Major Dhan Singh Thapa (English: Dhan Singh Thapa, born: 10 April, 1928; died: 6 September, 2005) was an Indian of Nepali origin who was awarded the Param Vir Chakra. He received this honor in 1962. Out of the four Indian braves who were awarded the Param Vir Chakra in the 1962 Indo-China war, only one brave survived that war, that brave’s name was Dhan Singh Thapa who had participated in this battle as a Major from 1/8 Gorkha Rifles. Dhan Singh Thapa may have survived even after facing the barbaric army of China, but the mere memory of the torture he suffered as a prisoner of China after the war is enough to send shivers down the spine. Dhan Singh Thapa was posted at the Siri Jap front on the banks of Pan Gong Tso (lake) in this war, where his bravery made him eligible for the honor of Param Vir Chakra.
Dhan Singh Thapa was born on 10 April 1928 in Shimla and joined the army as a commissioned officer on 28 October 1949. He was considered as a military officer who quietly kept busy with his work. It was never in his nature to speak unnecessarily or to boast excessively or to show himself as brave. When China attacked India in 1962, India was not at all prepared for this situation. India’s political leader Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru was considered an ambassador of peace at the international level. In his view, opening the path of development within the country was more important. Similarly, his focus was on presenting India’s image on the international platform as the country of Mahatma Gandhi or Gautam Buddha. Hence, the country’s plans were first focused on agriculture and industries for development and defense enterprises and the army were not at the top in his eyes. Similarly, India’s political view was understanding China only as much as China was presenting itself. But the truth was this. Despite India being in favour of a policy of peace, its expansionist and devious policy was also in place. Taking control of Tibet reflected its hypocritical behaviour. But India was completely unaware of this. Therefore, the Indian army was neither prepared for war, nor did it have any idea that the Chinese army had not only entered the Indian border, but had also built their posts and bunkers.
China’s military force not only had countless warriors, but they were also fully trained and alert. They had a huge stock of weapons and ammunition. Their communication system was very good and most importantly, they knew that India was neither prepared for this war, nor did its leaders have a warlike mindset. This was enough for China. Under these circumstances, D Company of the 1st Battalion of 8 Gorkha Rifles was ordered to build a post at Siri Jap. Major Dhan Singh Thapa was commanding that company. Thapa had to build a post at Siri Jap 1 on the banks of Pangong Tso Lake, while the Chinese had already built many posts in Ladakh. This area of Siri Jap was spread over about 48 square kilometers. Since it was decided to build small posts, only 28 people were given to Thapa’s D Company. For this task, Subedar Guthang, the second level officer after Thapa, was with him. Apart from this, the situation was such that the Chinese soldiers had quickly built their posts on three sides of that post.
On 19 October 1962, Thapa’s unit saw that a large number of Chinese soldiers were gathering around Siri Jap. They had a large amount of weapons and guns and it was certain that some big action was being planned by them. A similar scene was also seen on the eastern end in front of Dhola. This was an indication of the possibility of a two-way attack. Understanding this, Thapa ordered his soldiers to immediately and quickly dig deep trenches, but this task was extremely difficult. The ground was covered with a hard surface of snow. On this, the company commander also ordered that bunkers be made from sand bags and ration bags, which would act as a wall for defense.
Making the apprehension come true, the Chinese forces attacked on 20 October 1962 at 4:30 am. They had mortars as well as the facility to fire continuously. This sequence continued for two and a half hours, taking advantage of which the Chinese soldiers came about 150 yards inside. When the firing stopped, the Indian forces heard the commotion of about 600 soldiers who were advancing to attack the post. Actually, the Indian Gorkha soldiers were waiting for this situation. Now the Chinese soldiers were within the range of the machine guns of the Indian Gorkha contingent. As soon as they reached there, Thapa’s soldiers attacked the enemy army with their machine guns and rifles, due to which many Chinese soldiers were killed and many were injured. In this way, the brave soldiers of India forced the Chinese soldiers to stop at a distance of a hundred yards from the post. Major Dhan Singh Thapa’s D contingent was bound to suffer losses due to the shower of bullets and mortar fire from the Chinese soldiers. Many of his soldiers were also killed or injured. When the casualties started increasing, section commander Naik Krishna Bahadur Thapa himself took charge of the light machine gun and started firing bullets. He too killed many enemies and himself attained martyrdom. During this time, their communication system also failed, so the Indian Army was unable to establish communication with its battalion.
In this difficult situation, Subedar Min Bahadur Gurung and Major Dhan Singh Thapa were encouraging and planning the troop according to their strategy. A new troop of soldiers had arrived with China and those fresh soldiers were even more enthusiastic. In such a situation, the Chinese soldiers crawled up to 50 yards near the post, while their troops from both sides were making way for them by firing bullets. The enemy also had incendiary bombs, which they were throwing to create a shield of fire and smoke. Despite this, the Gurkhas accepted the challenge of this situation and started responding to them with their short-range weapons. Suddenly Subedar Gurung got buried under one of his own bunkers when it collapsed. He had a light machine gun in his hand at that time, from which he was firing bullets. Somehow he struggled and pulled himself out from under the bunker and then started firing bullets continuously. This caused heavy losses to the Chinese soldiers. Whoever came under Gurung’s target was killed but he himself was hit and died. Now Major Dhan Singh Thapa was standing firm at that post and only 7 out of 34 soldiers were left with him. Meanwhile, the enemy had brought 4 such vehicles with heavy machine guns, bazookas, which could attack by moving on both water and land. Two heavy machine guns were installed on each of these vehicles. India’s communication system had already broken down. Dhan Singh Thapa’s post had come under heavy pressure. Meanwhile, Naik Ravi Lal was sent in a small boat to communicate with the battalion because there was no other way of communication. Two boats were coming from the battalion via Tokung with help. The Chinese soldiers targeted both the boats. One boat was hit by their bullets and sank there itself. All the soldiers drowned with it. The other boat, in which Naik Ravi Lal himself was present, somehow managed to survive but help could not reach Major Dhan Singh Thapa.
Now only three soldiers were left with Major Dhan Singh Thapa, the remaining four were casualties. This happened to them when a fire bomb fell on Major Dhan Singh Thapa’s bunker. With this, the Chinese army captured that post and bunker and Major Dhan Singh Thapa was captured by the enemy. After that, the Chinese forces made the third attack with tanks. Meanwhile, Naik Ravilal, who had escaped by boat, reached the battalion again and informed the officers there about the defeat of Siri Jap post and the death of all the soldiers and Major Dhan Singh Thapa. He told that all the soldiers there and Major Thapa fought bravely till their last breath. The battalion was believing this news given by the Naik to be true, but the truth was not this. Major Thapa was captured along with his three soldiers. But fate still had to show something new. Out of the three prisoners including Thapa, Rifleman Tulsi Ram Thapa was successful in escaping from the clutches of the Chinese soldiers. He kept dodging the Chinese forces with his intelligence for four days and somehow managed to reach his battalion by running and hiding. Then he informed that Major Dhan Singh Thapa and two other soldiers had become prisoners of war of China, but by then it was too late. Major Thapa suffered torture as a prisoner of war with China for a long time. The Chinese administrators kept trying their best to make him reveal the secrets of the Indian Army. They wanted to break him by torturing him to the extreme, but it was not possible. Major Dhan Singh Thapa was neither a person who was afraid of torture nor temptation.
After returning to the country and joining the army, Major Thapa eventually rose to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel and retired. He then took over as the Director of Sahara Airlines in Lucknow.
