Captain Man Bahadur Rai, Ashoka Chakra

Up the Side of the Ravine

The position on the slopes of a Nagaland ravine could be approached only from the front, and Captain Man Bahadur Rai judged that a frontal attack would cost many lives. On 3 May 1961 he took half a platoon instead, crawled through thick undergrowth and climbed the steep side under close-range fire.

Once he had located the position he went straight at it. He threw two hand grenades, then charged, firing as he went. His men followed and the defenders fled into the jungle, losing ten men in the encounter.

Days earlier, at the end of April, he had led a platoon through two hostile positions at dead of night and into the stronghold, driving out those holding it.

From Burma to Nagaland

Rai was born on 10 January 1914 in Darjeeling district and enlisted on 17 July 1930 in the 1st Battalion, 10th Gurkha Rifles. In the Burma campaign he won the Indian Distinguished Service Medal for action on 14 November 1943, and then the Military Cross.

He joined the re-raised 11th Gorkha Rifles after Independence and was seconded to the Assam Rifles from 1956. His Ashoka Chakra, notified in January 1962 with effect from 3 May 1961, was not posthumous.

He died at Jorhat, Assam, on 14 February 2011, aged 97.

What the citation recorded

The official citation was not read at source; this summary follows a transcription of Gazette notification 9-Pres/62 on a secondary site. It recorded a series of actions in April and May 1961 against an entrenched Naga force in wooded, ravine-cut hills: a night advance by platoon through two positions into the stronghold, and on 3 May 1961 a climb up a steep flank under close fire with half a platoon, followed by a grenade attack and a charge that broke the position. This is a summary, not the official wording.

Cover image: Robert Prummel, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Resized for this page. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ashoka_Chakra_India_De_drie_medailles_van_voor_1967.jpg