and new units were raised with the native population to augment its strength. The Officers were still Britishers. Indians were not eligible for commission as officers in the British Indian Army .

The British officers had scant regard for the safety and welfare of the Indian troops they commanded. The avoidable casualties in the Afghan wars and later in Mesopotamia during the First World War ( about these in later blogs in detail) where Indian soldiers proved their mettle whereas their British commanders were wanting , lead to a rethink in their minds . The British permitted ten Indians per year to undergo officer training at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst to become officers of in the British Indian Army through King's Commission.

 However, the British permitted only the royal families of the Indian princely states and nobility  to admit their wards to the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst through British feeder public Schools . A quota system was followed as to the number of wards who could gain admission into  Sandhurst.  

 Lord Curzon , in 1905  divided  Bengal  into East and West , East having a majority of Muslim population and the West a majority of Hindus. This was the beginning of their  'Divide and Rule' policy.  There were huge protests through out India against this division on religious lines and these were put down with an iron hand by Lord Curzon.

John Morley, the Secretary of State for India, and the Earl of Minto, felt that  while cracking down on the uprising in Bengal was necessary but  to stabilize the British Raj from the growing  popularity of the Congress and its demand for Home Rule , a dramatic step was required to ensure support from the  loyal elements of the Indian upper classes and the growing Westernised section of the population. The Indian Councils Act 1909 , commonly known as the Morley-Minto Reforms, was promulgated as  an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom to bring about a limited increase in the involvement of Indians in the governance of British India.

 As a sequel to Minto- Morley reforms, it was felt by the Indian upper class that the intake of Indians as officers of the British Indian Army also need to be enhanced. It was felt that a public School on the lines of British public School must be established in India with the sole aim of preparing boys for their entry into Sandhurst since only the Princely state could afford to send their wards to public schools in England. Sir PS Sivaswamy Aiyer,  who was a member of the Council proposed  a bill  to that effect. This was vehemently opposed by nominated British members in the council as well as some of the  Dewans / regents of the princely states. However Sir P. S. Sivaswamy Aiyer forcefully argued for its introduction and got the bill introduced and passed at an opportune time when some of the strong opponents were holidaying in Simla. 

 Prince Edward, The Prince of Wales, inaugurated the school on 13 March, 1922, naming it the Prince of Wales Royal Indian Military College. The name was changed in 1947 to Rashtriya  Indian Military College  after Independence. The RIMC in 1922 was run on the lines of an English public school - Wellock College, a feeder to Sandhurst. 

Apart from Royals, many from the length and breadth of the country have passed out of  RIMC and commissioned in the British Indian Army and later through the Indian Military academy. Most of them reached very high ranks in the Armed forces of India and Pakistan. When the assets of British Indian Armed forces were divided between in India and Pakistan during partition at the time of Independence, RIMC was left untouched.

The Indian Military Academy:

Despite the vehement opposition to increase the induction of more Indians in the Officer cadre, During the First Round Table Conference in 1930, Indian leaders pressed for this issue. The establishment of an Indian officer training college in India was one of the few concessions made at the conference though other political demands were not heeded to. The Indian Military College Committee was set up under the chairmanship of Field Marshal Philip Chetwode which recommended the establishment of an Armed Forces Academy in Dehradun to produce 80 commissioned officers per a year after a two and a half year training. The yearly training was split into Summer and Spring Terms.

 Brigadier L.P. Collins was appointed the first Commandant and the first batch of 40 Gentleman Cadets  began their training on 1 October 1932. The institution was formally  inaugurated on 10 December 1932,  by Field Marshal Chetwode who was then the Commander-in-Chief of the British Indian Army. The alumni of the first batch to pass out of the academy in December 1934, now known as the Pioneers, included Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw, General Muhammad Musa and Lieutenant General Smith Dun, who became the Army Chiefs of India, Pakistan and Burma, respectively later on.

The National Defence Academy:

 At the end of the Second World War , Field Marshal Claude Auchinleck, then Commander-in-Chief of the Indian Army,  after  a serious and involved study of  various Military academies around the world submitted a report to the Government of India in December 1946. The committee recommended the establishment of a Joint Services Military Academy, with training modeled on the United States Military Academy at West Point.

After the independence , the Auchinleck Report was taken up by the Chiefs of Staff Committee in India, which immediately implemented the recommendations. The committee initiated an action plan in late 1947 to commission a permanent defence academy and began the search for a site to build the academy. In the interim , a Joint Services Wing (JSW),  was started on 1 January 1949 at the Armed Forces Academy (now known as the Indian Military Academy) in Dehradun. Initially, after two years of training at the JSW, Army cadets went on to the Military wing of the AFA for a further two-year pre-commission training, while the Navy and Air Force cadets were sent to Britannia Royal Naval College (BRNC)   Dartmouth and The Royal Air Force College (RAFC)   Cranwell in the United Kingdom for further training respectively.

While the Army officers continued their training at Dehradun, the Naval and Air force officers  went to the United kingdom. (  This, as one of reasons for the superiority complex among Naval and Air Force Officers will be discussed in a subsequent post).

The foundation stone for the NDA was laid by then Prime Minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru on 6 October 1949. The National Defence Academy was formally commissioned on 7 December 1954, with an inauguration ceremony held on 16 January 1955. The JSW was transferred from the AFA Dehradun to the NDA.

The NDA campus is located about 17 km south-west of Pune city, north-west of Khadakwasla Lake. It was donated by the Government of the erstwhile Bombay State. The site was chosen for being on a lake shore, the suitability of the neighboring hilly terrain for training, proximity to the Arabian Sea and other military establishments, an operational air base nearby at Lohegaon as well as the salubrious climate. The existence of an old combined-forces training centre and a disused mock landing ship, HMS Angostura, on the north bank of the Khadakwasla lake which had been used to train troops for amphibious landings, lent additional leverage for the selection of the site. The Sinhagad Fort of the legendary Shivaji lends an apt and panoramic backdrop.