G.G.Bewoor | |
|---|---|
 | |
| 8thChief of Army Staff (India) | |
| In office 16 Jan 1973 – 31 May 1975 | |
| President | V. V. Giri Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed |
| Prime Minister | Indira Gandhi |
| Preceded by | Field MarshalSam Manekshaw |
| Succeeded by | General Tapishwar Narain Raina |
| Ambassador ofIndia toDenmark | |
| In office Feb 1976 – Feb 1978 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1916-08-11)11 August 1916 Seoni, British India |
| Died | 24 October 1989(1989-10-24) (aged 73) |
| Spouse | Radhika Gokhale |
| Military career | |
| Allegiance |  British India India |
| Branch |  British Indian Army Indian Army |
| Service years | 15 July 1937 – 31 May 1975 |
| Rank |  General |
| Service number | IC-129[1] |
| Unit | Dogra Regiment Green Howards |
| Commands |  Southern ArmyXXXIII Corps 27 Infantry Division 80 Infantry Brigade Director General,NCC |
| Awards |  Param Vishisht Seva Medal Padma Bhushan (1972) |
GeneralGopal Gurunath BewoorPVSM (11 August 1916 – 24 October 1989)[2] was a seniorofficer of theIndian Army who served as the 8thChief of Army Staff, and later anIndian diplomat to Denmark.[3]
In a long service spanning four decades, Gen. Bewoor saw action duringWorld War II and later was involved in Indian Army operations inPakistan, including during thesecond war in 1965 as well as effectively commanding thesouthern command during thethird war in 1971. He succeededField MarshalSam Manekshaw as the army chief in January 1973 and following his retirement from the army, served as the Indian Ambassador toDenmark till 1979.
In 1972, he was honoured withPadma Bhushan the third highest Indian civilian award.[4]
Born atSeoni on 11 August 1916 into[5]Kannada[6]Deshastha Brahmin family.[7] Gopal Gurunath Bewoor was the son of SirGurunath Venkatesh Bewoor ICS and Rukmini Bewoor. He was educated atColonel Brown Cambridge School,Dehradun,Prince of Wales Royal Indian Military College (RIMC),Dehradun in 1928 and later theIndian Military Academy. A part of the Kitchener section, Gopal was appointed Cadet Captain in 1934. He also won Lord Rawlinson's trophy during this time.
Bewoor was commissioned a secondlieutenant on the Special List, Indian Land Forces on 15 July 1937. On 10 August 1937 he was attached to the 2nd Battalion,Green Howards, and saw action during operations in Waziristan. On 10 August 1938 he was admitted to the Indian Army and posted to 5th Battalion10th Baluch Regiment (now 12 Baloch), with which he saw actionin Burma. His seniority as a second lieutenant was antedated to 30 August 1936 and he was promoted lieutenant 30 November 1938. In July 1945, he was transferred from the 5th Baluch and went on to attend the Staff College course atQuetta, and then he was appointed as the Under Secretary (Military) to the Viceroy's Coordination Council. He was the only Indian officer to have achieved this feat.
At Independence in 1947, Bewoor was the Secretary of the Army Partition Committee in 1947, which determined the allotment of weapons, equipment and regiments that were to remain in India or to be allotted to Pakistan. Since his parent regiment - the Baluch - went to Pakistan, he was transferred to theDogra Regiment and promoted to acting lieutenant colonel in December 1947. With a view to imparting basic military training to school and college students, he was appointed as the Director of the NCC (National Cadet Corps) in April 1948 with the acting rank of full colonel, and was promoted substantive major on 30 August 1949.[8]
He was promoted to the acting rank ofBrigadier in 1951, later assuming command of the 80th Infantry Brigade inJammu &Kashmir. He was appointed as the Director, Personnel Services at Army HQ in August 1953, and was promoted to substantive colonel on 30 August 1956.[9] The following year, on 4 June 1957, he was again promoted to acting brigadier and given command of an infantry brigade.[10]
On 27 February 1959 at the age of 42 years and 6 months he was promoted to acting Major General as the first Chief of Staff at the Western Command HQ inShimla. He is believed to be the second youngest ever Major General in the Indian Army, (Gen JN Chaudhury being the youngest, when he was promoted to acting Major General at the age of 39 years and 8 months.)[11] Promoted to substantive brigadier on 30 August 1959,[12] he assumed the appointment of Colonel of the11 Gorkha Rifles on 25 May 1960. He was then appointed as the GOC of the 27th Infantry Division on 17 February 1961 atJalandhar.[13] Later he moved this division toKalimpong (West Bengal) in the wake of the 1962Sino-Indian War.
In June 1963, he was appointed as the Director of Military Training at Army HQ and remained there till November 1964. He was promoted as General Officer Commanding 33 Corps at Siliguri in November 1964 with the rank of lieutenant general. He moved to Army HQ in May 1967 as Deputy Chief of the Army Staff (DCOAS), to which he had been appointed on 27 April,[1] and held that appointment till June 1969. As DCOAS, he was awarded Param Vishist Seva Medal (PVSM) for his meritorious services. However, he has been later criticized for his role in changing the General Staff Qualitative Requirement (GSQR) for evaluation of anti-tank missiles which resulted in the purchase of theSS11B1 from France's Aerospatiale and the death of a competing indigenousDRDO Anti Tank Missile project.
In July 1969, he assumed the appointment of General Officer Commanding–in–Chief, Southern Command. During theIndo-Pakistani War of 1971, the Indian military strategy was mainly defensive on the Western Front, while attacking in the Eastern Sector, culminating in the surrender of Dacca and the secession of East Pakistan into the newly formed Bangladesh.Bewoor's Southern Command was tasked with maintaining a front from Bikaner southwestwards to the Arabian Sea. This command was divided into four sectors: Bikaner, Jaisalmer, Barmer and Kutch. The first two sectors were manned by12 Division with11 Division holding Barmer and Kutch. In addition it was supported by an armoured regiment, two independent armoured squadrons, and one missile squadron. For his command of operations in the Rajasthan Sector, Bewoor was awarded the Padma Bhushan, India's third highest civilian honour.
He succeeded the popularField MarshalSam Manekshaw, the liberator of Bangladesh, as Army Chief on 15 January 1973 and held that appointment for two years and four months till his retirement on 31 May 1975.
Soon after taking office Bewoor was told of one of the most significant developments in the history of Indian defence policy, of which the Indian Army and the Defence Ministry were previously in the dark, namely the Department of Atomic Energy's plans to detonate a nuclear device. The project codenamedSmiling Buddha had been underway from 1967 under the leadership ofRaja Ramanna. The task of sinking the shaft for the test was assigned to the 61 Engineering Regiment stationed in Jodhpur. Ramanna first contacted the regiment commander, Lt. Col. Subherwal, in May 1973 to dig the shaft. In June 1973 Prime MinisterIndira Gandhi took General Bewoor into confidence and ordered him to support the project. After an initial setback - the finding of water at the first drill site - the location of the test was shifted to the village of Malki nearPokhran, Rajasthan. Bewoor was personally present at the test site and witnessed the actual nuclear explosion of 18 May 1974. He was the first to inform the Prime Minister's Office via a telephone call to D.P. Dhar.[14] A. Parthasarthi however claims in 1974 he found a note written from the PM (without her characteristic green-ink initials) to Bewoor dated as early as 15 November 1972 asking for the Army's co-operation.[15] This must be viewed with some skepticism, since Bewoor was not the COAS on the purported date of this note.
He served as the Honorary Colonel of the Dogra Regiment up to 11 August 1979. After retirement, he served as the Indian Ambassador to Denmark, from February 1976 to March 1978. He served as a member of the Senate of theUniversity of Pune, for two years from August 1979 onwards. He was also on the Board of Directors of Kirloskar Oil Engines & Vickers Sperry of Pune. Besides, he was often invited to give talks on leadership and military matters by various educational societies. He died on 24 October 1989.
The street in Koregaon Park, Pune where the general lived after retirement is named General Bewoor Path after him.
General Bewoor was married to Radhika Gokhale on 12 March 1943. They had two sons and a daughter.
His son Group Captain Anant Bewoor (Retd), served in theIndian Air Force and saw action with theIPKF inSri Lanka and during theSiachen operations, and was the Commanding Officer (CO) of the 44th Squadron, which flies theIL-76 heavy-lift military transport aircraft. His younger son, Keshav Bewoor, is also an Air Force officer, and retired from service in the rank of Air Vice Marshal.
Arun Bewoor, former Managing Director, International Flavors and Fragrances is the son of his late brother Madhav Gurunath Bewoor.[16]
Meenakshi Bakhle (wife of D.S. Bakhle, ICS) was General Bewoor's sister. She was a president of the Maharashtra State Women's Council.[17] For her (minor) role in theSamyukta Maharashtra controversy in 1956 she was famously referred to as कोमडी चोमडी मिनाक्षी ("Komdi Chomdi Meenakshi") by "Acharya"Prahlad Keshav Atre and satirized as a अति विशाल महिला ("Ati Vishaal Mahilaa") in the famousP.L. Deshpande 1957 play तुझे आहे तुजपाशी ("Tujhe Ahe Tujapashi").
| |  |  |
 |  |  |  |
 |  |  |  |
 |  |  |  |
| Insignia | Rank | Component | Date of rank |
|---|---|---|---|
_OF-1a.svg) | Second Lieutenant | British Indian Army | 15 July 1937[18] |
_OF-1b.svg) | Lieutenant | British Indian Army | 30 November 1938[18] |
_OF-2.svg) | Captain | British Indian Army | 15 August 1940 (acting) 15 November 1940 (temporary) 16 August 1942 (war-substantive) 30 August 1944 (substantive)[18] |
_OF-3.svg) | Major | British Indian Army | 15 November 1940 (acting) 16 August 1942 (temporary)[18] |
| Captain | Indian Army | 15 August 1947[note 1][19] |
_OF-4.svg) | Lieutenant-Colonel | Indian Army | December 1947 (acting)[note 1][19] |
_OF-5.svg) | Colonel | Indian Army | April 1948 (acting)[note 1][19] |
| Major | Indian Army | 30 August 1949[8][note 1][19] |
 | Major | Indian Army | 26 January 1950 (recommissioning and change in insignia)[19][20] |
 | Lieutenant-Colonel | Indian Army | August 1953[21] |
 | Colonel | Indian Army | 30 August 1956[9] |
 | Brigadier | Indian Army | 1951 (acting) 4 June 1957 (acting)[10] 30 August 1959 (substantive)[12] |
 | Major General | Indian Army | 27 February 1959 (acting)[11] 1962 (substantive)[22] |
 | Lieutenant-General | Indian Army | 7 November 1964 (acting)[23] 1965 (substantive) |
| General (COAS) | Indian Army | 15 January 1973[24] |
Coorgi (Thimayya, 1957–1961), a Bengali (Chaudhuri, 1962– 1967), a Tamil (Kumaramangalam, 1967–1970), a Parsi (Manekshaw, 1969–1973), a Kannadiga (Bewoor, 1963–1975), and a Kashmiri (Raina, 1975–1978).
| Military offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Chief of Army Staff 1973–1975 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by Moti Sagar | General Officer Commanding-in-ChiefSouthern Command 1969–1973 | Succeeded by Sartaj Singh |
| Diplomatic posts | ||
Preceded by Not sure | Ambassador ofIndia to theDenmark Feb 1976–Feb 1978 | Succeeded byNot sure |
| Commander-in-Chief, Indian Army (1947–1948) |  | |
|---|---|---|
| Chief of the Army Staff and Commander-in-Chief, Indian Army (1948–1955) | ||
| Chief of the Army Staff (1955–present) |
| |
(**Seconded from theBritish Army) | ||
.svg)