The Present Disposition and How Women Fit Into It?
By Nixon Fernando
Today, with rapidly progressing technology, it is clear that brute
force is not the be all and end all of war fighting. But even when it
was the matter of swords and spears, the likes of Rani Lakshmi Bai and
Kittur Channama excelled and are remembered among warrior legends.
Surely in the times of remote controlled drones, laser targeting and
sniper firing it must be far easier for the ladies. The question,
though, is whether their induction into the core fighting arms of the
‘present’ set up of the Indian Army will turn out to be a force
multiplier or a capacity dampener.
The abilities of women can bring a lot to the table for the armed
forces. True that in sports women fight women to win trophies while in
war there are no such restrictions; women must take on men too. And
when women take on men there will always exist a fraction of women,
however small, who can get the better of most men.
Such probability would be low in activities that are rather physical.
But when it comes to sports like shooting and Archery and to many mind
related games like Chess, or solving the Rubix Cube, the number of
women that can out-do men rises significantly. And added to that there
are also established traits in women that can render them advantageous
in areas like nursing, medicine, communications, coordination and
training, And surely they can go shoulder to shoulder with men in
espionage…
A scientific finding, some years back, even suggested that in a twin
pilot aircraft the most effective combination of pilots would be a
man-woman pair. The idea was that their abilities would complement
each other and maximize efficiency and effectiveness. It is only
likely that there will be plenty of such opportunities in a modern
context where the wars become increasingly button driven. This would
mean that a modern fighting force could in all probability use the
services of Women for greater efficiency; surely so in certain areas.
And yet it remains to be seen if a sudden induction of this kind, as
by the Supreme Court order, will truly strengthen our fighting forces.
And this doubt arises because the Indian Army is actually a modified
British Indian Army. Based on regiments, the British Indian Army had
built up significant strength and the Indian subcontinent was
eventually held together primarily using this strength. These
regiments, which have existed for even centuries now, have stood the
test of time.
A lady officer briefs the Russian contingent about disarming an IED
explosive during a joint exercise in Rajasthan, India, 2015; File
Photo
They initially consisted of Officers who were primarily British and
Men who were primarily Indian. After Independence, the British
officers have been replaced by Indians but the structure has been
retained more or less in its original form. And the reason for this
was that it was already established by that time that the alternate
systems more or less failed against the British Indian Army. The
fighting spirit of these regiments makes our army the effective force
that it is today.
In this system the ladies were essentially spouses. Needless to say,
these ladies were no less brave than the men because it takes a brave
lady to send her husband to battle with the right attitude. And she
should have the ability to hold the home fort even during the complete
absence of the man. She was not paid but she formed an important part
of the strength of the officialdom.
When Lady Officers were first introduced into the Indian armed forces
after the earlier Supreme Court order, the officers in the units, who
were welcoming the women officers for the first time, were at sea with
the idea. Some were known to have shown lady second lieutenants the
respect accorded to senior Officer Wives. In fact even the women
officers, have found it difficult to context themselves socially in
respect of fellow officers’ wives.
And similarly difficulty is experienced by Lady Officers while making
their husbands comfortable in the company of their colleagues. Then
there is the interaction of woman officers with the jawans, which in
turn brings in its own set of complexities.
But it has been 30 years since the women were first inducted for
training in the Officers Training Academy (OTA), and having ambled
along for these three decades now, some kind of working equilibrium
has been reached, and Lady officers are now more or less integrated
into the system with the occasional hiccup.
But it is still not smooth sailing and the new order may just push the
equilibrium to a new normal that may make it even tougher. And it
remains to be seen if it is all indeed headed in the correct
direction.
(Nixon Fernando is a post graduate in physics, government and business
administration. He served as lecturer and counselor at the NDA for 10
years from 1996 to 2007. A versatile sportsman and ballroom dance
instructor, his services were appreciated and commended by the
Commandant and Principal of NDA. Currently, he is a research assistant
to TN Seshan, former CEC of India. He can be reached on Email:
[email protected])
