Brig. Mohammed Usman's story: excerpt from The Lion of Naushera

The Hindu

4 days ago

Brigadier Mohammed Usman was touching 36 when he led a contingent to wrest two strategic locations in Jammu and Kashmir from Pakistan in 1948. Given a choice to move to Pakistan after Partition, he chose India. Brigadier Usman died in combat, and was awarded the Maha Vir Chakra posthumously for his valour. An extract from a new book, The Lion of Naushera (Bloomsbury):
The eyes of the world are on us/The hopes and aspirations of our countrymen are based upon our efforts./We must not falter, we must not fail them...The brief extract from a Special Order issued by Brigadier Mohammed Usman, a hero who was not often in the limelight, gives a peek into the personality of the man popularly remembered as the 'Lion of Naushera'. Brigadier Usman wrote these lines before the combat which helped the Indian army recapture Jhangar and Naushera—two strategic locations in Jammu and Kashmir located 18 kilometres apart—from Pakistan in 1948. At that time, Brigadier Usman was 12 days short of his 36th birthday. He laid down his life in service to India, and it is important to recall his stirring sacrifice. He repulsed the Pakistan forces at a time when the newly born nation was coveting Kashmir due to its Muslim-majority population. Pakistan's top officials had promised Brigadier Usman the highest rank in the army, money and power, but they could not offer him the unalloyed joy of patriotism. Love for India burned bright in Brigadier Usman's heart, and everything Pakistan offered appeared to pale in comparison. It was out of this love for the nation that the story of Naushera was born, and Kashmir remained an integral part of India.
In the early days after Independence, Jammu and Kashmir was far from being a land of bliss. While there had been unprecedented communal violence in Jammu, resulting in a change in the demographic profile with the massacre of a large number of Muslims, Kashmir had to bear the brunt of Pakistan's repeated incursions. The Pakistani forces used the kabaili tribal raiders to devastating effect. After they captured Jhangar in Jammu and Kashmir in December 1947, Brigadier Usman, who was then commanding the 50th Parachute Brigade, took a vow not to sleep on a bed till he recaptured Jhangar. Three months later, he did so, after successfully thwarting fierce attacks on Naushera and Jhangar, and earned the sobriquet 'Lion of Naushera'.
Supreme sacrifice
Usman again foiled Pakistani attempts to capture Jhangar in May 1948, but lost his life in a 25-pounder shell attack on July 3, 1948. When he died, the nation slipped into mourning. Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru sent condolence messages, as did the governor general through personal letters to his family. When he was given a state funeral, the prime minister attended it, along with his cabinet, in Jamia Millia Islamia University's cemetery in Delhi—his last resting place being close to that of his family elder and India's freedom fighter, Mukhtar Ahmed Ansari. The three chiefs of the armed forces were in attendance as well. Usman remains the highest-ranking military officer to be killed in combat. He was awarded the Maha Vir Chakra posthumously for his valour.
Icon of secularism
He went on to become an abiding icon of secularism for a nation often questioning its own identity. Those who swore by the idea of India and regarded the Constitution as the touchstone of all actions in a pluralist country took pride in his life, often holding him up as an example of an India that belongs to all Indians, and where every Indian belongs to India. There were others who used his sterling sacrifice to counter those who called a section of Indians 'Babur ki aulad' (Babur's progeny) or 'Aurangzeb ki aulad' (Aurangzeb's progeny); the former was regarded merely as an invader by a section of right-wing politicians and their followers, the latter reduced to a destroyer of temples. The fans and followers of Brigadier Usman reminded the divisive elements they would be better off calling other Indians 'Usman ki aulad' (Usman's progeny). Incidentally, Brigadier Usman himself had no children.
Usman was born on July 15, 1912 in Bibipur in Mau district of Azamgarh division in Uttar Pradesh, a region which is derided by some hard-line Hindutva proponents as 'mini Pakistan'. Soon after the Batla House encounter in Delhi in 2008, in which Delhi Police officer Mohan Chand Sharma lost his life while attempting to nab two alleged terrorists of the Indian Mujahideen, a large section of the media labelled all of Azamgarh as a hub of terrorism as the two alleged terrorists hailed from there. Not one television channel brought up the fact that the region also produced for independent India a martyr who laid down his life fighting Pakistan.
Usman's father was a high-ranking police officer in Benares. And young Usman would divide his time between Benares, where his father was posted, and Bibipur, where he went along with his parents to spend time with the extended family on the weekends. Usman was meant for great things in life.
A civil services career would have offered stability, respect and a regular income, while a career in the army came replete with dangers to life and limb, but also the opportunity to serve the motherland. Death would bring the ultimate honour, of being celebrated as a true son of the soil. Usman scripted a tale of valour and commitment to the country that continues to inspire succeeding generations.
Excerpted with permission from Bloomsbury.