An institution called Subedar Major by B.K. Karkra

It is difficult to describe the position and prestige that a Subedar Major enjoys in a unit. Whatever you say about him would fall short of the parameters of his personality. He is rather an institution in himself. His commanding officer often falls back on his advice in difficult situations-specially, those related to the morale, welfare and discipline of his men and the image of the unit.
Most of the clout that he commands comes out of the position of trust that he enjoys with his commanding officer who regards him as a repository of wisdom, sagacity, sobriety, maturity, loyalty, cool-headedness and above all, a sort of farmer’s horse-sense. But, this is not all. Let me try to explain this phenomenon more properly through a couple of incidents.
An Army unit was on an operational exercise in a highly undulated and slippery area. Their divisional commander, a Major General, came to oversee them. When being escorted to the exercise area, he slipped and fell on the ground. Seeing the plight of the embarrassed General, the Subedar Major of the unit, following behind his C.O. lost no time in slipping himself in an equally ungainly thud. He then stood up smartly and said, “Saab, yahan to hum roz bees bees bar girte hain (Sir, we fall here scores of times every day)”. That put the General at ease instantly, though he did not fail to notice, rather approvingly, why the Subedar Major had enacted all this. Here was a typical S.M. discharging one of his multi-dimensional roles to perfection.
Some 32 years back, the 51 Battalion, C.R.P.Force that I commanded was doing training under an Army brigade at the peak of summer. Our men then did not get any ration allowance. So, their messing had to be managed within their own meagre resources.
Something affordable was needed to be done to save them from heat stoke. I directed that they would be served daily two glasses of diluted milk beverage (lassi). Almond, rose and other essences were to be added for flavour. This worked well, in that none of my men was laid with heat stroke and they enjoyed the drink also.
Encouraged with this, I got another brain wave. The summer was now over. I briefed my faithful S.M. that the sub-units would prepare ‘kanji’, a black carrot based beverage that also works out cheap and is quite tasty and invigorating.
Thus, massive ‘matkas’ (earthen pots) were promptly procured in the unit to brew the beverage for the men. After a few days I checked with my Subedar Major how the idea had done. With his usual sense of obedience, he stated that the men were duly being made to drink it ‘hukamiya’ i.e. under orders. On my prodding, he came out that otherwise the men did not like it.
The incident explains yet another facet of a Subedar Major’s profile — there are, of course, many more to it.

Source: The Tribune, Chandigarh, India.

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