Jayanto Nath Chaudhuri

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General Jayanto Nath Chaudhuri OBE
Chief of Army Staff (India)
In office 20 November 1962 – 7 June 1966
Preceded by	General PN Thapar
Succeeded by	General PP Kumaramangalam
High Commissioner to Canada
In office July 1966 – August 1969
Preceded by	B. K. Acharya
Succeeded by	A.B. Bhadkamkar
Military Governor of Hyderabad State
In office 1948–1949
Personal details
Born	10 June 1908
Died	6 April 1983 (aged 74)
Military career
Nickname(s)	Muchhu
Allegiance	British India  India
Service/branch	British Indian Army  Indian Army
Years of service	Feb 1928 - Jun 1966
Rank	General
Service number	IA-130[1]
Unit	7th Light Cavalry 16 Light Cavalry
Commands held	Southern Army 1st Armoured Division Director of Military Operations and Intelligence 16 Light Cavalry
Battles/wars	Second World War East African Campaign Western Desert Campaign Burma Campaign 1944–45 Indo-Pakistani War of 1947 Operation Polo Indo-Pakistan War of 1965
Awards	Padma Vibhushan Order of the British Empire

General Jayanto Nath Chaudhuri, OBE (10 June 1908 – 6 April 1983) was an Indian four-star general who served as the Chief of Army Staff of the Indian Army from 1962 to 1966 and the Military Governor of Hyderabad State from 1948 to 1949. After his retirement from the Indian Army, he served as the Indian High Commissioner to Canada from 19 July 1966 until August 1969.^[2]

Family background and early life[edit]

Chaudhuri was born into an aristocratic and distinguished Bengali family which produced many renowned lawyers and writers. His family were the Zamindars (landlords) of Haripur and the family was known as the Chaudhuris of Haripur in the province of Bengal, British India. Choudhary's paternal grandfather, Durgadas Choudhary, was the landlord of Chatmohar Upazila of Pabna district of present-day Bangladesh. His paternal grandmother, Sukumari Devi (wife of Durgadas), was a sister of the nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore. Choudhary's mother, Pramila Choudhary, was the daughter of Womesh Chandra Bonnerjee, who was the first president of the Indian National Congress.

Other members of Choudhary's family were also distinguished in their fields, mainly law, medicine and literature. Indeed, all six of his father's elder brothers, namely Sir Asutosh Chaudhuri (distinguished judge during the British Raj), Jogesh Chaudhuri, Kumudnath Chaudhuri (barrister), Pramathanath Chaudhuri (distinguished writer), Capt. Manmathanath Chaudhuri (first Indian surgeon-general of Madras Presidency) and Dr. Suhridnath Chaudhuri, were distinguished their own right. Two of them (Sir Asutosh and Pramathanath) were married to their first cousins (mother's brother's daughters), the nieces of Rabindranath Tagore, and the others received brides from other distinguished Bengali families.

The pioneering Indian actress, Devika Rani, was Chaudhari's first cousin, being the daughter of his father's brother Dr. Manmathnath Choudhary. Among Choudhary's other close relatives were Barrister Kumud Nath Chaudhuri and Raisahib Babu Narendra Krishna Talukdar, Zamindar of Maligacha and honorary first class magistrate for Pabna District, Rajshahi. Noted writer Pramatha Chaudhuri, who married a niece of Nobel laureate poet Rabindranath Tagore, was his uncle.

Chaudhuri studied at St. Xavier's College, Calcutta of the University of Calcutta in the city of Kolkata, at Highgate School in London from May 1923 until July 1926,^[3] and the Royal Military College, Sandhurst. At Sandhurst, he got his nickname "Muchhu" (owing to his rich mustachios).

Early career[edit]

He was commissioned from Sandhurst as a second lieutenant onto the Unattached List, Indian Army 2 February 1928.^[4] Returning to India, he was attached to the 1st battalion North Staffordshire Regiment from 19 March 1928. He was accepted for the Indian Army and joined the 7th Light Cavalry on 19 March 1929.^[5] In 1934, he attended the course at the Equitation School, Saugor. He attended the Staff course at Command and Staff College, Quetta from December 1939 to June 1940.

In 1940, as an acting major, he went overseas on the staff of the 5th Infantry Division and saw service in Sudan, Eritrea, Abyssinia and the western deserts of Africa. For his services, he was Mentioned in Dispatches on 30 December 1941, for distinguished services in the Middle East Feb to July 1941,^[6] and again on 30 June 1942 for the same from July to October 1941.^[7] He was awarded the OBE on 18 February 1943 for gallant and distinguished services in the Middle East between May to Oct 1942.^[8] Recalled to India, he was appointed as a senior Instructor at the Command and Staff College, Quetta as a GSO-1 in 1943.

In August 1944 he was transferred to the 16th Light Cavalry. Then a temporary Lieut-Colonel, he commanded this unit from September 1944 to October 1945 in Burma for which he was twice more Mentioned in Dispatches, (London Gazette 9/5/46) for gallant and distinguished services in Burma (Temporary Lt-Col 16th Light Cavalry) and (London Gazette 17/9/46) for gallant and distinguished services in Burma (Temporary Lt-Col, Indian Armoured Corps). At the end of the Burma campaign, he saw service in French Indochina and in Java, Indonesia with his regiment.

In 1946, he was promoted to the temporary rank of Brigadier with the war-substantive rank of lieutenant-colonel, in Charge of Administration in British Malaya and in the same year was selected to command the Indian Victory Contingent to London.

Post-Independence career[edit]

Following a course at the Imperial Defence College in London in 1947, he returned to India and was appointed Director of Military Operations & Intelligence at Army Headquarters in New Delhi in November 1947. Chaudhuri worked with Major General Mohite to complete military evacuation from Pakistan. He had to organise the Kashmir war effort up to May 1948, when he was succeeded by the then Brig. Sam Manekshaw as DMO and Chand Narayan Das as Director of Military Intelligence. In February 1948, he was promoted to acting Major General and became the officiating Chief of the General Staff.

Major General Syed Ahmed El Edroos (at right) offers his surrender of the Hyderabad State Forces to Major General (later General and Army Chief) J. N. Chaudhuri at Secunderabad

(From left to right): Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, Nizam VII and Jayanto Nath Chaudhuri after Hyderabad's accession to India

In May 1948, he took over command of the 1st Armoured Division which played a major role in the 1948 Hyderabad Operations. Following Operation Polo in 1948, he was appointed as the Military Governor of Hyderabad State. In the years following, he occupied important military posts and led an Indian Military Delegation to China. In 1949, he was appointed as the first Colonel Commandant of the Electrical & Mechanical Engineers, and was promoted to substantive brigadier on 1 January 1950.^[1] In January 1952, he was appointed as the Adjutant General, Army HQ, as a substantive major-general, and in January 1953, he again took over as the Chief of the General Staff. He was promoted to local lieutenant-general on 16 December 1955 and given command of a corps,^[9] with promotion to substantive lieutenant-general on 8 May 1957.^[10] He was appointed GOC-in-C Southern Command on 25 May 1959.^[11]

Chief of the Army Staff[edit]

The debacle of the Sino-Indian War and subsequent government inquiries revealing India's military unpreparedness and mismanagement resulted in the Chief of the Army Staff (COAS) Pran Nath Thapar's resignation on 19 November 1962. On 20 November, Chaudhuri succeeded Thapar as officiating COAS with the acting rank of general.^[12] Chaudhuri was officially appointed COAS on 20 February 1963,^[13] and was promoted to substantive general on 20 July 1963.^[14] He retired on 7 June 1966, after completing 38 years of military service. For his services to the nation, he was presented with the Padma Vibhushan - India's second highest civilian honour — by the President of India.

Later years[edit]

Subsequently, Chaudhuri served as the Indian High Commissioner to Canada. He wrote two books on military matters and served as a literary reviewer for a leading Indian daily The Statesman. He was the first Indian army chief to write an autobiography in 1979. He loved Western music and founded and was first president of the Delhi Symphony Society, an organization that promoted Western music. Chaudhuri was married to Karuna Chattopadhyay, with whom he had two sons. He died on 6 April 1983.

Awards and Decorations[edit]

Dates of rank[edit]

Insignia	Rank	Component	Date of rank
	Second Lieutenant	British Indian Army	2 February 1928[4]
	Lieutenant	British Indian Army	2 May 1930[15][16]
	Captain	British Indian Army	2 February 1937[17]
	Major	British Indian Army	1940 (acting) 22 September 1941 (temporary)[18] 8 February 1943 (war-substantive)[19] 2 February 1945 (substantive)[20]
	Lieutenant-Colonel	British Indian Army	22 September 1941 (acting)[18] 8 February 1943 (temporary)[19] 1946 (war-substantive)[1]
	Major	Indian Army	15 August 1947[note 1][21]
	Major-General	Indian Army	February 1948 (acting)[note 1]
	Brigadier	Indian Army	1946 (temporary) 1 January 1950 (substantive)[1][note 1]
	Brigadier	Indian Army	26 January 1950 (recommissioning and change in insignia)[21][22]
	Major General	Indian Army	January 1952 (substantive)
	Lieutenant-General	Indian Army	16 December 1955 (local)[9] 8 May 1957 (substantive)[10]
	General (COAS)	Indian Army	20 November 1962 (acting)[12] 20 July 1963 (substantive)[14]

See also[edit]

• Indian Army

Notes[edit]

References[edit]

• London Gazette (various dates)
• Indian Army List (various dates)
• Pradeep P. Barua, Gentlemen of the Raj: The Indian Army Officer Corps, 1817-1949

External links[edit]

• http://www.archives.lib.soton.ac.uk/mbindex/index179.shtml
• [1]
• Indian Army Bio