On 28 April 1928, Krishnaswamy Sundararajan, popularly known as General Krishnaswamy "Sundarji" Sundararajan, was born in Chengelpet, Madras Presidency, British India.
He was the Chief of the Army Staff of the Indian Army from 1986 to 1988, during which time he planned and executed Operation Brasstacks, a major military exercise, along the Rajasthan border. He was also the last former British Indian Army officer to command the Indian Army.
Sundarji had a successful military career and was regarded as one of the most promising generals of Independent India. In his early career as an army officer, he operated in the North-West Frontier Province and then in Jammu and Kashmir. He played an important role as brigadier general staff of a corps in the Rangpur sector of Bangladesh, during the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971.
Sundarji also led Operation Blue Star, intended to evict extremists who had occupied the Golden Temple in Amritsar in 1984. He introduced a number of technology initiatives to the Indian Army and was also involved in Operation Pawan.
Sundarji played a key role in formulating India's nuclear policy as a member of the core team. Alongside Admiral R.H. Tahiliani, he authored the Indian Nuclear Doctrine in his capacity as a senior army general. Following his retirement, he expressed disappointment with the lack of attention given by politicians to nuclear security issues. In 1993, he authored the book "Blind Men of Hindustan", which analyzed India's nuclear strategy and drew parallels with the story of six blind men misinterpreting an elephant by touching different parts of it.
He was renowned for his forward-thinking approach and innovative strategies in the Indian Army. Despite being commissioned in the infantry, he was an ardent follower of tank warfare and developed various operational guidelines that challenged his commanders to push both men and machines to the limit. One of his notable achievements was designing the all-black uniform of the Armoured Corps, which he went on to lead, creating the Mechanised Infantry Regiment that now forms an integral part of the Indian strike corps, with emphasis on speed, technology, and mobile weaponry.
Sundarji was instrumental in shaping modern Indian Army thinking during his tenure as the commandant of the College of Combat, where he rewrote the war manual with a focus on speed, decisive action, technology, and armour. He also predicted the defeat of the Iraqi forces in the Gulf War due to the superiority of air power and technology. Sundarji's partially completed autobiography titled "Of Some Consequence: A Soldier Remembers" contains 33 episodes out of a planned 105.
