The Unforgettable

INS Valsura in the 1965 War

B C Chatterjee was born in 1920, joined the Indian Navy, received the Ati Vishist Seva Medal, and retired from the Navy in 1972. After this, he joined M/s Standard Batteries Ltd., where he was responsible for the first indigenous production of Submarine Batteries in collaboration with a Swedish firm. He retired from Standard Batteries in 1995.

Editor's note: This is an excerpt from a larger autobiography under preparation. The preparation of this article has been greatly facilitated by a person close to the author.

Over 1962-1965, I was the Commanding Officer, INS Valsura, Jamnagar. (Editor's note: INS means Indian Naval Ship. INS Valsura is a shore based training establishment of the Indian navy for electrical engineering.)

Pakistan Army Surrender to India in 1971: Hamoodur Rahman Commission Report

Editor’s note: This article consists of selected extracts from the Hamoodur Rahman Commission report, which was finalised in 1974. The Commission was appointed 26 December, 1971 by the then President of Pakistan, Mr. Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, to enquire into the circumstances in which Pakistan’s Commander, Eastern Command, Lt. Gen. Niazi, surrendered and the members of the armed forces of Pakistan under his command laid down their arms, and a ceasefire was ordered along the borders of West Pakistan and India and along the ceasefire line in the State of Jammu and Kashmir. The Commission was headed by the Chief Justice of Pakistan, Mr. Justice Hamoodur Rahman. The other two members of the Commission were Mr. Justice S. Anwarul Haq, Judge, Supreme Court of Pakistan and Mr. Justice Tufaif Ali Abdur Rahman, Chief Justice of Sind and Baluchistan High Court. Lt. Gen (Rtd) Altaf Qadir and Mr. M.A Latif, Assistant Registrar of the Supreme Court of Pakistan were Military Adviser and Secretary of the Commission, respectively.

The full report is available in the attached pdf file. Gaps in this article are shown by -----

Please contact the editor at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it if you can provide a copy of the Commission's 1972 report.

Memories of 1971 Indo-Pak War

Filed Marshal Manekshaw on preparing for the war April 1971

Editor's Note; The following text of Field Marshal Manekshaw's speech comes from http://www.indiandefencereview.com/spotlights/sam-manekshaw-on-leadership-and-discipline/ . It is recorded as Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw's Lecture at Defence Services College, Wellington on Leadership and Discipline 11th November, 1998. Note that the text below does not correspond exactly to the Field Marshal's speech.

Indira Gandhi Interview 1971

Indira Gandhi Interview
No date or description available, but
the discussion is about tensions between
India and Pakistan over what was East Pakistan
and became Bangladesh.

My Memories of Dr. V. Kurien

A.H. Somjee received his Ph.D. in Political Science from the London School of Economics. He is a charter member of the Simon Fraser University, Canada, where he is also an Emeritus Professor of Political Science. He has taught at the University of Baroda, the London School of Economics, University of Durham, and the National University of Singapore. He was also appointed as an Associate Fellow at the Queen Elizabeth House, Oxford University, and was invited to Harvard University, several times, as a Visiting Scholar.

When I was a faculty member of the M.S. University of Baroda (now Vadodara), from 1956 to 1964, I had heard the name of Dr. V. Kurien from various colleagues and people in surrounding villages.