Ittefaq. Ittemad. Qurbani

OR: The Sanskritisation of our Armed Forces

When the revolutionary army of Azad Hind (INA), initially set up by Mohan Singh and Rash Behari, and later revitalised by Subhas Bose, was formed, they borrowed much of their terminology from Hindustani/ Urdu. The very name of the force (Azad Hind Fauj), its gallantry awards (Sher-e-Hind; Tamgha-e-Bahaduri; Sardar-e-Jung; Sanad-e-Bahaduri); and even its motto (Ittefaq (Unity) Ittemad (Faith) Qurbani (Sacrifice)) were all borrowed from Hindustani. These were probably terms inspired by the Mughal army, which was the single biggest Indian resistance force to the British before the INA came about.

The Indian army, on the other hand, those who were the inheritors of the British Indian Army, inexplicably seems to have ignored Mughal terms and gone all the way back to the pre-Muslim period. The army is Bharatiya Sena (rather than 'fauj'), missiles are called Prithvi and Agni (in obeisance to the Vedic gods); gallantry awards (Param Vir Chakra), and important days (Vijay Diwas)... all these are explicitly Sanskritic/ Hindu. I even noticed one motto near an army division which said, in Sanskrit, 'Truth alone triumphs', or some such absurdity.

I wouldn't say the army is communal, or that this Sankritisation is deliberate. The army is one of the few non-communal institutions in India. Perhaps those who coined these terms were just deferring sub-consciously to a mythical Golden Age. But I wonder what this does to a Muslim soldier in the Indian army -- the language and the idiom are not his. Does he feel alienated a result? I wonder if his legacy -- the legacy of the Muslim effort in Indian independence -- had been accorded any place in the Indian army or other defence forces.

Meanwhile, to those who question the INA's contributions to Indian independence, it would do them good to remember that our national hallelujah 'Jai Hind' was coined by Bose's secretary Abid Hassan in Germany (how this will rankle the Hindu right-wingers!), and that our current version of the national anthem was in fact composed at Bose's insistence, again in Germany.