5 min learnChandigarhFeb 8, 2026 01:28 PM IST
The Army has lately taken a creditable step by renaming a number of roads in cantonments and navy stations that have been named after British navy figures. These have now been named after Indian navy personalities, together with gallantry award winners.
This can be a much-welcome step, though it comes a bit late. A number of years in the past, an initiative started in Ambala, however it was restricted to the Ambala Cantonment space. Nonetheless, there’s nonetheless rather more for the Army to do to remove regimental associations with colonial figures which can be nonetheless displayed with pleasure.
The name of 4th Horse, higher identified as Hodson’s Horse, is among the many first that comes to thoughts. Whereas many different regiments and battalions carry the names of their erstwhile British officers, who raised the models, in brackets-such as Skinner’s, Outram’s, Rattray’s and so on, Hodson’s Horse carries the surname of Main William Stephen Rakes Hodson on its cap badge and in addition wears HH, denoting Hodson’s Horse-on shoulder epaulettes of uniform.
In his e book A Soldier Recollects, in a chapter titled ‘Supersession’, Lt Gen S Okay Sinha, the then Vice Chief of Army Employees, recounts how he had taken up the difficulty with the Army Chief, Gen Okay V Krishna Rao, for the removing of the name Hodson from the regimental crest of 4th Horse. This was in the early Nineteen Eighties, greater than 40 years in the past.
To cite verbatim from the passage in the e book, “The final case I mentioned with him that day was the regimental crest of 4 Horse. This unit was raised by Hodson, an officer with a tainted private file who had murdered the 2 hapless Mughal princes of Delhi in 1857 in chilly blood. After Independence the name of the unit modified from Hodson’s Horse to 4 Horse, and so had the shoulder titles worn in the regiment. However the phrase ‘Hodson’ continued to seem in the regimental crest.”
“I bought Krishna’s approval to suggest an appropriate change of crest. This had to be permitted by the President. Though a call to suggest this variation was taken and duly recorded, mistaken loyalty for regimental traditions has managed to prevail and to today the change has not been effected”.
Much more preposterous was the bust unveiling of Main Hodson, which came about in Lawrence College, Sanawar, a decade in the past, by a Lt Normal who was then GOC 9 Corps. Satirically, the one different bust in the college is that of the younger martyr of the 1971 struggle, 2/Lt Arun Khetarpal, Param Vir Chakra (posthumous), and the colonial officer, who had a distinguished position in establishing the college in Sanawar, additionally bought a spot of pleasure.
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What may very well be extra dichotomous than having two busts that are completely at cross-purposes with one another? Certainly one of a nationwide hero who laid down his life defending the nation 40 years in the past, and one other of a colonial grasp who repressed the First Conflict of Independence with as a lot power as he may.
Hodson shouldn’t be glorified
Hodson could certainly have performed a task in establishing the college at Sanawar however what goal does it serve to show his bust in the college? Does the college inform its college students in regards to the doubtful position performed by him whereas placing down the primary Indian Conflict of Independence in 1857, when he murdered the 2 sons of Bahadur Shah Zafar? Do they inform the scholars of the doubtful nature of his character as acknowledged by Lt Gen SK Sinha in his e book? Why ought to he be glorified in any respect?
His affiliation with the college, as with the regiment, needs to be a footnote in the historical past of each and needn’t be highlighted past that time. His affiliation with each is a historic reality and have to be acknowledged as such, however glorifying him is sickening.
It’s nothing however a misplaced sense of regimental honour when the name of a assassin will not be eliminated from the regimental crest and when the officers of the regiment go about establishing the bust of the identical assassin in colleges.
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There’s actually no hurt in perpetuating regimental traditions. A number of cavalry and infantry regiments in the Army have participated in the lively suppression of the 1857 Conflict of Independence. However these are solely spoken of in hushed whispers in this point in time, and they don’t adorn the cap badge of each rank and file. The least that the armoured corps brass can do is to get this anomaly corrected, which Lt Gen Sinha tried to do even on a day when his dream of heading the Indian Army lay in ruins.
There’s a lot that the Army has to do to do away with its colonial legacy. Let or not it’s a gentle course of. However as of now, let the 4th Horse do away with Hodson’s ghost.
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