Indian Army is deployed in high-altitude, snow-bound areas where temperatures below minus fifty degrees centigrade are common. A soldier is imbibed with good values, is self-confident, has high levels of endurance.
The other day someone made a comment to me that in the Army things are so simple; you draw a line and follow the straight path. The corporate world on the other hand is a jungle with so many imponderables, agencies, internal and external influences and so on. On hearing this, my mind went back almost 20 years to November 2001 when I was invited to attend the National Conference of Indian Association for Social Psychiatry as the chief guest. I was commanding a division at that time. Hesitatingly, I agreed to attend but at that time I didn’t think I would have much to contribute.
At the conference, I heard brilliant talks, reading of papers, theory on new techniques and so on. These were well presented and in non-technical language that it was easy to understand what was being said. I realised I have valuable information to share too based on my own experiences in the army. I expressed a desire to speak and I was promptly allowed by the organizers.
I started by saying that each one present was an expert in the field of, “harmonising an abnormal mind to a normal environment”; on the other hand, we in the army were faced with a more demanding task of “harmonising a normal mind to an abnormal environment”. This to me was a greater challenge. In the army we pick a young, nineteen/ twenty year old and put him in an environment which is completely contradictory to whatever he had been conditioned to in his life thus far. For example, his parents, teachers and friends imbibed in him that killing and bloodshed was bad and now he is told that it was necessary to do so for the security of our nation and the safety of our people. Such psychological clash would naturally leave him confused. He is not given time to mull over these new atmospherics.
He finds himself sharing food, accommodation and above all duties with other soldiers; some from South India, some the East while others are from the West. He is exposed to a diverse mix of religion, customs, festivals and so on. In such an environment he soon learns to genuinely respect all religions and customs of his co soldiers. This calms him and he imbibes a genuine concern for human values and respect for life. “Izzat of the nation, the unit, of his comrades and lastly his own” becomes the new mantra. Dignity becomes a core value. He develops a sense of belonging and an “espirit de corps” is born which stands him in good stead not only with respect to his buddies but more so in the missions that he is called upon to execute. During aid to civil authorities, while providing flood relief a soldier values each life and risks his own to save each one. No wonder people facing a calamity, man or nature made, always “feel secure in the presence of the olive green”.
This is a manifestation of sound grounding and training in the physical as well as the psychological dimensions. In succinct therefore a highly motivated soldier who is imbibed with good values, is self-confident, has high levels of endurance and professional skills is what emerges at the end of the training period. He is fully prepared to go forth and take his place in his unit in the combat zone. The result of these qualities is transparent for all to see.
A first look at the vast span of operations this young soldier is deployed in immediately reveals the severity of the environmental conditions he is required to operate from within. Indian Army is deployed in high altitude snow bound areas where temperatures below minus fifty degrees centigrade are common. You put your hand out and it will freeze. Rarified oxygen makes mere breathing difficult, leave aside walking. Routes and tracks get obliterated overnight due to blizzards and snow storms. Avalanches are common place. Imagine the psychological aspects. Loneliness, mental fatigue and so on are the ambient atmospherics. In such conditions one’s very survival is at stake but the soldier executes his assigned missions in an effective manner. Simultaneous to this are the soldiers in the Deserts where the summer temperatures of over 50 degrees centigrade are not uncommon. In this extreme heat it is possible to fry an egg on top of tank’s steel plates during the day. There is little cover and water is a serious problem. The soldier endures all this and continues to toil along, ever alert to his assigned tasks. Then there are heavy jungles of the north eastern parts of the Country. What makes a soldier to remain positive and active in such vastly diverse and severe conditions? What makes him to rapidly adjust to such extremely challenging conditions switching from one theatre to the other? The answer lies in the foundations laid during his training, his sense of belonging, organizational support (camaraderie) including peer group support and above all that sense of “Izzat”. Just imagine that the Indian Army’s operational responsibilities span over a hundred degrees of temperatures!
Continued operations in such areas does precipitate stress and this is natural. It is a universal phenomenon and applies to combat forces the world over. However, there is a difference and this is the ability of a soldier of a nation to absorb and manage such stress, individually and organisationally. During the Vietnam War, the US Army suffered over fifty thousand cases of PTSD; post-traumatic stress disorder — known as shell shock during the world wars. Shell Shock was temporary but PTSD leaves a permanent dent on the mind. Compared to this, such cases in the Indian Army, deployed over much longer periods of time and in the severest of hostile and weather conditions are far, far below this number. These cases of psychosomatic disorder, how-so-ever small in numbers, need careful handling and care. The Indian Army is doing this in an effective manner. Such positives can be attributed mainly to two factors. The inbuilt resilience of the soldier himself and second the manner in which the leadership within the system manages its manpower. It is thus no surprise that the Indian soldier is held in very high esteem the world-over. No wonder then that India has the highest deployment of troops on UN duties in the world. The first call of any nation wanting help is to the Indian Army makes us proud and rightly so.
In shaping the soldier, taking him to battle and making him into an effective machine of war, the leadership; that is the officer plays a critical and central role. It all begins with a young adventure loving boy or girl joining the training academy at a tender age. On commissioning from these training institutions, a young officer, in his/ her early twenties, is put in charge of a small body of troops immediately on arrival in the combat zone and is expected to lead them into operations. The young officer would have been trained at the Academy as well as the Young Officers course but for the first time this is the real thing — real bullets in rifles. This small body of thirty odd soldiers are mostly older than him. Some are married with families and with a lot of experience in the battlefield. The green horn is expected to task and lead these men into combat. They would study him, observe him and follow him only if they are convinced that he will always place their safety and interest above his own.
Thus, the first step towards becoming an effective leader is to forgo ego and self-interest and place the interest of the group and its members above all else. Once convinced of such a disposition the men will follow their leader into any situation come heaven or hell for they are convinced that he will never let them down. A leader does well when his group does well. He has to carry the weakest link with him. As he grows in service this small group turns into a group of a hundred-odd soldiers, then to several hundred and even thousands. The leader has to constantly adjust himself to this ever-increasing scope and the span of operations. For example, he starts with a complete visual cohesion of his command and soon finds that he has to rely on electronic cohesion as his responsibilities expand and move over the horizon. Command in the army remains dynamic on several counts. There is no time to stand and stare.
Throughout this period, the young lad is under several microscopes of different types — these are the so-called auditors, as the corporate world would term them. First and foremost, the officer is under constant review of the higher commanders. His seniors continuously scrutinise his performance. Then there are the men he leads who are watching him day and night. The local population is always on the lookout for any issue that they can exploit to their benefit and at times they follow their own agenda. The Media, local included has its own game plan quite often. The political masters set their own terms and conditions and then there are several human rights organisations ready to pounce at any time. Together these vectors contribute towards the making of an uncertain and a volatile multi-dimensional environment.
It is under the glare of these auditors that the young commander has to not only remain constructively active but strive hard to maintain the morale, safety and the well-being of the men under his command and achieve success in his assigned tasks each and every time. Surely this does not add up to a straight line! And we have not considered the main reason for the soldiers being in such areas; the enemy. If anything, the variables in the environmental conditions add up to extremely unpredictable and uncertain conditions; the fog of war.
Have we ever wondered as to what are the likely consequences of failure of a soldier’s mission? Ponder over this. Probable loss of life and limb! He cannot let his guard down even for a moment. Maybe the corporate world needs to take a note of this and develop a respect for the rigors that a soldier faces. To remain usefully active under rapidly changing conditions an officer/ commander has to retain a high level of mental skills and these are tested to the extreme. He has to pack a high level of intellectual prowess to make decisions rapidly fully aware of the high stakes involved – lives. In fact, the intellectual content of the armed forces is a great force multiplier. No wonder then that soldiers who have to leave the army for some reason do so well in their second professions – the corporate world.
The military journey of a soldier is indeed unique, rife with challenges, persistent with high pressure and stressful situations. His environment is anything but predictable. From within these atmospherics he has to deliver each and every time. To do so he has to put everything aside and concentrate on the job at hand. Yet, it is also lonely. One is away from one’s familiar environment, family, friends and above all peace. The relationship between him and his men is unique and difficult to define. These conditions have to be appreciated by the society. It is a historical fact that strong societies have produced strong armies. Germany, Japan, India, Israel are examples. These armies are respected the world over. Therefore, it is true that a “nation’s armed forces draw their strength from the civil society”.
Without doubt the belief that the army walks a straight line with little distractions, couldn’t be further from the truth. Given the extreme conditions army function in, it is to the credit of the soldier that he has never failed the nation. In fact, he is the nucleus of national security. As a people we must remain sensitive to these aspects of a soldier’s life and retain a caring attitude towards the men in uniform. Let us reinforce compassion towards our armed forces and leave them alone to get on with their job without hindrances so that we can sleep in peace at night. We must never forget that “in anonymity lies their strength”. The soldier must never be sucked into any form of national limelight.
Lt Gen Daljeet Singh (retired) is a former Army Commander of Western Command