The British Indian army consisted of Indian soldiers and British officers. Indians served as non-commissioned officers called Native Officers and later Viceroy Commissioned Officers (VCOs). The debate about opening the officer rank to Indians lingered over few decades in India and England and the issue was finally settled after the First World War when it was decided to open King’s commission to Indians. The first batch of five Indians consisting of Iskander Mirza, Iqbal Baig, Lolit Kumar Roy, Madanjit Singh and Turan Kumar Sinha entered Royal Military Academy Sandhurst in January 1919. Iqbal and Lolit Kumar died before graduation and Turan Kumar failed. Madanjit Singh passed but could not maintain high standards, ended up in a bankruptcy court and failed to earn commission. Mirza was the only one of the first batch to earn King’s commission in the Indian army.
Mirza was commissioned on July 16, 1920 and was the first Indian to be commissioned as officer from Sandhurst. Indian officers were attached to a British regiment for one year before being posted to their parent regiment. He was attached to 2nd Battalion Scottish Rifles (Cameroonians). He was the first Indian officer to serve with British on equal basis and this caused uproar in some circles and issue caused a prolonged struggle involving Indian army brass, Viceroy’s Army Council, War Office in London and Secretary of State of India. This dragged on for six months and finally Mirza was able to join Scottish Rifles in January 1921. The Battalion was stationed at Kohat and commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Oakley. Mirza earned the respect of his British colleagues and after two months, the commanding officer wrote, ‘I can say with confidence that this attachment has been a success’. Mirza participated in frontier operations with Cameroonians. After an operation in the hills Mirza’s platoon was retiring under fire. Mirza fell and sprained his ankle. His soldiers noticed his absence and dashed back under fire and picked him up. The British soldiers later remarked that “We couldn’t leave our Indian behind”.
Mirza’s parent regiment was 33rd Cavalry when he was commissioned. After a year with Scottish Rifles, Mirza joined his parent regiment stationed at Jhansi. In 1922-23, the Indian army went through major reorganization and several cavalry regiments were amalgamated and 33rd Queen Victoria’s Own (QVO) Cavalry and 34th Prince Albert Victor’s Own (PAVO) Cavalry were amalgamated to form 17 Poona Horse. 33rd QVO Cavalry originated as 3rd Bombay Light Cavalry and at the time of amalgamation had four squadrons; A Jat Squadron (mainly from Rohtak area), B Kaim Khani, C Muslim Rajput and D Sikh squadron. 34th PAVO Cavalry originated as Poona Auxiliary Horse in early 1800s. Class composition of squadrons at the time of amalgamation was A and B Rathore Rajputs (mainly from Jodhpur), C Punjabi Muslim (mainly from Jhelum area) and D Kaim Khani squadron (mainly from Sheikhawati region of Jaipur). Regiments were amalgamated in Jhansi and Risaldar Major (RM) Hamir Singh became the first RM of 17 Poona Horse. Final class composition of the new regiment was A Rathore Rajput, B Kaim Khani and C Jat squadron.
Mirza joined B Kaim Khani squadron that was stationed in Allahabad. In 1924, 17 Horse left for frontier duty at Bannu and later spent several years in Peshawar. Mirza remained with his regiment for four years and transferred to Indian Political Service (IPS) in August 1926. Many early King Commissioned officers especially Muslims opted for IPS and in addition to Mirza Sahibzada Muhammad Khurshid (1/14 Punjab Regiment), Agha Syed Badshah (1/14 Punjab Regiment) and Abdul Rahim Khan (Guides Infantry) joined IPS. All of them spent only few years with regiments before transferring to IPS.
Regimental record states that Mirza was very popular among ranks. He was Captain when he resigned his commission (he was given honorary Lieutenant Colonel rank for protocol purposes and in Pakistan he was given honorary rank of Major General). However, he remembered his Kaim Khanis. A large number of Kaim Khanis migrated to Pakistan in 1947 and Iskander Mirza then who was serving as Secretary of Defense helped in settlement of Kaim Khani refugees in Sindh and Punjab. When Mirza was with 17 Poona Horse, one of the Kaim Khani Risaldar was Anno Khan. He later became Risaldar Major. Anno Khan decided to stay in India but when Anno visited Pakistan he met Iskander Mirza. Both men surely would have recounted nostalgic memories about the days when a young and dashing lieutenant recently out of Sandhurst made acquaintance with a wise Viceroy Commissioned Officer (VCO). Iskander asked him to stay back in Pakistan and offered him land but Anno declined and returned to India.
Mirza spent a long career in IPS and most of his career was on North West Frontier. He served as Assistant Commissioner (AC) of Hazara, Tank, Bannu and Nowshehra. In 1933, he was promoted Deputy Commissioner (DC) and served as DC of Hazara 1933-36, Mardan 1936-38 and Peshawar 1940-45. He was the first Indian DC of Peshawar district. He served as Political Agent (PA) of Khyber tribal agency from 1938-40 and PA of Orissa states 1945-46. In 1946, he was appointed joint secretary Ministry of Defense in Delhi. Secretary of Defense was Sir Ambrose Dundas and Mirza’s fellow joint secretary was Philip Mason; later a celebrated author of India and Indian army. Mirza was awarded officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) and commander of the Order of the Indian empire (CIE). In Pakistan he served as Secretary of Defense (1947-54) and Governor of East Pakistan (1954-54). He resigned from government service in 1954 to become cabinet member. He served as Governor General (1955-6) and President (1956-1958).
On October 07, 1958, Mirza sacked the government but three weeks later, C-in-C General Muhammad Ayub Khan dismissed Mirza. Lieutenant General Azam Khan, Lieutenant General K. M. Sheikh and Lieutenant General W. A. Burki and Brigadier Bahadur Sher came to Mirza’s residence at night. Mirza and his wife were first sent to Quetta and later exiled to London on November 02, 1958. He lived on an annual pension of £ 3,000 pounds. His financial situation was not good but he lived with dignity. In Sir Olaf Caroe’s words, Mirza displayed ‘a dignity qualified by more than a shade of finesse’. On one occasion, foreign secretary Lord Hume saw Mirza with his laundry bag and offered him a lift. Mirza died on November 13, 1969. The Pakistani government declined a burial request in his home country and the Shah of Iran graciously gave him a state funeral and Mirza was buried in Iran. Mirza’s total assets were worth £ 859.08 pounds. After deduction of lawyer’s fees and other expense, a total of £ 165.74 pounds was distributed among his heirs. In 2001, Pakistani columnist Aredshir Cowasjee met Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw and they talked about Sam’s colleague and friend General Yahya Khan. Sam said, ‘there was not one mean or corrupt bone in his body’. This statement is also true for Mirza. Mirza’s political decisions have been rightly criticized, especially the sacking of an elected government and paving the way for authoritarian set up in Pakistan. He was from the generation of Indians trained by the British and was imbued with some sterling qualities of hard work and had a clean public service record with no financial impropriety.
Notes
1. Regimental History of Poona Horse, a copy is available on online at Poona Horse Regimental Association, http://web.archive.org/web/20040722123932/http://poonahorse.com/history.htm and http://www.bharat-rakshak.com/LAND-FORCES/images/Poona%20Horse.pdf
2. Lt. Colonel (r) Gautam Sharma. Nationalization of the Indian Army 1885-1947 (New Delhi: Allied Publishers Limited, 1996).
3. Humayun Mirza. From Plassey to Pakistan: The Family History of Iskandar Mirza (Lahore: Ferozsons, 2000, Pakistan Edition).
4. Hamid Hussain. Indian Army Officer Corps – Social Panorama. Defence Journal, August 2011.
5. Hamid Hussain. Poona Horse. Defence Journal, February 2013.
6. Letter of Sir Ambrose Dundas. Asian Affairs, Volume 1, Issue: 2, 1970.
