CHANGED TIMES
THE MASTERS OF WAR
A TIMELESS QUESTION
CRIMSON PAGES
CHAPTER IN GORE
WOUNDED HUMANITY
THE SPOKESMAN
THE SOLDIER
THE BALLAD OF CAPTAIN VIKRAM BATRA, PVC
FREEDOM HAS A PRICE
AT NAMKA CHU
REZANG LA REVISITED
VICTORY MARCH
VICTORY MARCH, my latest 2-track release has a commemorative Victory March that recalls the flight of 10 million refugees who crossed over the border into India, and a 13-day fierce war in December 1971 that was fought by the Indian Armed Forces on two fronts on land, seas, and skies. Three distinguished Corps of the Indian army went into action on the eastern front. Why?
Have memories of “an outstanding example of humanitarian intervention in the face of a horrendous civilian annihilation and its aftermath” dimmed over four decades? 3,900 Indian soldiers lost their lives; 9,851 were wounded. A historic unconditional surrender signed on 16 December 1971 resulted in the repatriation of 93,000 PoWs, the Geneva Conventions applying with immediate effect to all. And a staggering 3 million Bangla people were dead.
Will realpolitik effectively reshape public opinion on this neighbourhood war and what it was for? The answers to that lie in the questions that could be asked yet again:
“Was it for a principled humanitarian intervention?
The victory of democracy over military rule?
The victory of humanism over barbarism?
The victory of liberation over occupation?”
HYMN TO NATIONS :With a timeless validity, simple yet profound, “Hymn to Nations” is an inspiring paean to the ideal of brotherhood and peace among the diverse nations of the world, all equal in their own right. The striving for peace, tolerance and amity is a challenge when destructive wars continue to take a heavy toll of human lives.
Links
Spotify
Apple Music
https://music.apple.com/in/album/victory-march-single/1783139006
YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r3_cYj7Xdi0&list=OLAK5uy_nxqUr24AiLvFD2YxT7oOO-S2LV63fzEvU
Amazon Music
https://music.amazon.in/albums/B0DPL1BG54
My new album REZANG LA REVISITED commemorates the heroism of the soldiers of "C" Company of 13 Kumaon Regiment in the 1962 Sino-Indian War. The battle stands out in the annals of world military history as a stark example of rare courage against the heaviest odds. "C" Company of the 13 Kumaon Regiment was deployed at the 5,000m. high mountain pass of Rezang La, located on the eastern watershed of the Chushul Valley in Ladakh. The soldiers fought super-heroically “to the last bullet and the last man” on November 18 1962 in lethal combat with the Chinese PLA troops to block them from crossing the ridge into the Chushul Valley.
Major Shaitan Singh (b. 1 December 1924, Jodhpur), who commanded "C" Company, is remembered for the extraordinary leadership and courage that inspired and motivated his men. India’s highest decoration of gallantry--the Param Vir Chakra (PVC)-- was awarded to him posthumously.
The often-quoted first four lines from the Indian Army’s War Memorial raised by all ranks at Chushul, Ladakh, “to the sacred memory of the heroes” who died in the Battle of Rezang La, aptly read:
"How can a man die better
Than facing fearful odds,
For the ashes of his fathers,
And the temples of his Gods.”
Credits:
THE REZANG LA MARCH
Performed by: Vanita Singh, keyboard
Composer: Vanita Singh
Arranger: Vanita Singh
Producer: Vanita Singh
REZANG LA REVISITED (ballad)
Performed by: Vanita Singh, acoustic guitar
Composer: Vanita Singh
Lyricist: Vanita Singh
Arranger: Vanita Singh
Producer: Vanita Singh
Links
Smart Link: https://vanitasingh.ffm.to/rezanglarevisited
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/4cy3qqOVSuVXwNKVq0MDgq?si=Usmf9YSKQW2MCZX65SWs5g
YouTube: https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_kMG_Q4NdF_QDR1lYkV8zMbnfYFE0mmMgU
Apple Music: https://music.apple.com/in/album/rezang-la-revisited-single/1778258079
Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.com/albums/B0DM6M9QZ6?ref=dm_ff_amazonmusic.3p&tag=ffmin-21
Links
Smart Link - https://vanitasingh.ffm.to/atnamkachu
Amazon Music
https://music.amazon.in/albums/B0DK5XMV22
Apple Music
https://music.apple.com/in/album/at-namka-chu-single/1774260066
Spotify
https://open.spotify.com/album/3wo5RiYWhnrKknHC3rpOA8
YouTube
Ballad
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRgETT0hhkg
March
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sqbGiQEzxb0
My ballad AT NAMKA CHU highlights the Sino-Indian Himalayan battle at the Namka Chu river valley in October 1962. The hapless underequipped Indian 7th Infantry Brigade deployed in tactically indefensible locations, was ordered to frontally attack the numerically superior Chinese Army dominating the heights of Thagla Ridge. The soldiers left to fend for themselves fought heroically to the bitter end. Ian Cardozo’s lyrics recall his friend Capt. Mahabir Singh Mangat of 2 Rajput, killed in action at Namka Chu.
Credits:
AT NAMKA CHU (ballad)
Track Artist, Vocals, Acoustic Guitar: Vanita Singh
Composer: Vanita Singh
Arranger: Vanita Singh
Lyricist: Ian Cardozo
Producer: Vanita Singh
THE NAMKA CHU MARCH (instrumental)
Dedicated to the men of the 7th Brigade—bravest of the brave--who fought and died at Namka Chu, October 1962; to those who suffered for months in Chinese PoW camps in Tibet thereafter; to those who were even humiliated for no fault of theirs; and to their grieving families.
It was one of the saddest ironies of this War that Brigadier John Parashuram Dalvi’s efforts to honour the memory of the soldiers under his command by trying to get them the recognition they richly deserved were cavalierly dismissed.
Credits:
Track Artist, Keyboard: Vanita Singh
Composer: Vanita Singh
Arranger: Vanita Singh
Producer: Vanita Singh
The commemorative ballad “At Namka Chu” recalls the Himalayan battleground in October 1962 at the Namka Chu river valley on the Indian side of the Sino-Indian border, a great wall of mountains rising almost vertically immediately behind the roaring river to the Thagla Massif. Lulled into a false sense of security, completely ignoring, even downplaying the nature and scope of an impending massive Chinese attack, resulted in a non-existent Indian task force being scrambled into operations at short notice in a last desperate gamble.
Unacclimatised troops of the Indian army were rushed to the Thagla Ridge, where a well-trained, numerically superior Chinese army equipped with modern weapons dominated the Indian positions in the valley below. The Indian troops, in summer uniforms and canvas shoes, located in tactically indefensible locations with poor approaches, supplied only with pouch ammunition, no reserves, no supporting fire, and without rations, were peremptorily ordered to attack the Chinese Army, while being left to fend for themselves.
The men were already exhausted by days of marching in bitter cold over high altitudes in gale-force wind and mist on slippery paths as well as steep gradients through slush, mountain trails and incessant, heavy monsoonal rain, besides having to navigate extremely treacherous steep descents with slippery, lichen-covered boulders over precipitous passes and thick patches of jungle.
At 5 a.m. on the morning of October 20th, 1962, the two Very lights fired by the Chinese were followed by a cannonade of over 150 guns and heavy mortars on the Thagla forward slopes. Thereafter, Indian positions were heavily bombarded and shelled some 1,000 yards from the riverbank; 76 mm guns fed and fired automatically, along with 12 mm mortars, the salvos crashing overhead. Within minutes of the opening Chinese salvoes, the Indian mortar platoon was wiped out swiftly and completely.
The Brigade HQ at Tawang, some five days march from the scene of intrusion at Thagla Ridge, “was shelled from 5 a.m. to 8:30 a.m., mostly with heavy mortars with a high proportion of tree bursts—the deadliest force of bombardment to endure”.
Encircled by the Chinese in one large and two small pincer movements, the outnumbered thousand-odd Indian soldiers put up a spirited fight to forestall over 20,000 Chinese to the bitter end, the Namka Chu battleground soon a sprawling mosaic of humans locked in mortal combat. Within just three hours, the flower of the Indian forces had been hacked to pieces without a chance to do anything but die like men.
Examples of group and virtually epic individual heroism nevertheless abounded with men charging the attacking wave with the bayonet, fighting with élan and determination. Courage and tenacity distinguished the Indian soldier, holding fast against three waves of Chinese attacks, suffering heavy casualties, the enemy calling for heavier artillery concentrations before launching the fourth attack. Rallied fighting men in small sub-units, led by officers and JCOs, continued to resist even when isolated and encircled. The story of gallantry was re-enacted in many platoons and companies, officers leading and inspiring their men to rise to superhuman height to repel the fourth attack, the brave soldiers clinging doggedly to their positions till every man was killed beyond the call of duty.
Brigadier J.P. Dalvi Commander of the besieged 7 Infantry Brigade—the only such Indian armed formation within hundreds of miles—agonizingly witnessed his helpless men pinned down to the Namka Chu Valley and the destruction of his brigade on 20th October 1962, for an unrealistic, unattainable objective. In addition, many died from exposure to the severe cold, and a large number from merciless hunger.
While endeavouring to rein the remnants of his command, Brig Dalvi himself was captured on 22nd October 1962. Incarceration ensued in a Prisoner-of-War camp in Tibet before being repatriated from China in 1963. The general outline of the Brigadier’s account, a “curtain-raiser to the Sino-Indian War of 1962” was conceived during his months in prison-- an unvarnished tale leaving his fellow Indian citizens to hear the truth from the only senior officer who was there throughout “the Himalayan Blunder”, indubitably an officer and gentleman to the core.
The death struggle of 7 Infantry Brigade-- a tale of horrific suffering in the battle in the desolate Thagla Ridge area, is both tribute and homage to the devotion to duty of these unflinching Indian soldiers.
Some questions persist, though it may well be that for arm-chair strategists and policy-framers at Delhi these had perhaps not seemed pressing issues:
1. Does the story of the ill-fated Thagla battle not highlight the squandered heroism of India’s simple, tough peasantry, among them “the Gorkhas, the Rajputs, the Sikhs, the Dogras, the Bengalis, the Mussalmans of the Grenadiers, the Ahirs, the South Indian Signallers, and all the others from the four corners of India—men who had nothing to sustain them but their regimental pride and traditions”, doing what they had done because they were soldiers, for no man can do more than give his life for his country”.
2. Out of wireless touch, were these outgunned soldiers, obedient and disciplined, with their devotion to duty, hardiness and cheerfulness despite the hardships to be encountered and surmounted, expendable?
3. Is it not true that “[t]he Indian soldier asks for very little and does not worry if this little is not provided”? Have these men received due recognition? Have they been denied the homage that is their due? Have Indian soldiers been expendable all along? Have border incidents with China and Pakistan remained an occupational hazard for our soldiers?
4. Did not the almost surreal naïve complacency and grandiloquence of those taking the resolute and irrevocable decision to evict the Chinese from our territory— the Chinese had first intruded at Thagla on 8th September-- invite retaliation all along the Sino-Indian border, exacting a heavy toll in lives?
5. Do faulty policies seek alibis and scapegoats over accepting responsibility for a failed policy that resulted largely in the tragic events from 8th September to 20th October 1962? Could 1,000 odd men have staved off 20,000 Chinese?
*
The Chinese attack occurred simultaneously in sectors Tawang and Walong in NEFA, and Ladakh).
Losing many good men under his command, and conscientiously seeking recognition for their conspicuous bravery, the 7th Infantry Brigade Commander J.P Dalvi, repatriated from captivity in a Prisoner of War Camp in Tibet, was cavalierly told: “Brigadier, you should know, losing armies don’t get medals!”.
And what of those who found themselves alive, scattered in the jungle, experiencing the radical change in roles from combatant to the ignominy of being a captive? It is important to bear in mind that at the time of capture, the prisoner of war (PoW) must gain quick emotional control, deal with fears of death, and attend to the tasks necessary for survival. Expectations of rescue fade quickly after removal from the capture site. The sense of disbelief results from the rapid sequence of events contributing to the radical role change.
The prisoner of war experience, often one of the most traumatic situations in human experience, has multiple stressors of the PoW environment, often terrifying and inhuman, and always filled with the unexpected. Given the lack of recognition for their suffering, learning about this experience firsthand from those who survived the ordeal of being lost, captured, and imprisoned by the enemy, conduces to a better understanding of their plight. Nothing is known about the group that never returned.
For servicemen detained in captivity, the initial “breaking-in” and transportation to the final confinement site, forces the PoW to adapt to a lower plane of existence, making him aware of losing his usual supports and prestige. Feelings of longing for freedom, wishes for sympathy, dissociation, memories of home are inevitable during this phase.
It is important to remember that repatriated servicemen are the survivors. A select group who have courageously buffered stress during demoralizing captivity, imprisonment and confinement through the will to live, military experience and bearing, maintaining their self-respect, morale, hope, and physical fitness for months, notwithstanding demeaning psychological and physical maltreatment including torture, threats, solitary confinement and interrogation, nutritional deprivation. Loyalty to country through remembering their heritage, focusing on their patriotic duty to resist, and sustaining hope of returning with a feeling of having been worthy of their families mark these men.
The stresses on the families of the PoWs are also manifold, both during captivity and after repatriation. The family and the military community are critical elements in the recovery, re-adaptation, and reintegration of the PoW. He may, in addition, also be faced with the outside world’s dismissive view of his behaviour and situation--a changed world he becomes cognizant of, one in which he suffers the heaped indignity and insensitivity of the charge of being “brainwashed” from his own compatriots and colleagues. Subjected thereafter to ‘filtration’, interrogations, and discrimination by the bureaucracy, these men continue to regarded as the “awkward lot” best consigned to a collusive tight-lipped silence.
While history is not made of witness accounts and on their basis, without them it would not be complete nor entirely true. In his book The Himalayan Blunder, Brigadier Dalvi records and illuminates the prelude to the Battle of Namka Chu as well, not leaving it to remain a subject of mere memory or oral statement.
Photo: Brigadier J.P. Dalvi (kind courtesy Michael Dalvi)
Vanita Singh New Delhi
20 October 2024
My ballad “FREEDOM HAS A PRICE” reflects on those who put their lives on the line every day in protecting our borders that we may live our lives in peace. The debt of gratitude owed to these brave troops, who are deployed in dangerous and difficult terrain, seems to be taken for granted. Smug, glib public statements cannot do justice to the unstinting sacrifices our soldiers and their families make despite the constant toll of life. Their welfare is a genuine concern.
Spotify
https://open.spotify.com/album/3ABbRPtALmPi4DkHtJFWh0
Apple music
https://music.apple.com/in/album/freedom-has-a-price-single/1767624600
YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-Omcxy-rPQ
Amazon Music
https://music.amazon.in/albums/B0DGLX1YHQ
https://open.spotify.com/album/1dlULRawnMs6EbRPvXgvp3?si=8AwzuK5bTdybUvT0vqqAag
Apple Music
https://music.apple.com/in/album/the-ballad-of-captain-vikram-batra-pvc-ep/1761612723
YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wkHHR-o1PCk&list=OLAK5uy_k7y9hO3sGbB3JZq3ZVwWkfz3nc_AccKLc
Amazon music
Photo on left: Bust of Captain Vikram Batra, PVC, 13 JAK Rifles, at the National War Memorial, New Delhi
CHANGED TIMES is about the feeling of being on the threshold of a new era energises the drivers of change to propagate and justify the novelties that will do away with the mixed baggage of a past they see no use for. Euphoria and disquiet, hopes and misgivings are palpable in the pulse of everyday life. What will be will be but not everything can be wished away or quick-fixed, especially predictable scenarios where history repeats itself and free speech has to battle it out and prevail.
Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/album/4ofPkRPXvVDr3ZSlEEjBqZ
YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t2LMH_GjsU8
Apple Music:
https://music.apple.com/in/album/changed-times-single/1677314114
THE MASTERS OF WAR reflects the threat to peace and stability in Europe, which could lead to a nuclear war. Conscripts of military age find themselves in a nightmarish bind on both sides. On the thinly dividing line between life and death, wounded, thinking of God, home, and their loved ones, like ordinary people across the world, their simple pleasures of life are immanent in a gentle breeze, quiet dawn, and birdsong. Tragically, each generation’s angst appears to be lost on the masters of war.
Spotify
https://open.spotify.com/album/327muRRh4ec6Puy0qaqpml
YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wPJVGAmUizA
Apple Music
https://music.apple.com/jp/album/the-masters-of-war-single/1695590510
Amazon Prime
https://music.amazon.in/albums/B0CB1Q6CTY
A TIMELESS QUESTION is about the tragic upheavals resulting from wars across the world that make news headlines. Common to all these tragedies is a timeless question: why do innocent people suffer so much? It is the human capacity to endure that makes people in the abyss of despair or pushed to the brink rest their faith in God.
Spotify
https://open.spotify.com/album/3A4uC7ZUFZO5pYjOQfJUUb
YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BnynH5Eo664
Apple Music
https://music.apple.com/gb/album/a-timeless-question-single/1708036334
Amazon Prime
https://music.amazon.in/albums/B0CJCG87LD
My ballad CRIMSON PAGES wrestles with shattering the “oneness of humanity”.
Spotify
https://open.spotify.com/track/31Ze1zPhLdarM3v0SfvF3G?si=pbxV4ocdTGaAXt1PJ629eg
YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jAsGT7UaHSA
Apple Music
https://music.apple.com/in/album/crimson-pages-single/1722140664
Amazon Prime
https://music.amazon.in/albums/B0CQPJZFNL
CHAPTER IN GORE reflects on the critical role of rhetoric in conflicts and blunted human empathy. The ballad mirrors the utter misery of hapless victims of vicious military force, including with first-time use WMDs, in full view of the digital world. Dispossession and death go with a resilience and wan hope, somewhat symbiotic, born of despair, the glaring inversion of values staring us in the face.
Spotify
https://open.spotify.com/album/2TN8yPcDcIhz354CdNnyyP
YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3V94tNYrUN8
Apple Music
https://music.apple.com/gb/album/chapter-in-gore-single/1730525039
Amazon Music
WOUNDED HUMANITY is about a chilling dystopia—the indiscriminate killing and wounding of innocent humanity in this day and age.
The interlinked digital world brings live events directly to us, and none of us can say that we did not know.
Spotify
https://open.spotify.com/album/1947AUIgSSXlXUKT41X7Ow
YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQmALE3SBMA
Apple Music
https://music.apple.com/in/album/wounded-humanity-single/1737826105
Amazon Music
https://music.amazon.in/albums/B0CZ16PFG7
THE SPOKESMAN is about the spin frequently put on news stories beamed across the globe. The honed art of spin makes it an even more lethal weapon than boots on the ground in conflict zones. Through a variety of techniques adopted by masters of spin, fiction overtakes reality, becoming a toxic opiate for the unquestioning masses.
Spotify
https://open.spotify.com/album/5av6CdIYT6JKGBlnGkhwp1
YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMdhdsB0Cwc
Apple Music
https://music.apple.com/us/album/the-spokesman-single/1748594619
(To change the link for any country, just change the 'us' within the link to the relevant two-letter ISO code for the country of your choice.)
Amazon Prime Music
https://music.amazon.in/albums/B0D5BQQFSP
THE SOLDIER
"The Indian soldier knows that the safety of his country depends on how well he does his duty. His training gives him the confidence to meet the challenges that face the nation and its people. He is there wherever and whenever danger beckons, be it on the battlefield or against terrorists or in dangers caused by natural disasters. He gives his all, to face these threats and for this he needs to be loved and respected.
Soldiers die daily on our borders facing our enemies but it appears that his death is taken for granted. Words of praise emanate only after he dies and a little while later, he is soon forgotten
Tributes to the soldier are of little use, when the ones they are meant for cannot hear them. The soldier who loves his country so very much and for whom he gives his all, would like to feel the love and care of the people he serves wash over him." [Ian Cardozo]
YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HYBJRpfrc3o
