Marshall Major General Cariappa and Nana

Here is another photograph scanned from one of many of the archival negatives . This is a rare photo of my Nana and his family with Field Marshall Major General Cariappa (the first Army commander in chief of the Indian armed forces). In this photo, my mother is standing on the extreme left, Nana is sitting beside him on the right. The answer to my simple query about this photo was rather simple – they were friends.

Apparently Major General Cariappa had gone into conflict with the first government in power post independence about many things. Here is one quoted in wikipedia:

“Several measures taken by Cariappa, such as his refusal to induct former Indian National Army personnel into the Army, kept the organisation out of political affairs and maintained its autonomy despite being put under a lot of pressure by Nehru. Nehru only relented when he threatened to resign. However INA’s slogan Jai Hind which means “Victory to India”, was adopted by Cariappa and later it became a formal phrase between personnel to greet each other.”

Sadly, today we have a politicised police force, army, all state and central offices, administration, school boards, syllabus and everything possible is being politicised. No one with position and power is standing up against the authoritarian rule anywhere in the world.

Narayan Rao Kulkarni, my Nana, continues to intrigue me.

Photo copyright ©️ Srikanth Kulkarni