The Regiment by Ekalavyan, translated from Malayalam to English by N Kunju published by Reliance Publishing House, New Delhi. Pages 221. Price Rs. 195.

War novels are rare in India. The few that have been published are the ones written by British officers who served in the Indian Army before independence. However, some of the best books in the world are written by soldier-authors who served in their armies in the two World Wars. Conscription in the Western countries compelled writers and intellectuals to serve in the armed forces, the experience of which helped them to write such outstanding novels like From Here to Eternity (James Jones) and The Naked and the Dead (Normal Mailer).

The Regiment, according to its author, is free India’s first war novel but since it was written in a regional language, it did not receive the desired attention. By virtue of excellent rendering translation reads like an original. Stories of soldiers and battles, however, transcend regional and even national barriers.

The novel though a piece of fiction is the story of an armoured regiment of the Indian Army that fought two wars against China in 1962 and against Pakistan in 1965. In the 1965 war, the regiment fought gallantly and redeemed its name under the able leadership of a devoted commanding officer. He had reoriented the regiment into an efficient fighting machine to smash Pak tank regiment into pieces.

According to the novel, the 1965 war in which the regiment partook resulted in a decisive victory for India and glory for the unit. Several of the regiment’s officers and jawans attained martyrdom. Among them was a young lieutenant who was married to the commanding officer’s daughter. The story reaches its climax with the surrender of the commanding officer of the Pak tank unit to the Indian regiment’s commander. The irony was that the two officers happened to be batch-mates in the Indian Military Academy and bosom friends in pre-partition days.

The novel is not only depiction of the wars, but also the story of the lives of men, their trials and tribulations, courage and conviction, joys and exhilaration. It is emotionally charged from beginning to end and no one, least of all a soldier, can afford to pause before reading till the end.