Class 8 English Chapter 4: A Tale of Valour

A chapter that begins with a date

This is a true account, so the dates matter. The chapter opens in August 1947, when Operation Gulmarg was launched to take the Kashmir Valley. That plan broke an agreement already made with Hari Singh, the Maharaja of Jammu and Kashmir. Read the first few pages with a timeline in your head and the battle becomes much easier to follow.

The plan, and the men who carried it

About a thousand invaders were trained and equipped for the operation. They were chosen partly for what they knew: the mountain passes and the local ground. Their aim was to stir up a revolt, overthrow the government, and take the territory. Control of the passes, the peaks and the rivers would have followed.

October 1947

On 22 October the invaders crossed into Kashmir. Four days later, on 26 October 1947, the Princely State became a part of India. From 27 October the Government of India sent troops to defend the people of Kashmir and the border. They had to be airlifted, because the land route through Pathankot was not in good condition.

D Company arrives

On 31 October the D Company of the 4th Battalion of the Kumaon Regiment was flown into Srinagar. Its commander was Major Somnath Sharma. His left hand was in plaster at the time, and he insisted on going with his company anyway. He knew his men, he said, and if they were going into action they were not going without him.

Why a village mattered

Badgam sounds like a small place to fight over, and it was. What made it important was geography. The village lay less than five kilometres from the Srinagar airfield, it stood on higher ground than the airfield, and the access to the airfield ran through it. Holding Badgam meant protecting the troops and the supplies that were arriving by air.

A quiet day

Rumours of tribal movement towards Badgam had reached the force before it arrived, and they were thought to be unfounded. In fact the enemy was already coming in, in small groups, to avoid being detected. On 3 November several companies were sent to patrol the area. All day the valley was eerily silent.

The last company out

In the afternoon the companies were ordered back one at a time. D Company, with ninety soldiers, was the last, and was expected to return by two o’clock. The invaders, watching, saw a small group of Indian soldiers left behind in Badgam. That is the moment they chose to attack.

The first attack was a feint

The opening attack met stiff resistance. Then the Major read it correctly as a distraction, and a bigger attack came in from another side shortly afterwards. By that point ninety soldiers were facing about five hundred invaders. Noticing that the first blow is not the real one is a hard thing to do while it is landing.

Air support, laid out by hand

The Major asked for air strikes. Then he laid out ground panels himself to guide the aircraft onto the target, which means standing where the enemy can see you. The strikes hit the invaders, but the odds were still about seven to one and the attack on his positions went on.

What he did while outnumbered

The chapter gives three actions. He moved through the battlefield directing fire. He filled magazines for his gunners, which is work a commander would not normally do. And he kept encouraging his men to hold their ground. He was injured, and his company had taken heavy casualties, and he did all three anyway.

Running out of ammunition

As the battle went on D Company began to run out of ammunition. The Major reported it to Brigade headquarters and was told to pull back. His reply has been quoted ever since. The enemy was fifty yards away, he said; they were heavily outnumbered and under devastating fire. He would not withdraw an inch.

The last minutes

Minutes afterwards he had dropped into a trench beside a machine gun operator, lending a hand to load the gun. A mortar shell hit his position and killed him instantly. He was twenty-four years old. The company had lost its commander in the middle of an attack by a force seven times its size.

What the ninety did next

They held on. Despite losing their Major, and despite the enemy’s numbers, his men kept the position for more than six further hours before being overrun. Those hours were the whole point. They gave time for reinforcements to reach Srinagar, including soldiers of the Punjab Regiment flown in to the city.

What the battle achieved

More than three hundred of the enemy were killed or wounded, including their leader, and the attack lost its momentum. In several real ways D Company’s sacrifice and its commander’s leadership saved Srinagar for India. The 4 KUMAON battalion was given the Battle Honour, Srinagar, and the airfield stayed in Indian hands.

Scenario:

A school relay team was two runners down with flu on sports day. The coach could have scratched the team, which would have cost nothing. Instead she entered two younger students who had never raced at that distance, and told them the aim was not to win but to finish inside the qualifying time. The team came fourth. Because they finished inside the time, the school kept its place in the district meet the following month, where the regular runners were fit again and came second. Several parents said afterwards that sports day had been a waste of an afternoon.

Analysis:

The parents are judging the wrong result. Fourth place on sports day was never the objective; the qualifying time was, because it kept a door open for the month after. That is the structure of Badgam. D Company did not hold the village in the end, and holding it for ever was never possible with ninety men against five hundred. What they could do was last long enough for reinforcements to be flown in, and they did. In both cases the thing being won is time, and time does not show up in the score. Notice also what each decision cost. The two younger runners spent themselves for a race they could not win.

Activity:

Think of a time you kept going when you could not win. Write down what you were actually protecting.

Title:

Build the timeline

Safety:

No safety concerns. Keep the slips, because the same set works for revision later.

What You Notice:

The events that are hardest to place are usually the ones in late October, where four dates fall inside ten days.

The Srinagar airfield was the only practical way into the valley in November 1947, because the land route through Pathankot was in poor condition. Losing the airfield would have meant losing the valley.

Ground panels are still used. A pilot flying fast and high cannot tell one group of men from another, so the marking has to be done from the ground.

A battalion of the Indian Army is usually about 900 soldiers divided into companies, so D Company’s ninety men were roughly a tenth of 4 Kumaon.

The order of the dates — Gulmarg, 22, 26, 27, 31, 3 — Operation Gulmarg in August; invaders on 22 October; the State joins India on 26 October; troops airlifted from 27 October; D Company flown in on 31 October; the battle on 3 November.

Why Badgam mattered — Close, high, and on the way — Under five kilometres from the airfield, on higher ground than it, and the access to the airfield ran through the village.

Where the soldier came from

Somnath Sharma was born on 31 January 1923 in the town of Dadh in Kangra, Himachal Pradesh. The chapter calls the place picturesque, which is a word worth keeping: it means visually charming. The family had a rich military legacy, and his father was Major General Amar Nath Sharma, who had served with distinction.

A grandfather with stories

The second influence is quieter and may matter more. His grandfather told him the valorous tales of the Mahabharata, and the chapter says he was deeply inspired by them. A boy who grows up on stories of duty and sacrifice has a picture in his head long before he has a uniform.

Legacy is not the same as inheritance

A military legacy does not make anybody a soldier. Plenty of children of officers choose other lives. What the chapter shows is a boy taking up what was offered him: the example of a father, the stories of a grandfather, and then the training that turns a wish into a profession.

School and Sandhurst

His early education was at Sherwood College in Nainital. His training was at the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, which the chapter describes as rigorous. His life up to this point, it says, was a testament to discipline and dedication, and testament here means strong evidence or proof.

Commissioned in 1942

He was commissioned into the 8th Battalion of the 19th Hyderabad Regiment in 1942, at about nineteen years of age. That was the middle of the Second World War, so there was no quiet start to his service. Within a short time he was in action.

Burma, and the Arakan Campaign

Mentions in despatches came to him for his bravery in the Arakan Campaign in Burma, where he served with distinction during the Second World War. A mention in despatches is an official notice of courage in military reports. Five years before Badgam, somebody was already writing his name down.

Where the legacy was forged

The chapter says it was during the Indo-Pakistan War of 1947 and 1948, and particularly at Badgam, that his legacy was truly forged. Forged means shaped or strengthened, often through hardship, and it is a metalworking word. Heat and hammering make a blade, and the chapter chooses the image on purpose.

The first Param Vir Chakra

For his conspicuous bravery at Badgam he was awarded the Param Vir Chakra, India’s highest award for gallantry in the face of the enemy. He was its first recipient, and the award was posthumous, which means it came after his death. His citation records his heroism, patriotism and courage.

Battle Honour, Srinagar

The battalion was recognised too. 4 KUMAON was awarded the Battle Honour, Srinagar, for the action. A battle honour is given to a unit rather than a person, and it is a reminder that ninety men held that village, not one.

Twenty-four years old

He laid down his life for the nation at the age of twenty-four. The chapter states the age plainly and lets it do its own work. Most readers of this chapter are about half that age, and the gap is smaller than it looks.

Forever alive, forever alive

The tribute at the start of the chapter says his legacy of courage and devotion remains forever alive, forever alive. The repetition is a device. Saying it once states a fact; saying it twice turns the line into something closer to a chant, which is how a memory is kept rather than merely recorded.

Where his name is kept

The chapter lists the places his memory is honoured: the National War Memorial, patriotic songs, books and stories of valour, and the celebrations of Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav. His name is etched on the National War Memorial’s Honour Wall, and etched means permanently fixed.

Why this story is taught

Partly as history, because the Battle of Badgam mattered to the defence of Srinagar. Mostly as an example. The chapter says his story reminds us of what countless men and women gave up in defending the country, and of the sense of duty that moved them.

Courage off the battlefield

The chapter ends by asking how courage, duty and self-sacrifice apply to daily life, and the honest answer is in small decisions rather than large ones. Doing the work you promised when nobody is checking. Standing with somebody who is being treated unfairly. Finishing a task you have begun badly. None of it is a battlefield, and all of it is the same muscle.

Scenario:

A school decided to name its new library after a former student who had died young while rescuing two children from a flooded canal. The committee argued for a term about how to do it. One group wanted only a brass plate with his name and dates. Another wanted a photograph, the story on a printed card, and a short talk about him every year on the day it happened. A third group said the whole idea was sentimental and the money should buy more books instead. The principal asked each group to say what it wanted the library to make happen.

Analysis:

That last question is the useful one, and it is the question this chapter answers about Major Somnath Sharma. A brass plate records a fact. A photograph with a story, read out each year, keeps a memory in use, which is what the chapter means by calling such a memory a beacon: something to steer by rather than something to look at. Notice that the third group is not being cruel. More books would help. The chapter would answer that the two are not in competition, because the point of remembering is to change what people do next.

Activity:

Find a street, school or stadium near you named after a person. Write two sentences on what they did and why the name was given.

Title:

A citation of your own

Safety:

Ask the person before you write about them by name, or leave the name out.

What You Notice:

Citations built out of actions are usually more convincing than ones built out of adjectives.

The Param Vir Chakra was created in 1950 and made effective from 15 August 1947, which is why an officer who died in November 1947 could be its first recipient.

Sandhurst, in England, trained many officers of the Indian Army before independence, so a cadet from Kangra in the 1940s might find himself studying in Berkshire.

The National War Memorial in New Delhi, opened in 2019, carries the names of the fallen on its Honour Wall, and his is among them.

His life in five steps — Kangra, Nainital, Sandhurst, Burma, Badgam — Born in Kangra, schooled in Nainital, trained at Sandhurst, served in Burma, and fell at Badgam.

The three influences on him — Father, grandfather, Mahabharata — A father who was a Major General, a grandfather who told the stories, and the valorous tales themselves.

Expressions from a battlefield

Four phrases in this chapter started in war and are now used everywhere. To fight to the last man means to keep going until nobody is left standing. To foil a plan is to spoil it before it works. To deliver a blow is to strike at something and damage it. And to hold your ground is to stay where you are instead of giving way.

The same phrases off the battlefield

The exercise in the chapter matches each one to an everyday situation. A spy who intercepts messages foils a plan. A last-minute goal delivers a blow to the other team’s confidence. Hikers who refuse to turn back in heavy rain hold their ground. The phrases keep their shape and change their setting.

Using them in your own sentences

The detective managed to foil the plan by finding the hidden evidence first. The new campaign was meant to deliver a blow to a rival’s sales. The hikers chose to hold their ground despite the rain. And the soldiers, heavily outnumbered, vowed to fight to the last man rather than surrender.

A collective noun

The chapter says a contingent of troops was airlifted into Srinagar. A contingent is a group sent as part of a larger force, and the word names the group as one thing. That is what a collective noun does, and the armed forces use a great many of them.

Regiment and battalion

A regiment is a permanent unit of an army, usually commanded by a colonel and divided into several companies. A battalion is a large body of infantry troops, ready for battle. The chapter uses both: the Kumaon Regiment, and its 4th Battalion.

Squadron and fleet

A squadron is a small unit of twelve to twenty-four aircraft and their crews, flown by an air force, a navy or an army air arm. A fleet is a group of ships that sail together, work at the same task, or share one owner. One flies and the other sails.

Choosing the right unit word

The exercise gives four gaps. A commanding officer addresses the whole regiment of soldiers at a morning assembly. An admiral orders the fleet to set sail. A battalion of infantry advances through dense forest. And a squadron of fighter jets is sent up to intercept enemy planes.

Three verbs built on over-

Overthrow means to take and seize control, which is what the invaders hoped to do to the government. Overrun means to pour into a place in numbers too great to resist, which is what finally happened at Badgam. Overwhelm means to flood or overpower somebody, including emotionally.

Why the prefix helps

Over- usually means too much, or across the top of something. Once you know that, overlook, overtake, overhear and oversleep all make sense without a dictionary. Guessing a new word from its parts is faster than looking it up, and it is how most readers learn.

c for the noun, s for the verb

Four pairs follow the rule. Advice is the noun and advise is the verb. Practice is the noun and practise is the verb. Device is the noun and devise is the verb. Council is the noun and counsel is the verb. The letter changes and so does the sound of the ending.

Using the pairs correctly

The teacher’s advice is always helpful, and she continues to advise students on their career choices. The musician believes daily practice helps, so she is always ready to practise her harmonium lessons. The scientist uses a strange device and plans to devise new methods.

Defence, or defense?

Both are correct and they mean the same thing. The c spelling is British and is the one preferred in Indian English; the s spelling is American. The chapter uses defence, and the word usually means the act of protecting somebody or something against attack or criticism.

Making the verb match the subject

A verb agrees with its subject in number. Echoes of courage serve as an inspiration, because the subject is echoes. A contingent of troops was airlifted, because the subject is the contingent. The words in between do not decide anything.

The traps in agreement

Five shapes catch most people. The bouquet of flowers is beautiful, because the bouquet is the subject. Each of the participants has submitted, because each is singular. One of the players was injured, for the same reason. Neither of the statements is true. And with neither-nor or either-or, the verb follows the subject nearer to it.

Two more worth knowing

A pair of shoes is missing, because a pair is one thing. And mathematics is a subject, not a plural, even though it ends in s. Words like news, physics and economics behave in the same way, which is why the ending cannot be trusted on its own.

What to carry out of this topic

Four expressions with their meanings. Four unit words sorted by land, air and sea. Three over- verbs. Four spelling pairs where c is the noun. And one habit for agreement: find the real subject first, then choose the verb.

Scenario:

A school sports committee pinned up a short notice about a visiting team. It read: The squadron of cricketers from the neighbouring school are arriving on Friday. Each of the players have been asked to bring their own kit. The committee advise all students to practice their fielding before the match. A pair of new stumps are being bought for the occasion. The English teacher took a photograph of the notice and used it in class the next morning, because it managed to collect four different mistakes in four short lines.

Analysis:

Each line fails in a different way, and none of them is a spelling slip. Squadron is the wrong collective noun for cricketers, since a squadron is aircraft with their crews. Each of the players takes a singular verb, so it should be has been asked. The committee advise should be advises, and practice should be practise, because the first is a verb needing an s and the second is a verb that has been written as a noun. And a pair of new stumps is one thing, so is being bought is correct. The notice sounds fine read aloud, which is exactly the trap: the ear follows the nearest noun.

Activity:

Find three notices in your school and check every verb against its subject. Write down any you would change.

Title:

Hunt the subject

Safety:

No safety concerns. Any printed page will do, including a newspaper or a textbook.

What You Notice:

The wrong version often sounds better, which is why the rule exists at all.

Defence and defense mean exactly the same thing. The s spelling is American and the c spelling is British, and Indian English follows the British one.

A squadron in the air force is twelve to twenty-four aircraft, but the same word has been used for ships and even for cavalry, so the number depends on the service.

English has dozens of verbs built on over-: overlook, overtake, overhear, oversleep, overcome. The prefix does the same work in each one, which is why a new one is usually guessable.

The four units — Land, land, air, sea — Regiment and battalion belong to the army, a squadron flies, and a fleet sails.

The spelling pairs — Ice is a thing; S is an action — Advice, practice and device end in the ice you can hold, and they are nouns. Advise, practise and devise end in s, and they are things you do.