Anant Singh Pathania

Major General Anant Singh Pathania MVC, MC (25 May 1913 – 19 December 2007) was a decorated Indian Army general; the first Indian to receive a Military Cross in the Second World War, he was also the first Indian commanding officer of the Gorkha Rifles. During the Sino-Indian War of 1962, he commanded the 4th Infantry Division during a critical stage of the conflict where his leadership was criticised.

Pathania was educated at Ranbir High School in Jammu. Commissioned into the 13th Frontier Force Rifles on 1 February 1936, he served on the North-West Frontier during the Waziristan campaign. According to author Antony Brett: "Although wounded in the face and in both legs, he collected his company headquarters and any other men he could muster, and pushed the enemy out with the bayonet. Only then, and under orders, did he hand over the company to his second-in-command, but the latter, too, was wounded by bomb splinters."

Subsequently posted to Burma, Pathania fought in the Burma Campaign as the first Indian officer to serve as a Brigade Major. In 1945, he was selected as deputy president of the Regular Commission Selection Board over 400 more senior officers.

Subsequent career and the 1962 Sino-Indian War On 14 October 1949, Pathania was promoted to acting brigadier and assigned to supervise the integration of the Saurashtra and Kutch princely state forces into the Indian Army. The Report noted that despite Pathania not having commanded troops for a considerable time, he was still appointed a division commander. In Kaul's absence, Pathania panicked and contacted the Corps HQ requesting permission to withdraw from his positions at the Sela Pass. Despite Kaul's staff issuing a clear order to Pathania forbidding withdrawal from Se-la, Pathania continued to persist for an immediate withdrawal and spoke to Kaul after his return to the IV Corps HQ. In response, according to Kaul's chief of staff A. M. Vohra, Kaul issued ambiguous and unclear orders to Pathania. Though General Pran Nath Thapar, the Chief of Army Staff, and the Eastern Command army commander Lieutenant-General L. P. Sen, along with Director of Military Operations Palit had arrived at Tezpur to boost Kaul's morale, and though Palit pleaded with both Thapar and Sen to convince Pathania against withdrawing from Se-la, neither general wanted to interfere with Kaul's corps.