Cariappa, Kodendra (1899-1993), was the first Indian commander in chief of the newly independent army of India. He was also the first Indian to enter the Command and Staff College at Quetta, in what is now Pakistan, and he was the first Indian deputy chief of general staff there. At the time, the college trained officers for the British Indian Army serving in the colony of British India.
Kodendra Madappa Cariappa was born on Jan. 28, 1899, near Coorg, in India. He was educated at Presidency College in Madras (now Chennai). Cariappa fought in the army during World War I (1914-1918) and World War II (1939-1945). In 1949, two years after independence was declared, Cariappa became the Indian army’s first Indian commander in chief. In 1953, he retired from the army. From 1954 to 1958, he served as India’s high commissioner to Australia. He remained active in public life after leaving government service, for a time serving as the president of the All-Indian Ex-Servicemen’s Federation. In 1979, he was elevated to the honorary rank of field marshal and became chairman of the National Democratic Party (NDP). In 1979, he became the head of the National Democratic Permanent Council and, in 1982, chairman of the NDP. He died on May 15, 1993.
