“We have units in the Indian Army that can trace their history back over 200 years. They have fought from Mesopotamia to Burma, all over the place, and when you see a photo in your mess, with a soldier in the same uniform, you realise you’re part of a greater whole… A regimental spirit is formed by this history… these pieces of silver, and paintings, and medals, and all this slowly instils pride in yourself, in your uniform, regiment, and onwards to your country,” says General Naravane.
“That’s me,” he says, pointing to a photograph among his predecessors and successors up on the gallery wall of the Taurus Officers’ Mess, Delhi Cantonment. I look across the anteroom at the historical artefacts and silver trophies meant to commemorate major military events and battle victories.
From his demeanour, it is obvious that Gen Naravane is a modest man, especially for someone a bit more than just ‘part of a greater whole’. In 2022, he retired as the Chief of Army Staff and left behind a legacy that “most will only understand with time,” as Snehesh Alex Philip, a prominent defence journalist, put it at the time.
As a young officer, he served with the Indian Peace Keeping Force in Sri Lanka and accumulated years of counter-insurgency experience as the commander of a battalion in J&K and as Inspector General of the Assam Rifles in the Northeast. He went on to command the prestigious Strike Corps and later headed the Eastern Command.
There are multiple elements to his legacy. In his very first press conference, he garnered instant approval from independent analysts for his unequivocal reaffirmation of the Indian Army’s apolitical role as a defender of the Constitution and fundamental rights, especially after his predecessor attracted controversy over politically-charged public remarks.
History, however, will remember Gen. Naravane as the Chief who deftly handled the 2020 India-China LAC crisis, which led to a protracted military standoff and arguably a paradigm shift in India’s geopolitical environment and outlook. He personally helped plan and oversee the operation that outflanked China at the strategic heights of Pangong Lake’s southern bank, delivering a key piece of leverage to Indian negotiators.
Post-retirement, Gen. Naravane has added further to his legacy as he embarks on a newfound literary career. His mother was an acclaimed Marathi writer, and his father wrote books on military history. “I guess a little bit of it is there in the blood,” he tells me.
The Cantonment Conspiracy is a fast-paced military thriller written with a no-nonsense literary approach—just what one would expect from a serviceman-turned-author. Its protagonists, Lt. Renuka Khatri and Lt. Rohit Verma, are two officers fresh out of the National Defence Academy and assigned to the Sikh Light Infantry regimental centre in Fatehgarh, where they find themselves abruptly thrust into the middle of a sensational assault charge. This, unexpectedly, leads them to uncover a double murder plot, separated by decades but marked by eerie parallels too hard to ignore. Renuka and Rohit employ their shrewd detective skills and enlist the help of their fellow comrades-in-arms as they investigate clues buried deep within the garrison walls—clues that evoke the very relevant and modern-day politico-security context of Manipur.
