Bharat Rakshak is interested in compiling a personal history of the veterans that have served with the IAF in the course of its rich history. Operational and wartime histories are valuable and interesting in their own right but the details and insights available in personal testimonials are an equally valuable resource. We are looking for ex-service personnel and veterans who will be willing to share their experiences and service particulars that would help us create an archive of material on the History of the Indian Air force.
Bharat Rakshak is interested in compiling a personal history of the veterans that have served with the IAF in the course of its rich history. Operational and wartime histories are valuable and interesting in their own right but the details and insights available in personal testimonials are an equally valuable resource. We are looking for ex-service personnel and veterans who will be willing to share their experiences and service particulars that would help us create an archive of material on the History of the Indian Air force.
Bharat Rakshak is interested in compiling a personal history of the veterans that have served with the IAF in the course of its rich history. Operational and wartime histories are valuable and interesting in their own right but the details and insights available in personal testimonials are an equally valuable resource. We are looking for ex-service personnel and veterans who will be willing to share their experiences and service particulars that would help us create an archive of material on the History of the Indian Air force.
If you have served in the Indian Air Force we are interested in hearing about your service, your career highlights and any reflections on the Air Force that are illuminating for Indians. While operational histories of the Air Forces are available, these often leave out details on the men behind the scenes and their lives. We would like to pay attention to these to bring a human face to the Air Force and to ensure that future generations are able to learn about the lives of the men and women that fought for the country. Please consider taking a moment to contact us using our Feedback Form.
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| Business Standard : Read about the Veterans Project and its progress as covered in Business Standard news paper |
Who is Bharat-Rakshak and why is it collecting this information?
If you need more information on Bharat Rakshak, its background and its membership, profile and interests please check this link. If you want to know about the specific people working on this project you can read about them here
You can also read the news report published in Business Standard to get an idea of the people behind the project
But what kind of material constitutes a personal history?
As an example of the kind of historical material that we are collecting and making available on the website, you might want to check out some of the links as indicated below. These include, for example, a photo album made available by members of 7 Squadron through the years, the personal collection of Air Cmde RHD Singh, essays on IAF pioneers, Flt. Lt Samar Shah’s photo collection on 8 and 27 Squadrons, operational and personal histories of the 1965 operations, articles on 20 Squadron (Lightnings), a pilots account of the Longewala battle and so on.
We are also interested in hearing about activities in the non-flying components of the IAF. As examples we would be interested in hearing about the code-cracking efforts during the 1965 and 1971 wars, the innovations and modifications that ground-bound personnel came up with which made a difference to the fliers, work done by logistics personnel in maintaining the flying operations and so on.In compiling these, we hope to bring a human face to the IAF. We also hope to perhaps put veterans from different eras in contact with each other and to restablish connections between veterans that have been lost over the years.
What are the ‘sub-projects’ that you are working on?
It is also the objective of the History Project to publish well written comprehensive histories of the conflicts in which the Indian Air Force took part. Our first sub-project, the 1965 air conflict has been completed and is now a published book. Work on the 1971 War History has started in earnest and collection of information is going on right now. Other projects that are conceptualized for the future include the IPKF Operations , the 1947-48 Kashmir Operations etc.
I’m not a veteran, but I’d like to help
If you know a veteran of the Indian Air Forces such as a family member, a neighbour or family friend, please consider encouraging them to visit our website and participate in this project. If this is not possible, perhaps you can help us out by encouraging them to supply us with the information on their service profile, career highlights and reflections on the Air Force that are illuminating for Indians. You might want to encourage the veterans to visit the website and see some of our work themselves, or you can solicit the relevant information and send it to us. We can compose a questionnaire that is relevant to the person you want to meet and e-mail it to you. It will serve as a guide for your conversation.
Please do remember that while we are grateful for any assistance provided in this project, we would like to respect the need for privacy of the veterans and their families that you meet and interact with. Excessive demands on their time are not likely to be met kindly, so please do maintain the proper respect that is due to these families.
You can email us at Feedback Form .
Some contributions from visitors as well as some results of our previous efforts