Band of Brothers

This is a story that may not have a parallel in the annals of the Indian Army but is so amazing that one may at the outset even doubt it. The story of the Vohra brothers needs to be told so extraordinary a tale it is.

The family came from the land that is now Pakistan, migrating east to independent India as part of the most traumatic parting of ways that the world witnessed in the previous century. The Vohra boys - there were four of them - were already finding their feet in the world. The eldest - Inder - was already an army officer, having been commissioned in 1942. The second - Jagat - had medical ambitions, which he was shortly to junk to follow the trail blazed by his elder sibling. In a few more years the two younger brothers - Raj and Satish also joined up.

That four 'real' brothers from a single family all joined the army sounds amazing. But that was just the first step. Not only were they in the same service, all of them also ended up joining the armoured corps. 'IM' (the eldest) was commissioned into the 8th Cavalary, 'JM' (Jagat) into the Deccan Horse, 'RM' (the third) into the Scinde Horse and Satish (the youngest) into the 3rd Cavalry. But what really makes their case truly unique is that all of them went on to become generals in the Indian Army.

The chain of coincidences can be further described by the following:

• Both 'I.M' and 'RM' commanded the War College/ College of Combat.
• 'JM' and 'RM' commanded the same armoured division.
• 'JM' led a brigade that 'IM" had raised into the 1971 Indo-Pak war.

Between the time that the eldest was commissioned - in 1942, and when the youngest retired - in 1996 - the four brothers had between them served for over 150 years collectively. Now, that is quite something.