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Major-General Indar Jit Rikhye, an
Indian peacekeeper
Major-General
Indar Jit Rikhye, an Indian peacekeeper
Books
by Gen. Rikhye from Amazon.com:
Maj. Gen.
Rikhye was born in 1920 in Lahore, now a city in Pakistan,
the son of a former medical officer in the British Indian
Army. He graduated from the Indian Military Academy in 1939
and was commissioned by King George VI to serve in the sixth
Duke of Connaught's Own Lancers, known as the Bengal Lancers.
In 1957 he was assigned to command India’s troops in
the Sinai and Gaza as part of the U.N. peacekeeping force
there. He became chief of staff for the United Nations’
Emergency Force in 1958 and later its acting force commander.
Two years later he was appointed military adviser to the U.N.
Secretary-Generals Dag Hammarskjold and U Thant. After his
retirement from military service, Rikhye founded the International
Peace Academy, where he served as president for 20 years.
UVA
Today
Rikhye,
a major general in the Indian Army who was a critical military
adviser to United Nations peacekeepers around the world and
then founding president of a research institute devoted to
training peacekeepers, died May 21 in Charlottesville, Virginia.
He was 86.
Rikhye
resigned from the United Nations in 1969, and co-founded the
International Peace Academy, a nongovernmental institute for
research in conflict resolution based in New York. The academy
became an unofficial training institute for UN peacekeeping
forces. International
Herald Tribune
Rikhye
did not get the lecture on peace he expected. That was as
well, for with his young head full of military parades, war
novels and tales of his family connections with Maharajah
Ranjit Singh, “the Lion of Punjab”, he was not inclined
to listen. But Gandhi was wise, and possibly foresaw that
Indar Jit's life as a soldier was in fact to be all about
peace.
His most
famous test came in Gaza in 1967, just before the six-day
war between Egypt and Israel. He knew the Middle East; his
career as a peacekeeper had begun there in 1956, sent out
by Jawaharlal Nehru in a flush of enthusiasm to prove the
neutral credentials of newly independent India. After long
service there—in Indonesia, Cuba and Yemen, and as military
adviser to two secretary-generals—he set up the International
Peace Academy in New York.
In his
last years, living contentedly in America, General Rikhye
would often wish aloud that Pakistan and India could bridge
their differences and combine their armies. Economist.com
I.J.
Rikhye; Indian Major General Oversaw U.N. Peacekeeping Efforts:
I.J. Rikhye, 86, a major general in the Indian army who
served as military adviser to United Nations secretaries-general
Dag Hammarskjold and U Thant in the 1960s, died May 21 at
the University of Virginia Hospital in Charlottesville, near
his home. He had respiratory failure.
From 1970
to 1990, he was president of the International Peace Academy,
a New York-based organization that promotes the settlement
of armed conflicts by training negotiators, diplomats and
military personnel in peacekeeping.
Gen. Rikhye
(pronounced Rickey) had a distinguished 38-year career in
the Indian army. He served with the famed Bengal Lancers during
World War II and, starting in the late 1950s, was assigned
to U.N. peacekeeping units. He was credited with combining
great resolve as a coordinator with physical courage.
Brian
E. Urquhart, a former U.N. undersecretary-general, described
Gen. Rikhye as "a very good soldier, which most people
in the secretariat were not," because they lacked basic
knowledge of military procedure. - Washington
Post
Wikipedia
entry about General
Rikhey
SAJA
blog obit Gen. Indar Jit Rikhye, Man of War and Peace.
General
Indar Jit Rikhye's viewpoint in "Indian
Veteran Officers Association of North America" [IVOANA]:
Nuclear
Deal: US-India style United States - India Diplomacy
Showing Edges
It is
important to remember that at its independence India, the
world’s largest democracy, and the United States, the
most powerful nation, should have been natural allies. The
memories of the cold war and India’s adoption of nonalignment
and consequent response of the US are permanently imprinted
in the respective history of the two countries. The complexity
of relations between the two did not prevent both sides to
find ways to interact and search for common interests. While
about two million people of Indian origin settled in the US,
coming mostly from the middle class, their knowledge of the
United States facilitated their relations with Americans in
comparison to the spread of information of India in the United
States. Americans know and understand Pakistanis far better
because of long and durable relations between the two countries.
While generally all immigrants from the Indian subcontinent
adept American style of life, yet occasional short time Indian
visitors and people the Americans meet in India are different
and formal.
In the
current dialogue India has considerable advantage of understanding
the American psyche and their goals. India’s representatives
enjoy the support of a wide spread of brilliant and experienced
people of Indian origin who are spread across in key positions
in the country. In the manner of other nations’ immigrants
such Indian groups help and influence Indian policy to benefit
both sides. The United States has scores of scholars specializing
in related areas, whereas, other than the nuclear scientists
and a few involved professionally in the policy making groups
of leadership, there are a few in India. Of course the US
Think Tanks greatly contribute to policy making. But they
all have a role, which may not be similar to the US governments
chosen policy.
The current
brouhaha was started by Ambassador David Mulford’s warning
to India of the dire consequences of their voting in favor
of Iran at IAEA meeting relating to its failure to comply
with past agreements and proceeding to develop a nuclear bomb.
India’s respected master strategist, K. Subrmanyam, has
correctly pointed out that nations use such threats in diplomacy.
But surely, the left wing of present Congress led coalition
has repeatedly opposed strategic alliances with the United
States. Furthermore, the generation who lived and opposed
colonial domination, though greatly aged, is still around
and their experiences are near enough for the succeeding generation
not to forget.
India
is sought by the US because India of 21st century has gained
prominence. It dominates the Indian Ocean, vital to US for
oil and provides the link between the Pacific and the Atlantic.
Besides it sits at the underbelly of China with approaches
to its south corners of the Himalayas. Its growing economy,
its armed forces with long history of past colonial service
from Peking to the Suez and since the largest supplier of
troops to UN peacekeeping. It is an English speaking nation
with as varying accents as in the US, yet understandable.
It is
evident to all that the US is the remaining super power. Those
who don’t recognize this, do so at their own peril. India
with its history of nonalignment, its preference to negotiate
than use force and emphasis on peaceful negotiations entered
in a dialogue with US with a purpose. It expects that its
interests will be further enhanced by cooperation with the
US. A country with a long tradition that expects certain diplomatic
courtesies and tact which it will return graciously.
Major
General Indar Jit Rikhye (Ret)
Chairman, IVOANA.
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