Lieutenant General Lieutenant general (Lt Gen, LTG and similar) is a military rank 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 the battlefield, who was norma ...

Kunhirāman Pālātt Kandèt,

PVSM Param Vishisht Seva Medal (PVSM) (International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration, IAST: , ) is a Military awards and decorations, military award of India. It is the highest peacetime medal of the Indian Armed Forces, and is awarded for "dist ...

(23 October 1916 – 19 May 2003) was a senior

officer An officer is a person who has a position of authority in a hierarchical organization. The term derives from Old French ''oficier'' "officer, official" (early 14c., Modern French ''officier''), from Medieval Latin ''officiarius'' "an officer," fro ...

in the

Indian Army The Indian Army (IA) (ISO 15919, ISO: ) is the Land warfare, land-based branch and 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 ...

who played a commanding role in the Liberation of Goa from Portuguese control in 1961, and briefly served as the Military Governor of Goa, Daman and Diu. He later served as the Deputy Chief of Army Staff based in GHQ in New Delhi during the second war in 1965, and later effectively commanded the Western Command during the third war with Pakistan in 1971.

Early life

He was born in

Ottapalam Ottapalam (also spelled Ottappalam) is a town, taluk, and municipality in the Palakkad District of Kerala, India. It is the administrative headquarters of Ottapalam taluk and is located approximately 34 km (21 mi) from the Palakkad (district ...

Malabar District Malabar District, also known as British Malabar or simply Malabar was an administrative district on the southwestern Malabar Coast of Bombay Presidency (1792–1800), Madras Presidency (1800–1950) and finally, Madras State (1950–1956) in ...

(now

Kerala Kerala ( , ) is a States and union territories of India, state on the Malabar Coast of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, following the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, by combining Malayalam-speaking regions of the erstwhile ...

) in

British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance in South Asia. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one form or another ...

(now

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

) to M. A. Candeth, the son of the Nayanar landlord and writer

Vengayil Kunhiraman Nayanar Vengayil Kunhiraman Nayanar (1860 – 14 November 1914) was a Malayali essayist and short story writer, and a prominent landlord of Malabar district. Vengayil family Nayanar was born in an aristocratic Nair family known as "Vengayil" in Chir ...

. His maternal grandfather was Sir C. Sankaran Nair, who was the President of the

Indian National Congress The Indian National Congress (INC), colloquially the Congress Party, or simply the Congress, is a political parties in India, political party in India with deep roots in most regions of India. Founded on 28 December 1885, it was the first mo ...

Military career

Pre-independence

Commissioned into the Royal Artillery in 1936, Candeth saw action in West Asia during the Second World War. Shortly before India's independence from colonial rule, he was deployed in the North West Frontier Province, bordering

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. It is bordered by Pakistan to the Durand Line, east and south, Iran to the Afghanistan–Iran borde ...

, to quell local tribal uprisings. The mountainous terrain gave Candeth the experience for his later operations against

Nagaland Nagaland () is a States and union territories of India, state in the northeast India, north-eastern region of India. It is bordered by the Indian states of Arunachal Pradesh to the north, Assam to the west, Manipur to the south, and the Naga Sel ...

separatists in the North East. He attended the Military Services Staff College at

Quetta Quetta is the capital and largest city of the Pakistani province of Balochistan. It is the ninth largest city in Pakistan, with an estimated population of over 1.6 million in 2024. It is situated in the south-west of the country, lying in a ...

, capital of

Baluchistan Balochistan ( ; , ), also spelled as Baluchistan or Baluchestan, is a historical region in West and South Asia, located in the Iranian plateau's far southeast and bordering the Indian Plate and the Arabian Sea coastline. This arid region of de ...

in 1945.

Kashmir 1947

After Independence, Candeth was commanding an artillery regiment that was deployed to

Jammu and Kashmir Jammu and Kashmir may refer to: * Jammu and Kashmir (union territory), a region administered by India as a union territory since 2019 * Jammu and Kashmir (state), a region administered by India as a state from 1952 to 2019 * Jammu and Kashmir (prin ...

after

Pakistan Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the Islam by country# ...

-backed tribesmen attacked and captured a third of the province before being forced back by the Indian Army. Thereafter, Candeth held a series of senior appointments, including that of Director General of Artillery at Army Headquarters in

Delhi Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, but spread chiefly to the west, or beyond its Bank (geography ...

, to which he was appointed on 8 September 1959, with the acting rank of major-general (substantive colonel).

Goa

Following Indian independence from British rule, certain parts of India were still under foreign rule. While the French left India in 1954, the Portuguese, however, refused to leave. After complex diplomatic pressure and negotiations had failed, on 18 December 1961

Defence Minister A ministry of defence or defense (see spelling differences), also known as a department of defence or defense, is the part of a government responsible for matters of defence and military forces, found in states where the government is divid ...

V.K. Krishna Menon ordered the military to overrun Goa and oust the Portuguese. Candeth, whose father was close to Menon, all three of them being related as elite

Nairs The Nair (, ) also known as Nayar, are a group of Indian Hindu castes, described by anthropologist Kathleen Gough as "not a unitary group but a named category of castes". The Nair include several castes and many subdivisions, not all of whom hi ...

, was chosen by Menon to command in Operation Vijay—the Liberation of

Goa Goa (; ; ) is a state on the southwestern coast of India within the Konkan region, geographically separated from the Deccan highlands by the Western Ghats. It is bound by the Indian states of Maharashtra to the north, and Karnataka to the ...

, Daman and Diu from Portuguese rule. In an obituary tribute to Candeth, The Independent of London however referred to him as "born into a middle-class Anglo-Indian family" while early scholarly references also referred to him as Kenneth P. Candeth. https://web.stanford.edu/group/tomzgroup/pmwiki/uploads/1074-1971-Rubinoff-a-BTS.pdf As 17 Infantry Division commander, Candeth took the colony within a day and was immediately appointed Goa's first Indian administrator (acting as the Military Governor), a post he held till June 1962. Controversial as the military action was, Candeth inevitably received critical coverage in the western press, although the primary brunt of criticism was Menon, followed by Nehru.

North East

After relinquishing command as Goa's Military Governor in 1963, Candeth was appointed GOC, Nagaland on 23 August 1963. He took command of the newly raised 8 Mountain Division in the North-East on 15 November 1963, where he battled, although with little success, the highly organised Naga insurgents. The insurgency in the North East has not been quelled completely to this day. On 7 May 1965, he was appointed Deputy Chief of the Army Staff (DCOAS) with the acting rank of lieutenant-general. He was promoted to lieutenant-general on 17 January 1966, and was appointed GOC-in-C, Western Command on 27 September 1969.

Awards and later life

Lt. Gen. Kunhiraman Palat Candeth was awarded the

Param Vishisht Seva Medal Param Vishisht Seva Medal (PVSM) (International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration, IAST: , ) is a Military awards and decorations, military award of India. It is the highest peacetime medal of the Indian Armed Forces, and is awarded for "dist ...

and also the

Padma Bhushan The Padma Bhushan (IAST: ''Padma Bhūṣaṇa'', lit. 'Lotus Decoration') 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 Januar ...

by the

Government of India The Government of India (ISO 15919, ISO: Bhārata Sarakāra, legally the Union Government or Union of India or the Central Government) is the national authority of the Republic of India, located in South Asia, consisting of States and union t ...

. Retiring from the army on 21 October 1972, he joined the

Bharatiya Janata Party The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP; , ) is a political party in India and one of the two major List of political parties in India, Indian political parties alongside the Indian National Congress. BJP emerged out from Syama Prasad Mukherjee's ...

(BJP) in the 1990s and was appointed a member of the Party's Executive Committee.

Dates of rank

Notes

References

External links

*
https://web.archive.org/web/20060714020422/http://www.goavidhansabha.gov.in/pastgov.php
{{DEFAULTSORT:Candeth, K. P. Candeth, K.P. Candeth, K.P. Indian generals Generals of the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971 People from Ottapalam History of Goa Candeth, KP Rashtriya Indian Military College alumni Malayali people Recipients of the Padma Bhushan in civil service Recipients of the Param Vishisht Seva Medal Deputy chiefs of Army Staff (India)