Browning chief. [volume] (Browning, Mont.) 1941-1953, 1945-09-07
Washington Digest
India S Army Force
For Unifying Country
Common Language and Habits Tend to Break
Down Former Preiudices; Troops Take
Leadership in Communal Affairs.
BY BAUKHAGE
Nesus analyst and Commentator.

no AOHSHGxStQbOFs
| country - Something" he said,
(which every one of our soldiers
who has been fighting for the ideals
OF the United Nations expects" Like
his fellow-countrymen and the Brit
tsh officers with whom have talked,
General Cariappa Is proud Of the
seeds Of unity which have been sown
In the army.
In the first place, the army speaks
and also reads and writes one Ian
guage. Most of the soldiers when
they enlist are Of the peasant class
and are illiterate. When their train
Ing commences they are immedi-
ately taught to read and write In
Roman Urdu, which Is a sinplified
Hindustani written with English (Ro-
MANI letters. Aside from the value
of eradicating illiteracy, the lmowl-
edge and use Of a common language
removes one Of the chief obstacles
to harmony and understanding
among the people. There are II
principal languages and 100 dia-
lects spoken In India.) Many preju-
dices 60 when the language barrier
Is broken down. When the war II
over at least ~ million Indians will
have the bond of a common tongue.
But more than that, they will have
lived together, eaten together, in the
field at least, lived in close COM
panionship in barracks and devel-
oped teamwork and tolerance. There
has been some suggestion that Basic
English be made the official Ian
guage of the army in India, and
while, for the present, Hindustani
appears more practical, the for
mer has been taught on a large
scale.
General Cariappa has a sense Of
humor and perfect command Of
English (basic, colloquial and clas-
sic) in which to express it. (He went
to school in England as boy.) He
told me the following story to il
lustrate the ramifications of the Ian
guage problem in the Indian army:
A young British officer remarked
to his native sergeant that it was
really remarkable that in his COM
paratively small unit of only 800
men, six different languages were
spoken.
"Oh, more than that, SIR" the SER
geant answered. Mine different
languages are spoken here. There
are the six provincial languages.
Then there is English, which you and
l speak. Then there is Hindustani,
which we all must speak. Then
there is YOUR Hindustani."
Army With a
Language Problem
1t is true that most of the Indian
army has remained within the con.
tlnental limits of the country, but
that is not really strange, General
Cariappa explained, since it takes
10 men "in the tail' as he put it,
to keep one fighting man going.
Many foreigners, seeing so many
uniforms in India, received the i'm.
preston that the whole army was
Sitting down." These men, OF
course, are not combat troops held
back for political or other reasons,
the general said, but are largely the
work troops, the great service OF
supply required to keep the armies
in the field going.
The general claims that Indian
soldiers are second to none as fight.
ing men. The greater proportion nj
them are Madrashi, not at all the
traditional fighting tribes who in the
past have constituted what was
called the martial race" Thai
term, long outmoded, has long since
been dropped. The excuse for it's
use disappeared much earlier.
In the past there may have been
some basis for this concept. Fight
ing begets fighters. As the British
conquest of India moved SLOWLY
northward it left peace behind Il.
but 'ignited war ahead of it. So
the northerners were the last whose
vocation, or at least avocation, was
mortal combat. The southerners re-
turned to the gentler arts. But to
return to the, general. He quoted
that truism which all military men
know is sound: "There are no had
soldiers. There are only bad Of
Let me end this column as I be-
gan it. If General Cariappa is typ
ical OF midas officers, there Is hope,
not only for powerful Indian army
which I, with the rest of you, pray
India will never need, but hope that
here among these ~ million men
who have found common tongue
and a common purpose has been
planted the leven Of tolerance that
may bring about the unity of free
India