HISTORY OF "KHAKI"(Persian for Dust Colour)

Khaki was first invented in India by Lieutenant (later Lieutenant General) Lumsdon, who raised "The Queen's Own Corps of Guides" in December, 1846.

He was of the view that boarder banditti could be best dealt with in a manner which they would well understand, if his own men wore their native style clothing, rather than adopt the semi-European dress which was then used in the Indian forces, and which the infantry battalion of the Punjab Frontier Force raised at the same time as the Guides were wearing.

No serious attempt of uniformity were made as the corps was in existence for more than a year, when were adopted a smock and pyjama trouser made of coarse home spun cotton material, a cotton turban and overall in the winters, jerkins of sheepskin and wadded cotton jackets. All were dyed locally with the product of a dwarf palm known as mazari which possessed the quality of colouring white cloth a drabbish grey; an indigenous method of producing camouflage clothing developed by the tribesmen as a result of constant vendetta and domestic wars. The leather jackets, however dyed unsuccessfully with mazari, so mulberry juice was used instead, which produced a yellow drab shade.

This is how the "Khaki" was born.

By the end of Boer war in 1899, the word "Khaki" had found its place in the English dictionaries. The Americans adopted "Khaki" in the early nineteen hundred, Japan in 1905, French in 1910 and the Belgian and Spanish armies in 1919. It gradually went on to become a universal pattern for militaries world over.

This coloured uniform is today the universal pattern of Indian police and para military forces across the line. However, the Indian armed forces have almost shed this pattern.

(Photo: Google)

NEHRU REMEMBERED

Pt Nehru had a special attraction towards lady Mountbatten in the mid forties . There first meeting was like a typical filmy plot in 1946, wherein, Mrs Mountbatten was knocked off at her feet by a crowed of Panditji's admirers at the YMCA in Singapore. She crawled under a table from where, Panditji rescued her.

Panditji and the lady had an immediate attraction which blossomed into LOVE.

Nehru, a widower had a daughter Mrs Gandhi, who was married with a husband to look after and was not often around. Nehru had two sisters who were away in Moscow and Bombay. This had left him lonely in the house and he could not share much with his associates as well. This is how, Lady Mounbatten became his confidence. He would never write to her until about two in the morning, when he had finished his work, and his letters were a fascinating story on the creation of new India. The beginning and the ending were full of personal words for the lady but the main text was the reproduction of daily events, what he had been doing and people he had seen, his hopes and fears and towards the end of this twelve-year correspondence, his disappointments and disillusion.

The Lady already had many LOVERS and the fact was known to LORD MOUNTBATTEN. It broke his heart for the first time but not anymore.

It is evident from his letter in June 1948, written to his own daughter,

" She and Jawaharlal are so sweet together, they really dote on each other in the nicest way and Pammy and I are doing everything we can to be tactful and help. Mummy has been incredibly sweet lately and we have been such a happy family.'

So it was a firm understanding on all sides. In one of the letters written by Nehru to the Lady in March 1957, he quoted,

"Suddenly I realised ( and perhaps you did also ) that there was a deeper attachment between us, that some uncontrollable force, of which I was dimly aware, drew us to one another, I was overwhelmed and at the same time exhilarated by this new discovery. We talked more intimately as if some veil had been removed and we could look into each other's eyes without fear or embarrassment."

Both used to meet at least twice in a year even after independence in the backdrop of official visits. The Lady was on an overseas tour in 1960 and had just left India, she died in her sleep at the age of fifty-eight during that tour. A packet of letters from Panditji was found by her bedside. There was a suitcase full of letters left in her will for Lord Mounbatten.

On the death of Lady Mounbatten, INDIAN PARLIAMENT stood in silence in her memory and a frigate from the INDIAN NAVY attended her funeral at sea off PORTSMOUTH. They cast a wreath of marigolds into the ocean on behalf of the PRIME MINISTER NEHRU.