Lieutenant General Lieutenant general (Lt Gen, LTG and similar) is a three-star military rank (NATO code OF-8) used in many countries. The rank traces its origins to the Middle Ages, where the title of lieutenant general was held by the second-in-command on th ...

Jagjit Singh Arora (also Jagjit Singh Aurora)Both spellings are used in official documents; though "Aurora" predominates in the listings in the pre-Independence ''Indian Army List'', as do those in the ''

Gazette of India ''The Gazette of India'' is a public journal and an authorised legal document of the Government of India, published weekly by the Department of Publication, Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs. As a public journal, the ''Gazette'' prints off ...

''. (13 February 1916As given in the pre-Independence ''Indian Army List''. – 3 May 2005) was an

Indian Army The Indian Army is the Land warfare, land-based branch and the largest component of the Indian Armed Forces. The President of India is the Commander-in-Chief, Supreme Commander of the Indian Army, and its professional head is the Chief of Arm ...

General Officer A general officer is an officer of high rank in the armies, and in some nations' air forces, space forces, and marines or naval infantry. In some usages the term "general officer" refers to a rank above colonel."general, adj. and n.". OED ...

who was the General Officer Commanding-in-Chief (GOC-in-C) Eastern Command during the third war with Pakistan in 1971. He organised and led the ground forces campaign in the Eastern Front of the war, which led to an overwhelming defeat of the combined

Pakistan Armed Forces The Pakistan Armed Forces (; ) are the military forces of Pakistan. It is the world's sixth-largest military measured by active military personnel and consist of three formally uniformed services—the Army, Navy, and the Air Force, which are ...

in East-Pakistan that led to the creation of

Bangladesh Bangladesh (}, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the eighth-most populous country in the world, with a population exceeding 165 million people in an area of . Bangladesh is among the mo ...

. As the General commanding the Indian and Bangladesh Forces in the Eastern theater, Gen Aurora received the surrender from the Governor of

East Pakistan East Pakistan was a Pakistani province established in 1955 by the One Unit Policy, renaming the province as such from East Bengal, which, in modern times, is split between India and Bangladesh. Its land borders were with India and Myanmar, wit ...

and Commander of the Eastern Command of the

Pakistan Army The Pakistan Army (, ) is the land service branch of the Pakistan Armed Forces. The roots of its modern existence trace back to the British Indian Army that ceased to exist following the Partition of British India, which occurred as a result ...

, Lt Gen

A. A. K. Niazi Lieutenant General Amir Abdullah Khan Niazi (1915 – 1 February 2004) was a Pakistan Army general. During the Bangladesh Liberation War and the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971, he commanded the Pakistani Eastern Command in East Pakistan (now Bang ...

. After retirement from the Indian Army, he joined

Akali Dal The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) ( translation: ''Supreme Akali Party'') is a centre-right sikh-centric state political party in Punjab, India. The party is the second-oldest in India, after Congress, being founded in 1920. Although there are ...

and served as a Member of Parliament in the

Rajya Sabha The Rajya Sabha, constitutionally the Council of States, is the upper house of the bicameral Parliament of India. , it has a maximum membership of 245, of which 233 are elected by the legislatures of the states and union territories using si ...

Early life

Jagjit Singh Aurora was born to a

Sikh Sikhs ( or ; pa, ਸਿੱਖ, ' ) are people who adhere to Sikhism, Sikhism (Sikhi), a Monotheism, monotheistic religion that originated in the late 15th century in the Punjab region of the Indian subcontinent, based on the revelation of Gu ...

Arora Arora is a community of Punjab, comprising both Hindus and Sikhs. The name is derived from their native place Aror. Historically, the Arora section of the Khatri community had been principally found in West Punjab, in the districts to the sou ...

Khatri Khatri is a caste of the Indian subcontinent that is predominantly found in India, but also in Pakistan and Afghanistan. In the subcontinent, they were mostly engaged in mercantilistic professions such as banking and trade, they were the d ...

family in

Kala Gujran Kala Gujran (in Punjabi کالا گُجراں) is a town and union council of Jhelum District in the Punjab Province of Pakistan. It is part of Jhelum Tehsil, and is located at 33°10'48N 72°57'59E with an altitude of 467 metres (1535 f ...

Jhelum District Jhelum District (Urdu and pnb, ), is partially in Pothohar Plateau, and partially in Punjab Plain of the Punjab province of Pakistan. Jhelum is one of the oldest districts of Punjab. It was established on 23 March 1849. According to the 199 ...

Punjab Punjab (; Punjabi Language, Punjabi: پنجاب ; ਪੰਜਾਬ ; ; also Romanization, romanised as ''Panjāb'' or ''Panj-Āb'') is a geopolitical, cultural, and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the northern part of the I ...

British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance on the Indian subcontinent. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one ...

. He was the son of an engineer.

Army career

Aurora graduated from the

Indian Military Academy The Indian Military Academy (IMA) is one of the oldest military academies in India, and trains officers for the Indian Army. Located in Dehradun, Uttarakhand, it was established in 1932 following a recommendation by a military committee set up ...

in 1939 and was commissioned into the 1st Battalion,

2nd Punjab Regiment The 2nd Punjab Regiment was a British Indian Army regiment from 1922 to the partition of India in 1947. The regiment was formed by the amalgamation of other regiments: *1st Battalion, from the 67th Punjabis, formerly the 7th Regiment of Madras N ...

on 1 February. He saw action in the Burma Campaign during World War II. After

Independence Independence is a condition of a person, nation, country, or state in which residents and population, or some portion thereof, exercise self-government, and usually sovereignty, over its territory. The opposite of independence is the stat ...

and the ensuing

Partition of India The Partition of British India in 1947 was the change of political borders and the division of other assets that accompanied the dissolution of the British Raj in South Asia and the creation of two independent dominions: India and Pakistan. T ...

, he opted to join the

and was a commissioned officer in the Punjab Regiment during the Indo-Pakistani War of 1947. On 3 February 1957, he was promoted acting

Brigadier Brigadier is a military rank, the seniority of which depends on the country. In some countries, it is a senior rank above colonel, equivalent to a brigadier general or commodore, typically commanding a brigade of several thousand soldiers. ...

and given command of an infantry brigade. In May 1961, as BGS XXXIII Corps, Brigadier Arora led a team of military officers and men sent by the

Government of India The Government of India ( ISO: ; often abbreviated as GoI), known as the Union Government or Central Government but often simply as the Centre, is the national government of the Republic of India, a federal democracy located in South Asia, ...

on a

reconnaissance In military operations, reconnaissance or scouting is the exploration of an area by military forces to obtain information about enemy forces, terrain, and other activities. Examples of reconnaissance include patrolling by troops ( skirmishe ...

mission to

Bhutan Bhutan (; dz, འབྲུག་ཡུལ་, Druk Yul ), officially the Kingdom of Bhutan,), is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is situated in the Eastern Himalayas, between China in the north and India in the south. A mountainou ...

. This later led to the establishment of the

Indian Military Training Team The Indian Military Training Team (IMTRAT), established since 1961–62, is a training mission of the Indian Army in Bhutan. IMTRAT is responsible for the training of the personnel of the Royal Bhutan Army (RBA) and the Royal Bodyguard of Bhutan ...

in Bhutan. As a brigadier, he fought in the

Sino-Indian War The Sino-Indian War took place between China and India from October to November 1962, as a major flare-up of the Sino-Indian border dispute. There had been a series of violent border skirmishes between the two countries after the 1959 Tibet ...

in 1962. He was appointed a division commander on 21 February 1963, with a promotion to the rank of

Major General Major general (abbreviated MG, maj. gen. and similar) is a military rank used in many countries. It is derived from the older rank of sergeant major general. The disappearance of the "sergeant" in the title explains the apparent confusion of ...

on 20 June 1964. He was then appointed Director of Military Training (DMT) on 23 November 1964. He also participated in the

Indo-Pakistani War of 1965 The Indo-Pakistani War of 1965 or the Second Kashmir War was a culmination of skirmishes that took place between April 1965 and September 1965 between Pakistan and India. The conflict began following Pakistan's Operation Gibraltar, which was d ...

. On 6 June 1966, Arora was appointed Deputy Chief of the Army Staff (DCOAS) with the acting rank of

, and was promoted substantive Lieutenant General on 4 August. He was then given command of a General Officer Commanding (GOC) of a corps on 27 April 1967. On 8 June 1969, he was appointed the General Officer Commanding-in-Chief (GOC-in-C) Eastern Command.

East Pakistan

In March 1971, the

launched

Operation Searchlight Operation Searchlight was the codename for a planned military operation carried out by the Pakistan Army in an effort to curb the Bengali nationalist movement in former East Pakistan in March 1971. Pakistan retrospectively justified the opera ...

to curb the Bengali nationalist movement in

. The operation resulted in commencement of the

Bangladesh Liberation War The Bangladesh Liberation War ( bn, মুক্তিযুদ্ধ, , also known as the Bangladesh War of Independence, or simply the Liberation War in Bangladesh) was a revolution and armed conflict sparked by the rise of the Bengali ...

which resulted in the Bangladesh genocide, including the systematic murder of Bengali intellectuals by the Pakistan Army. The ensuing violence led to almost 10 million Bengali refugees fleeing from East Pakistan into India. A spontaneous Bengali guerrilla force, the

Mukti Bahini The Mukti Bahini ( bn, মুক্তিবাহিনী, translates as 'freedom fighters', or liberation army), also known as the Bangladesh Forces, was the guerrilla resistance movement consisting of the Bangladeshi military, paramilitary ...

, was formed in response. This force along with the newly formed

Bangladesh Forces The Mukti Bahini ( bn, মুক্তিবাহিনী, translates as 'freedom fighters', or liberation army), also known as the Bangladesh Forces, was the guerrilla resistance movement consisting of the Bangladeshi military, paramilitary ...

, consisting of Bengali defectors from the Pakistan Army under the command of General Bangabir MAG Osmani, were engaged in escalating hostilities with the Pakistani Army. For the next nine months, with tensions escalating between India and Pakistan and anticipating possible hostilities, Aurora oversaw the logistical preparations of the Indian Army on the Eastern front, including the improvement of roads, communications and bridges, as well as the movement of 30,000 tons of supplies close to the border with East Pakistan. At the outbreak of the

war War is an intense armed conflict between states, governments, societies, or paramilitary groups such as mercenaries, insurgents, and militias. It is generally characterized by extreme violence, destruction, and mortality, using regular o ...

on 3 December 1971, as Eastern Army Commander, Gen. Aurora oversaw the Indian ground forces into battle in East Pakistan. In a meticulously planned operation, forces under Aurora's command formed numerous small combat teams and launched a four-front attack with the strategy of confronting and defeating the Pakistani forces on selected fronts, while bypassing Pakistani forces on others. In under two weeks, his forces advanced from the Indian border to capture

Dhaka Dhaka ( or ; bn, ঢাকা, Ḍhākā, ), List of renamed places in Bangladesh, formerly known as Dacca, is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Bangladesh, largest city of Bangladesh, as well as the world's largest ...

, the capital of East Pakistan. The Unified Commander of Pakistan Armed Forces's Eastern Military High Command, Lieutenant General

Amir Abdullah Khan Niazi Lieutenant General Amir Abdullah Khan Niazi (1915 – 1 February 2004) was a Pakistan Army general. During the Bangladesh Liberation War and the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971, he commanded the Pakistani Eastern Command in East Pakistan (now Bang ...

was forced to sign an unconditional Instrument of Surrender. The photograph of Niazi and Aurora at the signing of the Instruments of Surrender became an iconic image of the war, with ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers '' The Observer'' and '' The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the ...

'' describing the scene as "the glum Pakistani officer bowed over his signature. The turbaned figure beside him, showing not a scrap of elation". The 90,000 Pakistani troops under Niazi's command surrendered to Gen Aurora as

prisoners of war A prisoner of war (POW) is a person who is held captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610. Belligerents hold prisoners of w ...

in what remains to date the largest surrender of soldiers since the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

. Pakistan lost almost of its territory and 70 million of its people to the newly formed nation of Bangladesh.

Later life

Aurora was honoured with the

Param Vishisht Seva Medal Param Vishisht Seva Medal (PVSM) (IAST: ) is a military award of India. It was constituted in 1960 and since then it is awarded in recognition to peace-time service of the most exceptional order and may be awarded posthumously. All ranks of the ...

, the

Padma Bhushan The Padma Bhushan is the third-highest civilian award in the Republic of India, preceded by the Bharat Ratna and the Padma Vibhushan and followed by the Padma Shri. Instituted on 2 January 1954, the award is given for "distinguished service ...

and the

Bir Protik Bir Protik ( bn, বীর প্রতীক ''Bīr Pratīk'', "Symbol of Bravery or Idol of Courage") is the fourth highest gallantry award in Bangladesh. Recipients This award was declared on 15 December 1973. A total of 426 people have rece ...

for his role in the war. He retired from the Indian Army in 1973. Lt Gen JFR Jacob has written in his book ''An Odyssey in War And Peace'' that Gen. Aurora approached then Prime Minister

Indira Gandhi Indira Priyadarshini Gandhi (; ''née'' Nehru; 19 November 1917 – 31 October 1984) was an Indian politician and a central figure of the Indian National Congress. She was elected as third prime minister of India in 1966 and was al ...

for governorship of a state but she declined. Jacob also writes that Gen Aurora and Mrs. Aurora were a regular part of the social life of Calcutta. In 1984, Aurora fiercely criticised the

Indian National Congress The Indian National Congress (INC), colloquially the Congress Party but often simply the Congress, is a political party in India with widespread roots. Founded in 1885, it was the first modern nationalist movement to emerge in the British E ...

leadership following

Operation Blue Star Operation Blue Star was the codename of a military operation which was carried out by Indian security forces between 1 and 10 June 1984 in order to remove Damdami Taksal leader Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale and his followers from the building ...

, which was an operation by the then government of flushing out armed Sikh militants who had taken up positions inside the Golden Temple in

Amritsar Amritsar (), historically also known as Rāmdāspur and colloquially as ''Ambarsar'', is the second largest city in the Indian state of Punjab, after Ludhiana. It is a major cultural, transportation and economic centre, located in the Majha ...

but also caused extensive damage to the holiest shrine of Sikhism. Subsequently, he spent several years as a member of parliament in the

, the upper House of the Indian Parliament, for the

, a political party. Aurora was also an active member of the

Citizen's Justice Committee Citizen's Justice Committee (commonly known as CJC) is an Indian umbrella organization of various human rights organizations and is known for ''pro bono'' representing the 1984 anti-Sikh riots victims in their legal battle to gain justice. Form ...

which provided

pro bono ( en, 'for the public good'), usually shortened to , is a Latin phrase for professional work undertaken voluntarily and without payment. In the United States, the term typically refers to provision of legal services by legal professionals for pe ...

assistance to Sikh victims of the

1984 anti-Sikh riots The 1984 Anti-Sikh Riots, also known as the 1984 Sikh Massacre, was a series of organised pogroms against Sikhs in India following the assassination of Indira Gandhi by her Sikh bodyguards. Government estimates project that about 2,800 Sikhs ...

Death

Jagjit Singh Aurora died on 3 May 2005, at age 89, in New Delhi. He was survived by a son and a daughter. After his death, the gratitude of Bangladesh to General Aurora was emphasized in a message to India, from

Morshed Khan Morshed Khan (born 8 August 1940) is a Bangladeshi politician who served as the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Bangladesh from 2001 until 2006. He served as a Jatiya Sangsad member representing the Chittagong-10 constituency in the 6th, 7th an ...

, the Bangladeshi

Foreign Minister A foreign affairs minister or minister of foreign affairs (less commonly minister for foreign affairs) is generally a cabinet minister in charge of a state's foreign policy and relations. The formal title of the top official varies between co ...

, stating: ''"Aurora will be remembered in the history of Bangladesh for his contribution during our war of liberation in 1971, when he led the allied forces."'' The site of the Pakistani surrender, where Lt. Gen. Niazi signed the Instrument of Surrender with Lt. Gen. Aurora on 16 December 1971 has been converted into a national monument

Swadhinata Stambha Swadhinata Stambha ( bn, স্বাধীনতা স্তম্ভ) or Independence Monument is a national monument in Bangladesh to commemorate the historical events that took place in the Suhrawardy Udyan, previously known as Ramna Race C ...

. The main attraction is the glass Stambha which is built on the precise location where the instrument of surrender was signed. The monument also includes an

eternal flame An eternal flame is a flame, lamp or torch that burns for an indefinite time. Most eternal flames are ignited and tended intentionally, but some are natural phenomena caused by natural gas leaks, peat fires and coal seam fires, all of which can ...

, terracotta murals of martyrs and a body of water.

Dates of rank

Notes

References

External links

Chat with Jagjit Singh Aurora
'' Rediff.com'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Aurora, Jagjit Singh 1916 births 2005 deaths Sikh warriors Indian Sikhs Military personnel from Punjab, India Indian military personnel of the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971 Generals of the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971 Generals of the Bangladesh Liberation War Indian generals People from Jhelum District Punjabi people Bangladesh Liberation War British Indian Army officers Recipients of the Padma Bhushan in civil service Shiromani Akali Dal politicians Rajya Sabha members from Punjab, India St. Anthony's High School, Lahore alumni Recipients of the Param Vishisht Seva Medal Recipients of the Bir Protik