In 1961, the government of Portugal offered a reward of $10,000 for anyone who could capture Sagat Singh, an Indian brigadier and the liberator of the Indian state of Goa, previously a Portuguese territory. Posters depicting him as a “wanted man” even sprung up all over Lisbon! His biography, written by his aide-de-camp (later Major General) Randhir Sinh in 1971, is aptly titled A Talent for War.

Singh’s rise to military success

Singh was born in Kusumdesar Village in the Churu region of the Bikaner Kingdom on July 14, 1919, to Brijlal Singh Rathore, a soldier, and his wife Jadao Kanwar. In 1938, after his intermediate exam, Singh was enrolled as a Naik, or corporal, in the Bikaner State Forces. When World War II broke out, he received a commission as a Second Lieutenant from the King. In 1949, he was absorbed into the Indian Army with the Third Gorkha Rifles Regiment. 

In 1961, Singh was promoted to the rank of brigadier and was given the command of India’s paratroopers, the 50th Parachute Brigade. “Operation Vijay,” the plan for the liberation of Goa from the Portuguese, commenced on December 17, 1961. Although the 50th Parachute Brigade was given a secondary role in the original operational plan, their rapid advance and initiative under Singh’s dynamic leadership made them the first to reach Panjim, the capital of Goa. On the morning of December 19, Panjim fell to the brigade. Portuguese Governor General and Commander-in-Chief Major General Vassalo De’ Silva fled to Marmagao but later surrendered. At 11 AM, Singh’s forces hoisted the Indian tricolor on the Secretariat Building at Panjim.

Refusal to retreat led to one of India’s greatest victories

Singh’s success did not stop there. In 1965, China issued an ultimatum to India to vacate the border outposts of Nathu La and Jelep La in Sikkim. Above him in the military hierarchy was Lieutenant General Sam Manekshaw, the Eastern Army Commander, and Lieutenant General Jagjit Singh Aurora, commander of the XXXIII corps, who were responsible for Sikkim. Singh, now a major general, was the General Officer Commanding (GOC) of the 17th Mountain Division, which controlled Nathu La. Orders given to the 17th and 27th Divisions required that they vacate the outposts and fall back to the main defenses in the case of hostilities.

The GOC of the 27th (deployed to the east of the 17th) pulled back from Jelep La. Thus, Jelep La fell to the Chinese. To this day, the vital pass leading to the Chumbi Valley is still with China. Singh, however, refused to pull back. From August to September 1967, the Chinese tried their best to make Indians withdraw from Nathu La, but Singh made his forces hold on even though he could have vacated this outpost. During this engagement, both sides suffered casualties, but Nathu La gave a bloody nose to the Chinese under Singh’s audacious leadership. The victory helped the nation and the army overcome some regrets of the military defeat in the 1962 Sino-Indian War.

Perhaps Singh’s insistence on defending Nathu La led to him being given a non-operational command, the 101st Communications Zone in Shillong. However, this general with “a talent for war” had the uncanny quality of winding up in military operations. By this time, the Mizo separatist rebellion, orchestrated by the Mizo National Front, had begun. Since the area was under his responsibility, Singh set counter-insurgency operations into motion in Mizoram. His quick thinking quelled the rebellion for some time. Mizoram became an Indian state much later, in 1986. Mizoram is the rare example of a successful counter-insurgency operation, all thanks to the initial sagacious operational approach set by Singh.

The liberation of Bangladesh is Singh’s crowning glory

In December 1970, Singh was promoted to lieutenant general and assigned the command of the IV Corps. The hierarchy above Sagat was the same as it was in Nathu La in 1967: Aurora was now the Eastern Army commander and Manekshaw the army chief. 

Initially, the plans for the liberation of Bangladesh did not involve the capture of Dacca (now Dhaka), the capital of Bangladesh. The plan was to liberate areas up to the major rivers surrounding Dacca and thereafter to declare Bangladesh liberated. The army headquarters’ directive to Eastern Command did not envision Dacca as the final objective of the campaign in the east.

Singh was ordered to advance up to River Meghna from Tripura in the East and capture areas up to the river line. He was ordered not to cross the Meghna. However, military genius that he was, Singh clearly identified the two centers of gravity of the campaign: the fall of Dacca and the capitulation of all Pakistani forces in East Pakistan. Undaunted by the massive Meghna, Singh launched the first-ever Indian heliborne operation across the river. His IV Corps raced to Dacca in a blitzkrieg. This led to the fall of the city and the capture of 93,000 Pakistani soldiers. It would perhaps have been appropriate for Singh, seeing as it was he who captured Dacca, rather than Aurora to have accepted the surrender of Pakistani forces from Lieutenant General Amir Abdullah Khan Niazi.

Singh’s legacy lives on

The Param Vishisht Seva Medal and the Padma Bhushan, awarded to Singh for his services in war, fall short of the magnitude of his contribution to the Indian nation. According to an unverifiable rumor, his victory ride through Dacca and his “son-of-the-soil” image may have ruffled his superiors’ feathers, causing them to deny him the awards he deserved. Whatever the case, it would now be appropriate to award him the Bharat Ratna, even posthumously.

Singh eventually settled down in Jaipur after retiring from the army in 1979. His house in Jaipur is called “Meghna,” as is his younger granddaughter. He breathed his last on September 26, 2001, at the age of 82.

On July 14, 2019, and the week after that, I had the unique privilege of organizing celebrations for the 100th anniversary of the birth of this illustrious general. A prominent road in Jaipur has been adorned with a bust of Singh and named after him. The Jaipur Literary Festival in January 2019 witnessed readings from his biography. A seminar was organized in Jaipur, where generals who fought the war with him, as well as his son Lieutenant Colonel Ran Vijay Singh and his relatives, paid tribute in a very publicized event.

Truly, Singh was a general who never lost a battle.

[Cheyenne Torres edited this piece.]

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Fair Observer’s editorial policy.