Rifleman Jaswant Singh Rawat

Rifleman Jaswant Singh Rawat

News: The Lansdowne Cantonment Board has decided to rename the hill station of Lansdowne in Uttarakhand, India, as Jaswantgarh in honour of Rifleman Jaswant Singh Rawat.

Who was Rifleman Jaswant Singh Rawat?
• Rifleman Jaswant Singh Rawat was an Indian Army soldier who served in the Garhwal Rifles and was awarded the prestigious Maha Vir Chakra posthumously as a result of his actions during the battle of Nuranang in present-day Arunachal Pradesh, India, during the Sino-Indian War.

What was his contribution in the Sino-India war?
• On 17 November 1962, he was part of the Delta company that was defending a post near Nuranang against the Chinese invasion. He volunteered to subdue a Chinese medium machine gun (MMG) that was firing accurately at their position. Along with two other soldiers, he managed to capture the MMG and kill five Chinese sentries, but lost his companions in the process. He returned with the captured weapon and continued to fight.
• When his company decided to fall back, he refused to retreat and stayed at his post with the help of two local girls named Sela and Noora, who supplied him with ammunition and food. He moved from bunker to bunker, firing at the enemy and creating an impression of a large force. He held off the enemy for 72 hours, killing more than 300 Chinese soldiers.
• He is revered as a hero and a legend by the Indian Army and the locals. A memorial has been built at his post, which is named Jaswant Garh. He is treated as a serving officer by the army, with a hut, a bed, shoes, letters, and five jawans posted at his post.
• A Buddhist temple has also been constructed at the spot where he died. The Sela Pass and Sela Tunnel are named after Sela, one of the girls who helped him.

Who was Lord Lansdowne? What were some of his contributions?
• Lord Lansdowne was the Governor-General and Viceroy of India from 1888 to 1894.
• He introduced the Indian Councils Act of 1892.
• He abolished the Statutory Civil Service based on the recommendations of the Aitchison Commission (1889) and categorized the government’s civilian officers into three classes – Imperial, Provincial and Subordinate Civil Service.
• He passed the Age of Consent Act of 1891, which raised the age of consent for sexual intercourse for all girls, married or unmarried, from ten to twelve years in all jurisdictions, with violations punishable as rape.
• He set up the Durand Commission (1893) to demarcate the border between British India and Afghanistan, which came to be known as the Durand Line.
• He issued a royal commission (1893) to inquire into the effects of opium consumption in India, and the possibility of prohibiting it.
• He established Lansdowne as a cantonment town in Uttarakhand in 1890, after renaming it from Kaludanda (Black Hills) in honour of himself. It became the headquarters of the Garhwal Rifles regiment, which he had raised in 1887.