I have been travelling in Gujarat and Rajasthan and many places I have visited are very close to the border. By close I mean 50km or lesser. BSF personnels and BSF checkpoints have been very common in my travel. I then visited the battleground of the Laungewala battle of 1971. This is 15km from the Indo-Pakistan border.
While there have been many India Pakistan battles, this battle is talked about specifically since the odds were against India. 120 India soldiers vs 2000+ Pakistani soldiers including 23 tanks. The Indian army decided to defend instead of retreating. After about 8 hours it got support from IAF and the combined forces made the Pakistani tanks retreat. While I don’t know much about battles and how they are considered great or normal, the numbers at large give and impression that it was a difficult task.
The place where the actual battle took place is made into a museum now. I was wondering how confident the Indian army should be to make a battlefield into a tourist location. There were also some witty quotes by the Indian army everywhere which was nice to read.
I was looking at the list of soldiers who lost their lives in the battle. One clear fact was that it was filled with Punjabi names. There were hardly any South Indian names. A quick stat check shows that the maximum number of people in the Indian Army are from UP, followed by Punjab followed by Maharashtra and the Rajasthan.
I then visited the Tanot Mata temple. It is a temple where the BSF personals are the Pujaris and it’s managed entirely by the BSF. The goddess Tanot Mata was worshipped by a BSF personal. It is said that during the 1965 Indo Pakistan battle, when the BSF was cornered and had to defend, the Devi Tanot Mata protected them. They were told to sit within a circle near the shrine and it is said that even the bombs that fell near them did not blast or they missed their target.
Even during the 1971 battle of Loungewala, it is believed that Tanot Mata Devi got the Pakistani tanks get stuck in sand and not progress further easily. The temple was also unaffected in the 1971 battle although it was so close to the border. Post that the BSF took over the temple and also build a big shrine and a Vijaya Stamp or victory pillar. Devi Tanot Mata, though close to the border is a patriotic Indian.
Visiting the battle ground gave a very different feeling. The place was so different from the usual cities and towns. The soldiers live in extremely harsh conditions. Temperatures in the summer go to above 50 degrees centigrade and winters go sub zero. Still you need to defend and be vigilant.
Even with all the weapons and battalions, the trust in god is still held high.
Endless thoughts 