When Marshal of the Indian Air Force Arjan Singh D.F.C. retired from his mortal body in September 2016, tributes befitting an honourable soldier poured in aplenty.
There were news reports celebrating his career, his bravado, his service to India. The nation stood up to salute the first five-star rank officer of the Indian Air Force and the oldest soldier of the Indian army when he finally bowed out at 98, two years shy of hitting a century.
But what most people don’t know about him is that he offered more to India than just his military service. He sold off his land for the benefit of the families of retired Indian Air Force personnel.
And it is said that for a Jat to sell off his land, either he’s got to be out of pocket or out of his mind. For him, the love for the motherland flew past his love for a few acres of land.
Usually, Jat Sikhs take great pride in talking about their land holdings and wear it as a badge of honour. But for him, there was no badge more honourable than the Indian Air Force, for which he sold his farmland in the vicinity of Delhi, this being the last piece of land this Jat Sikh had.
The proceeds of the sale, Rs 2 crore, went into setting up the Marshal of the Air Force and Mrs Arjan Singh Trust. This fund is used to help Air Force personnel in need of money. When Singh passed away last year, Air Chief Marshal B.S. Dhanoa termed him a “philanthropist to the core” as his fund helped give loans worth Rs 2.7 crore to air force personnel who used it for improving the health, career, education and lifestyle of their families.
He is reported to have donated many small plots from his ancestral land holding of 80 acres to many Dalits from his village Chuharwali near Jalandhar as he did towards the Shri Guru Ravidas Gurdwara there, another measure of his support to the oppressed and marginalised. There was no combat between Marshal of the Indian Air Force Arjan Singh and Arjan Singh Aulakh, the landlord.
Marshall of the Indian Air Force, Arjan Singh, greeting the then President of the US, Barack Obama Source: Supplied
There are two lovely anecdotes associated with his land. He jokingly corrected his biographer, Roopinder Singh, who had mentioned him as a ‘Jat’ in his biography, Arjan Singh - Marshal of the Indian Air Force, that he was no longer a Jat as he had sold off the last piece of land he had!
The other heartwarming anecdote Roopinder mentions in his biography is when Arjan Singh’s wife, Teji, asks him why he included her name in the trust’s name, to which he replied that he couldn’t have sold the land off and set up this trust had she not supported him.
Such human facets of soldiers are often not exposed to the world and nobody tries to scratch their tough exterior to reach for the soft human being underneath.
Arjan Singh commanded the Indian Air Force to victory in the 1965 Indo-Pak war, in which the role of the air force despite its unimpressive aircraft in comparison to Pakistan’s at that time, can’t be praised enough. War broke out the year following his elevation to the post of air chief marshal.
At 45, he was the youngest aviator to become the chief of air staff and the oldest to hold an active rank in the force, till the age of 98. Being Marshal of the Indian Air Force, Arjan Singh was a five star rank officer, equivalent to a field marshal of the army.
Officers of this rank never retire: they hold their rank, although ceremonial in peace time, their secretarial staff, uniform and of course, their prized baton till they breathe their last. Five star rank officers, unlike other rank officers, don’t salute, rather raise their baton.
Arjan Singh’s life as a soldier began with a salute and ended with the baton. He was commissioned into the Royal Indian Air Force in 1938. And he retired only when life ended. In an interview he gave in 2015 to India’s CNN-IBN news channel on the occasion of the Golden Jubilee of the 1965 Indo-Pak War, Arjan Singh manouvered a question about his, much like an ace aviator would a fighter jet, in the most effortless and fun manner.
Here’s how he jettisoned his answer to a question on his old age: just as the interviewer mentioned his ripe old age of 96-and-a half, he cut her short and retorted: “who told you my age? I’m not that old!” In splits, the interviewer shot back asking how was if not 96-and-a-half, to which he replied tongue-in-cheek: “about 58!”, and everyone broke into peals of laughter!
With his die attitude, perhaps, Arjan Singh was meant to be a five-star rank officer, which is why and how he could continue to wear his uniform and never feel old, never retire from service.
IAF Marshall Arjan Singh Source: Supplied
During World War II, Lord Mountbatten, the then Supreme Allied Commander of the South East Asian Command of the British armed forces, decorated him with the Distinguished Flying Cross in recognition of his performance in defeating the Japanese in Imphal in 1944.
In 1947, he had the honour of leading the first fly past of independent India over the Red Fort in Delhi. He rose to the rank of air chief marshal in 1964. His military leadership and intelligence during the crucial days of this war, due to which India was able to prevent Jammu and Kashmir from being taken by Pakistan, are the stuff of legend.
He held some diplomatic positions too but he will be remembered as India’s longest serving military officer with a heart of gold.
