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By Lieutenant Colonel C G Nair

The 25th Mechanised Infantry, the youngest battalion of the Mechanised Infantry received colours from Chief of the Army, General J J Singh on December 08, 2005. To mark the occasion, Sainik Samachar focuses on the genesis and growth of Mechanised Infantry.

To mechanise a military force is to equip it with arms and armoured motor vehicles. Mechanised Infantry consists of infantry troops provided with Armoured Personal Carriers or Infantry Combat Vehicles (IVCs) for transport and combat tasks. Mechanised Infantry was introduced between World War I and World War II, when French and later German Infantry were first provided with trucks or custom-built half tracked and motorised transport for their support units, resulting in highly mobile formations that could keep pace with the armoured formations. Motorised Infantry is an infantry unit which is transported by trucks or other fast motor vehicles. Motorising infantry is the first stage towards mechanisation of an army. In the Indian context, the need to mechanise infantry was felt after the 1965 Indo-Pak War. Initial steps were taken in 1969, when the 1st Madras added another feather to its cap by becoming the first infantry unit to be equipped with the Armoured Personal Carrier (APC).

By 1970, ten infantry units had been equipped with an array of APCs. To fully realise the combat potential of this dynamic arm, a need was felt to provide these battalions with an integrated training and a common battle philosophy. The idea of grouping the existing battalions together under one banner with a common identity, was conceived by General K V Krishna Rao (Retd) in 1973 and crystallised by General K Sundarji (Retd). It was they who pursued the formal raising of the Mechanised Infantry regiment. Thus, the Mechanised Infantry regiment came into being on 02 April 1979. Today, the youngest regiment of the Indian Army stands elevated as a mighty reckonable force. The cohesive regiment was formed and nurtured under the watchful eyes of its first Colonel of the Regiment, General Sundarji (Retd), by amalgamating some of the oldest and the most decorated infantry battalions of the Indian Army.

With a glorious past, studded with battle and theatre honours, the foundation of the regiment was very strong. Today, the Mechanised Infantry regiment boasts of professionally competent battalions and also of the most versatile equipment. General Sundarji, the then Chief of Army Staff, had aptly called it Tomorrow's Regiment in Today's Army. True to the motto of the regiment Valour & Faith, the battalions of the regiment have proved their prowess in Operation Pawan in Sri Lanka, numerous other operations and under the banner of the United Nations as well. A Mechanised Infantry soldier is braving all odds of terrain, weather and enemy action from the coldest regions of Leh to the smouldering sands of Rajasthan. On the occasion of its silver jubilee, the 25th Mechanised Infantry, salutes Late Major Rajesh Adhikari who was posthumously awarded the Maha Vir Chakra for his heroic action in the Battle of Tololing during the Kargil conflict and several other awardees and unsung heroes of the regiment whose gallant record is a tacit testimony to their altruistic commitment to duty.

The President of India conferred Colours to the regiment on February 24, 1988 at the Mechanised Infantry Regimental center (MIRC), Ahmednagar in a unique parade where 24 Colours were presented. The 24 Mechanised Infantry (Recce & Support) was presented Colours on December 05, 1996 at Jodhpur. The regiment has actively participated in Operations Pawan, Rakshak and Vijay. The regiment has the unique distinction of operating in the high altitude regions of Ladakh and Sikkim. It also has actively contributed to UN peacekeeping operations in Somalia, Angola, Sierra Leone, Eritrea and Congo. The Mechanised Infantry and Regimental Centre (MIRC) came up in March 1979 in a vast expanse of over 2000 acres. The regimental centre which was barren land earlier has now turned into a land of greeney. By planting approximately 500,000 trees, the centre bagged Indira Gandhi Paryavaran Puraskar in 1965. Today, it stands as one of the eye-catching greener belts of the area.

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