Pran Nath Thapar: Difference between revisions

{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2019}}

{{Use Indian English|date=October 2019}}

| birth_place              = [[Lahore]], [[Punjab Province (British India)|Punjab Province]], [[British Raj|British India]]<br>(now in [[Pakistan]])<ref>{{cite web|title=New Director of Military Intelligence: Brigadier Thapar Appointed|url=http://pibarchive.nic.in/archive/ArchiveSecondPhase/DEFENCE/1947-JULY-DEC-MIN-OF-DEFENCE/PDF/DEF-1947-07-16_314.pdf|website=Press Information Bureau of India - Archive|date=16 July 1947|access-date=18 July 2020}}</ref>

| allegiance    = [[File:British Raj Red Ensign.svg|23px]] [[British Indian Empire]]<br/>{{flag|India}}

| branch        = {{army|British Raj}}<br/>{{army|India}}

|relations      = [[Daya Ram Thapar]] (brother)<br/>[[Romesh Thapar]] (nephew)<br/>[[Romila Thapar]] (niece)<br/>[[Valmik Thapar]] (great-nephew)<br/>[[Jawaharlal Nehru]] (distant relative)<ref name="The Devil's Advocate">{{cite news | title = When the Devil's Advocate has the Last Word |work=The Hindu | url = http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Delhi/when-the-devils-advocate-has-the-last-word/article4799504.ece |date=10 June 2013|access-date = 14 January 2014 | first = Prashant | last = Jha }}</ref><ref name="ThePrint">{{cite news |last1=Singh |first1=Nandita |title=Why is Karan Thapar complaining? His dynasty holds a key to Lutyens' Delhi |url=https://theprint.in/lutyens-league/why-is-karan-thapar-complaining-his-dynasty-holds-a-key-to-lutyenss-delhi/87308/ |access-date=2 April 2019 |work=The Print |date=2 January 2019}}</ref>

[[General (India)|General]] '''Pran Nath Thapar''' (23 May 1906 &ndash; 23 June 1975) was the fourth<ref>[http://www.bharat-rakshak.com/ARMY/Army-Chiefs/Chiefs-Army07.html B-R] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090302182750/http://www.bharat-rakshak.com/ARMY/Army-Chiefs/Chiefs-Army07.html |date=2009-03-02 }}</ref> [[Chief of Army Staff of the Indian Army|Chief of Army Staff]] of the [[Indian Army]].

General Pran Nath Thapar was born at [[Lahore]] into a prominent [[Punjabi people|Punjabi]] [[Khatri]] family.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Puri|first=Baij Nath|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7ytuAAAAMAAJ|title=The Khatris, a Socio-cultural Study|date=1988|publisher=M.N. Publishers and Distributors|language=en}}</ref> He was the youngest son of Diwan Bahadur Kunj Behari Thapar of [[Lahore]].<ref>{{Cite web|title=Why is Karan Thapar complaining? His dynasty holds a key to Lutyens' Delhi|url=https://theprint.in/lutyens-league/why-is-karan-thapar-complaining-his-dynasty-holds-a-key-to-lutyenss-delhi/87308/|last=Nandita Singh|date=2018-07-24|website=ThePrint|language=en-US|access-date=2020-06-01}}</ref> The journalist [[Karan Thapar]] is his son.<ref>https://theprint.in/lutyens-league/why-is-karan-thapar-complaining-his-dynasty-holds-a-key-to-lutyenss-delhi/87308/</ref> The historian [[Romila Thapar]] is his niece and the conservationist and tiger expert, [[Valmik Thapar]] is his great nephew. His elder brother was [[Daya Ram Thapar]], an officer in the [[Indian Medical Service]] and later [[Director General Armed Forces Medical Services (India)|Director General Armed Forces Medical Services]].

Thapar was distantly related to the Indian Prime Minister [[Jawaharlal Nehru]] through his wife. In March 1936, Thapar married Bimla Bashiram, the eldest daughter of Rai Bahadur Bashiram Sahgal and granddaughter of Rai Bahadur Ramsaran Das. Bimla Thapar was a sister of Gautam Sahgal, whose wife [[Nayantara Sahgal]] was a daughter of [[Vijayalakshmi Pandit]] and niece of Jawaharlal Nehru.<ref name="The Devil's Advocate"/><ref name="ThePrint"/> General Thapar and Smt. Bimla Thapar had four children, of whom the youngest is the journalist [[Karan Thapar]].{{fact|date=October 2019}}

After graduating from Government College, Lahore, he trained at the [[Royal Military College, Sandhurst]], passing out on 4 February 1926 as a second lieutenant. He passed out in the same batch as [[K.S. Thimayya]], who also went on to become Chief of the Army Staff.<ref name="commission_Gazette">{{London Gazette|issue=33130|page=888|date=5 February 1926}}</ref> He spent the next year attached to a British Army battalion stationed in India. On 18 April 1927 he was formally appointed to the Indian Army, ranking as a second lieutenant.<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=33296|page=4721|date=22 July 1927}}</ref>  He did his regimental duties with the 2nd battalion, 1st Punjab Regiment for ten years and later attended the staff courses at [[Quetta]] in India and [[Minley Manor]] in England.<ref>[http://indianarmy.nic.in/coas07.html Indian-Army] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140201142402/http://indianarmy.nic.in/coas07.html |date=2014-02-01 }}</ref>  

He served in Burma during the second World War in 1941 and later in the Middle East and Italy. By October 1942 he was serving on the staff as a brigade major.<ref>Indian Army List October 1942</ref> He was appointed as assistant military secretary in 1945, and commanded the 1st Battalion of the 1st Punjab Regiment in Indonesia in 1946. Subsequently, he went on to serve as the commander of the 161 Indian Infantry Brigade in East Bengal. During the Partition of India, Thapar officiated as the Director of Military Operations and Intelligence.{{fact|date=October 2019}}

On 1 January 1950, Thapar was promoted to substantive major-general, and was given command of an infantry division on 10 April.<ref name="maj_gen_subs">{{cite news |title=Part I-Section 4: Ministry of Defence (Army Branch) |page=70  |date=24 June 1950 |url=http://egazette.nic.in/WriteReadData/1950/O-2343-1950-0013-108724.pdf  |publisher=The Gazette of India}}</ref> He commanded a division for four years till 1954 and was promoted to the local rank of [[lieutenant general]] in 1954 as Commander of a [[Corps]]. He was selected to attend the Imperial Defence College, London in 1955. After successful completion of the course, he was appointed General Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Southern Command on 21 January 1957, with the acting rank of lieutenant-general,<ref name="lt_gen_actg">{{cite news |title=Part I-Section 4: Ministry of Defence (Army Branch) |page=58  |date=9 March 1957 |url=http://egazette.nic.in/WriteReadData/1957/O-2120-1957-0010-96133.pdf |publisher=The Gazette of India}}</ref> and was promoted to the substantive rank on 1 February.<ref name="lt_gen">{{cite news |title=Part I-Section 4: Ministry of Defence (Army Branch) |page=59  |date=9 March 1957 |url=http://egazette.nic.in/WriteReadData/1957/O-2120-1957-0010-96133.pdf |publisher=The Gazette of India}}</ref> He became General Officer Commanding-in-Chief of Western Command in 1959. Thapar took over as [[Chief of Army Staff of the Indian Army]] on 8 May 1961 and served until 19 November 1962, when he resigned from the army after the defeat by China in the Sino-Indian War of October and November. He was also colonel of the [[Rajputana Rifles]].

After resigning from the army, he was appointed as Indian Ambassador to [[Afghanistan]] from August 1964 to January 1969. He died on his farm, White Gates, in Chhattarpur, New Delhi, on 23 June 1975 at the age of 69.{{fact|date=October 2019}}

|title = [[General_officer_commanding#Usage_in_the_Indian_Army|General Officer Commanding-in-Chief]] [[Western Command (India)|Western Command]]

|title = [[General_officer_commanding#Usage_in_the_Indian_Army|General Officer Commanding-in-Chief]] [[Southern Command (India)|Southern Command]]