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 the ...

Kamal Davar is a retired Indian

military officer An officer is a person who holds a position of authority as a member of an armed force or uniformed service. Broadly speaking, "officer" means a commissioned officer, a non-commissioned officer, or a warrant officer. However, absent contex ...

and security expert who served as the first

director general A director general or director-general (plural: ''directors general'', ''directors-general'', ''director generals'' or ''director-generals'' ) or general director is a senior executive officer, often the chief executive officer, within a governmen ...

of the

Defense Intelligence Agency The Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) is an intelligence agency and combat support agency of the United States Department of Defense, specializing in defense and military intelligence. A component of the Department of Defense (DoD) and th ...

and deputy chief of the Integrated Defense Staff.

Early life and education

Davar is the son of veteran freedom fighter and

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 ...

leader, Dr. M.C.Davar, a pacifist who had fought to prevent the partition of India. Kamal Davar is an alumnus of the

National Defence Academy The National Defence Academy (NDA) is the joint defence service training institute of the Indian Armed Forces, where cadets of the three services i.e. the Indian Army, the Indian Navy and the Indian Air Force train together before they go on ...

, Khadakvasala, and also holds an MSc in

defence studies Military science is the study of military processes, institutions, and behavior, along with the study of warfare, and the theory and application of organized coercive force. It is mainly focused on theory, method, and practice of producing mil ...

from

Madras University The University of Madras (informally known as Madras University) is a public state university in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. Established in 1857, it is one of the oldest and among the most prestigious universities in India, incorporated by an a ...

, and a

doctorate A doctorate (from Latin ''docere'', "to teach"), doctor's degree (from Latin ''doctor'', "teacher"), or doctoral degree is an academic degree awarded by universities and some other educational institutions, derived from the ancient formalism '' ...

security studies __NOTOC__ Security studies, also known as international security studies, is an academic sub-field within the wider discipline of international relations that studies organized violence, military conflict, national security, and international ...

from

Chaudhary Charan Singh University Chaudhary Charan Singh University (CCS University), formerly Meerut University, is a public state university located in Meerut, Uttar Pradesh, India. The university was established in 1965. It was later renamed to its current name after Chaudh ...

Meerut Meerut (, IAST: ''Meraṭh'') is a city in Meerut district of the western part of the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. The city lies northeast of the national capital New Delhi, within the National Capital Region and west of the state capi ...

Military career

Davar was commissioned into the

7th Light Cavalry The 7th Light Cavalry previously the 28th Light Cavalry, was a regular army cavalry regiment in the British Indian Army. It was raised in 1784 under the East India Company. The regiment later saw service on the North West Frontier and in World W ...

regiment of the

Indian Army The Indian Army is the land-based branch and the largest component of the Indian Armed Forces. The President of India is the Supreme Commander of the Indian Army, and its professional head is the Chief of Army Staff (COAS), who is a four ...

. As a young officer, Davar participated in the

1965 India-Pakistan War 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 ...

during which he was wounded in action in the Lahore sector. Subsequently, he also participated in active operations during the 1971

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 ...

. He eventually rose to command the 86th Armoured Regiment of the

and also to serve on the Indian Military Training Team in Iraq. As a brigadier, He commanded the spearhead armoured brigade of the Army and subsequently was an instructor at the College of Combat (now the Army War College) as a major general, Davar was sent, the first armoured corps officer to command 3 Divisions responsible for the entire Ladakh sector. After 2 eventful years, he was posted as chief of staff at the corps headquarters in

Nagrota Nagrota is a town located in the Jammu district of Jammu and Kashmir in India. It is located on National highway 44 between Jammu city and Udhampur. It is situated on the bank of River Tawi. Nagrota along with Kashmiri Pandit Migrant town of ...

Jammu and Kashmir Jammu and Kashmir may refer to: * Kashmir, the northernmost geographical region of the Indian subcontinent * Jammu and Kashmir (union territory), a region administered by India as a union territory * Jammu and Kashmir (state), a region administere ...

during the height of counter-insurgency operations. He subsequently rose to become general officer commanding of an army

corps Corps (; plural ''corps'' ; from French , from the Latin "body") is a term used for several different kinds of organization. A military innovation by Napoleon I, the formation was first named as such in 1805. The size of a corps varies great ...

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

, in the rank of

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 the ...

. After completion of command as GOC of a corps, He was appointed director-general, Mechanised Forces at Army Headquarters in 2001. On 5 March 2002, the government announced Davar's appointment as the first chief of The Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA) and Deputy Chief of the Integrated Defence Staff. As the first chief of the DIA, he is reputed to have taken many pioneering intelligence initiatives both at home and abroad. General Davar has also served as the

Colonel of the Regiment Colonel (Col) is a rank of the British Army and Royal Marines, ranking below brigadier, and above lieutenant colonel. British colonels are not usually field commanders; typically they serve as staff officers between field commands at battalio ...

of 86 Armored Regiment, as well as that of 74th Armoured Regiment.

Environmentalism

Kamal Davar promoted the successful campaign to plant lakhs of trees in Punjab and clean the Harike Bird Sanctuary in Punjab. Following his retirement, he continued to promote environmental issues, encouraging local army units and schools to regularly plant trees. He is also an active and leading member of SPOKE (the Society for the Preservation of Kasauli and its Environs) and was nominated as its president.

Post retirement activities

Post-retirement, Davar has written regularly for the national media and military journals on security, counter-terrorism and intelligence issues. He has also spoken at various institutions, both in India and abroad, on security-related and geo-political subjects. Currently he is also the Conveyor of the Strategic Studies Cell, a think tank based in Kasauli, Himachal Pradesh in India. Gen Davar is also a member of the international High Level Military Group (HLMG) monitoring Israeli military operations in the

Gaza Strip The Gaza Strip (;The New Oxford Dictionary of English (1998) – p.761 "Gaza Strip /'gɑːzə/ a strip of territory under the control of the Palestinian National Authority and Hamas, on the SE Mediterranean coast including the town of Gaza. ...

West Bank The West Bank ( ar, الضفة الغربية, translit=aḍ-Ḍiffah al-Ġarbiyyah; he, הגדה המערבית, translit=HaGadah HaMaʽaravit, also referred to by some Israelis as ) is a landlocked territory near the coast of the Mediter ...

and along the Israel-Lebanon border. Davar has been involved with Track II dialogues between India and Pakistan. Davar was recently nominated as the president of a new think tank established in the capital called The Delhi Forum For Strategic Studies (DFFSS). Davar has published books on the Pakistani state and Indian history.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Davar, Kamal Indian generals Living people Chaudhary Charan Singh University alumni Year of birth missing (living people)