The Rajput Regiment dates its line to 1778; its record includes Naik Jadunath Singh's Param Vir Chakra at Taindhar and 2 Rajput's stand at Namka Chu.
No. 2 Picquet, Taindhar
At about 0640 on 6 February 1948, in fog, Pakistani forces opened fire on the picquets along the Taindhar ridge north of Naushera. Naik Jadunath Singh of the 1st Battalion, The Rajput Regiment, held a forward post at the second picquet. His Param Vir Chakra citation puts the garrison at nine men.
The first attack was beaten off with four of his men wounded. He redistributed the section and met a larger second attack, by which time he had been hit in the right arm. When his Bren gunner was wounded he took the gun himself, and the attackers fell back again. In the third attack he left the sangar alone with a Sten gun and charged. The attackers broke. He was killed in that charge by bullets to the head and chest.
Accounts of the wider position give 24 of its 27 men dead or badly wounded by the end of the third wave. The action held the picquet long enough for reinforcements from the 3rd (Para) Battalion of the regiment to arrive. Jadunath Singh, born on 21 November 1916 at Khajuri in Shahjahanpur, had enlisted in 1941. His posthumous Param Vir Chakra was notified under 16 Pres/50.
Formed in 1922
The regiment traces its history to 1778 and the formation of the 24th Regiment of Bengal Native Infantry. Its 1st Battalion was formed in 1798. The modern regiment dates from the 1922 reorganisation of the Indian Army, when most Rajput units were amalgamated as the 7th Rajput Regiment. The 13th (Shekhawati) Rajput Infantry went to the 6th Rajputana Rifles instead.
The 1922 battalions came from existing units. The 2nd Queen Victoria's Own Rajput Light Infantry became the 1st Battalion, the 4th Prince Albert Victor's Rajputs the 2nd, the 7th Duke of Connaught's Own Rajput Infantry the 3rd, the 8th Rajput Infantry the 4th, and the 11th Rajput Infantry the 5th. The 16th Rajput Infantry became the 10th (Training) Battalion. The numeral was dropped after Partition. Recruitment was broadened after 1947, with Rajputs remaining the largest group and Gujars, Bengalis and Muslims also serving.
The regimental centre is at Fatehgarh, where the war memorial dates from 1932. In 1980 the 18th Battalion moved to the Mechanised Infantry Regiment as its 13th Battalion.
Hong Kong and the wars of 1914 to 1945
In the First World War Rajput battalions served in Mesopotamia, at Qurna, Kut-al-Amara and Dujaila. In the Second, they fought in the Arakan, where Point 551 became known as Rajput Hill, in Egypt at Ruweisat Ridge and Second El Alamein, and at Kohima.
The 5th Battalion went into captivity after the fall of Hong Kong. On 11 December 1941 it withdrew across the Japanese front to the Ma Lau Tong line on the Devil's Peak peninsula. On the 12th it drove off an attack on its left company, inflicting heavy losses, and fell back to the Hai Wan line. A company left the mainland by 0800 on 13 December, and the battalion went on to the defence of Hong Kong Island. On the night of 18 to 19 December it met the Japanese landing around North Point. Most of D Company was killed there, including its commander, Captain Newton.
Namka Chu, October 1962
The 2nd Battalion, under Lieutenant Colonel M. S. Rikh, was on the Namka Chu by 10 October 1962 as part of 7 Infantry Brigade. The brigade was spread over a twelve-mile front in trackless country with no mule access, winter clothing was short, and the Chinese held the heights above it.
The attack came on the morning of 20 October. The official history records that the Rajputs suffered the most of the units there. Major B. K. Pant's company had 82 killed and wounded out of 112. Almost all the company commanders were killed. Brigadier John Dalvi, the brigade commander, later described Pant, hit in the stomach and both legs, still calling to his men. Rikh, wounded, and his second-in-command, Major Gurdial Singh, were taken to Tibet as prisoners. Rikh later said that his Chinese interrogators told him 2 Rajput had inflicted the most casualties of the fighting in NEFA. Gurdial Singh was eventually awarded the Maha Vir Chakra. Pant has no recorded award.
At a glance
- Raised: Traces its history to 1778 (24th Regiment of Bengal Native Infantry); 7th Rajput Regiment formed 1922
- Regimental centre: Fatehgarh, Uttar Pradesh
- Motto: Sarvatra Vijay (Victory everywhere)
- War cry: Bol Bajrang Bali ki Jai