Gopal Gurunath Bewoor General Gopal Gurunath Bewoor ( 11 August 1917 to 24 October 1989 ) Marathi - जनरल गोपाळ गुरुनाथ बेवूर / ಜನರಲ್ ಗೋಪಾಲ್ ಗುರುನಾಥ್ ಬೇವೂರ್ PVSM ( 11 August 1916 – 24 October 1989 ) was an officer of the Indian Army who served as the 9th Chief of Army Staff . In a long service spanning four decades , General Bewoor saw action during World War II and later was involved in Indian Army operations during the 1965 as well as 1971 Indo - Pakistani war . He succeeded Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw as the Army chief in January 1973 and following his retirement from the army , served as the Indian Ambassador to Denmark till 1979 . Family and education . Born at Seoni ( Now in Madhya Pradesh ) on 11 August 1916 , Gopal Gurunath Bewoor was the son of Sir Gurunath Venkatesh Bewoor ICS and Rukmini Bewoor . He followed his elder brother Madhav ( who later died in action in World War II ) into Prince of Wales Royal Indian Military College ( RIMC ) , Dehradun in 1928 and later the Indian Military Academy . A part of the Kitchener section , Gopal was appointed Cadet Captain in 1934 . He also won Lord Rawlinson ' s trophy during this time . Commissioned into the Indian Army . Bewoor was commissioned a Second Lieutenant on the Special List , Indian Land Forces on 15 July 1937 . On 10 August 1937 he was attached to the 2nd battalion Green Howards Regiment and saw action during operations in Waziristan . On 10 August 1938 he was admitted to the Indian Army and posted to 5th Battalion 10th Baluch Regiment ( now 12 Baloch ) , with which he saw action in Burma . His senority as a Second Lieutenant was antedated to 30 August 1936 and he was promoted Lieutenant 30 November 1938 . In July 1945 , he was transferred from the 5th Baluch and went on to attend the Staff College course at Quetta and then he was appointed as the Under Secretary ( Military ) to the Viceroy ’ s Coordination Council . He was the only Indian Officer to have achieved this feat . At Independence in 1947 , Bewoor was the Secretary of the Army Partition Committee in 1947 , which determined the allotment of weapons , equipment and regiments that were to remain in India or to be allotted to Pakistan . Since his parent regiment - the Baluch - went to Pakistan , he was transferred to the Dogra Regiment and promoted to Lieutenant Colonel in December 1947 . With a view to imparting basic military training to school and college students , he was appointed as the Director of the NCC ( National Cadet Corps in April 1948 with the rank of full Colonel . Promoted to general rank . He was promoted to the rank of Brigadier in 1951 , later assuming command of the 80th Infantry Brigade in Jammu & Kashmir . He was appointed as the Director , Personnel Services at Army HQ in August 1953 . In February 1959 at the age of 42 years and 6 months he was promoted to Major General as the first Chief of Staff at the Western Command HQ in Shimla . He is believed to be the youngest ever Major General in the Indian Army . He assumed the appointment of the Colonel of the 11 Gorkha Rifles on 25 May 1960 . He was then appointed as the GOC of the 27th Infantry Division in February 1961 at Jalandhar . Later he moved this division to Kalimpong ( West Bengal ) in the wake of the 1962 Sino - Indian War . In June 1963 , he was appointed as the Director of Military Training at Army HQ and remained there till November 1964 . He was promoted as General Officer Commanding 33 Corps at Siliguri in November 1964 with the rank of Lieutenant General . He moved to Army HQ in May 1967 , as the Deputy Chief of Army Staff ( DCAS ) and held that appointment till June 1969 . As DCAS , he was awarded Param Vishist Seva Medal ( PVSM ) for his meritorious services . However , he has been later criticized for his role in changing the General Staff Qualitative Requirement ( GSQR ) for evaluation of anti - tank missiles which resulted in the purchase of the SS11B1 from France ' s Aerospatiale and the death of a competing indigenous DRDO Anti Tank Missile project . In July 1969 , he assumed the appointment of General Officer Commanding – in – Chief , Southern Command . During the Indo - Pakistani War of 1971 , the Indian military strategy was mainly defensive on the Western Front , while attacking in the Eastern Sector , culminating in the surrender of Dacca and the secession of East Pakistan into the newly formed Bangladesh . Bewoor ' s Southern Command was tasked with maintaining a front from Bikaner southwestwards to the Arabian Sea . This command was divided into 4 sectors : Bikaner , Jaisalmer , Barmer and Kutch . The first two sectors were manned by 12 Division with 11 Division holding Barmer and Kutch . In addition it was supported by an armoured regiment , two independent armoured squadrons , and one missile squadron . For his command of operations in the Rajasthan Sector , Bewoor was awarded the Padma Bhushan , India ' s third highest civilian honour . As Chief of Army Staff . He succeeded the popular SHFJ Sam Maneckshaw , the victor of Bangladesh as Army Chief on 15 January 1973 and held that appointment for two years and four months till his retirement on 31 May 1975 . Soon after taking office Bewoor was told of one of the most significant developments in the history of Indian defence policy , of which the Indian Army and the Defence Ministry were previously in the dark , namely the Department of Atomic Energy ' s plans to detonate a nuclear device . The project codenamed Smiling Buddha had been underway from 1967 under the leadership of Raja Ramanna . The task of sinking the shaft for the test was assigned to the 61 Engineering Regiment stationed in Jodhpur . Ramanna first contacted the regiment commander , Lt . Col . Subherwal , in May 1973 to dig the shaft . In June 1973 Prime Minister Indira Gandhi took General Bewoor into confidence and ordered him to support the project . After an initial setback - the finding of water at the first drill site - the location of the test was shifted to the village of Malki near Pokhran , Rajasthan . Bewoor was personally present at the test site and witnessed the actual nuclear explosion of 18 May 1974 . He was the first to inform the Prime Minister ' s Office via a telephone call to D . P . Dhar . A . Parthasarthi however claims in 1974 he found a note written from the PM ( without her characteristic green - ink initials ) to Bewoor dated as early as 15 November 1972 asking for the Army ' s co - operation . This must be viewed with some skepticism , since Bewoor was not the COAS on the purported date of this note . After retirement . He served as the Honorary Colonel of the Dogra Regiment up to 11 August 1979 . After retirement , he served as the Indian Ambassador to Denmark , from February 1976 to March 1978 . He served as a member of the Senate of the University of Pune , for two years from August 1979 onwards . He was also on the Board of Directors of Kirloskar Oil Engines & Vickers Sperry of Pune . Besides , he was often invited to give talks on leadership and military matters by various educational societies . He died on 24 October 1989 . The street in Koregaon Park , Pune where the general lived after retirement is named General Bewoor Path after him . Family . General Bewoor was married to Radhika Gokhale on 12 March 1943 . They had two sons and a daughter . His son Group Captain Anant Bewoor ( Retd ) , served in the Indian Air Force and saw action with the IPKF in Sri Lanka and during the Siachen operations , and was the Commanding Officer ( CO ) of the 44th squadron , which flies the IL - 76 heavy - lift military transport aircraft . His younger son , Keshav Bewoor , is also an Air Force officer , and retired from service in the rank of Air Vice Marshal . Arun Bewoor , former Managing Director , International Flavors and Fragrances is the son of his late brother Madhav Gurunath Bewoor . Meenakshi Bakhle ( wife of D . S . Bakhle , ICS ) was General Bewoor ' s sister . She was a president of the Maharashtra State Women ' s Council . For her ( minor ) role in the Samyukta Maharashtra controversy in 1956 she was famously referred to as कोमडी चोमडी मिनाक्षी ( " Komdi Chomdi Meenakshi " ) by " Acharya " Prahlad Keshav Atre and satirized as a अति विशाल महिला ( " Ati Vishaal Mahilaa " ) in the famous P . L . Deshpande 1957 play तुझे आहे तुजपाशी ( " Tujhe Ahe Tujapashi " ) .