DOGRA SOLDIER AND THE DOGRA CULTURE
Dogra Soldier is in fact the personification of Dogra Culture. Why and How? Dogra Soldier comes from the hills, mostly from the villages where the Dogra Culture or the Dogra Religious ethos is very predominant. In fact, Dogras are very religious and God-fearing people. They abide by many rituals and follow the religious dictates like a soldier. Maybe it is the effect of the discipline learnt from the soldiering which instills discipline in the Dogra families and which has become a tradition.Being a Dogra myself, I know many things, many customs, many taboos and , many dictates were dictated to us by our parents or even by teachers or elders almost as religious dictates. Doing so would be PAAP and against Dharma. For example we used to go for a bath in our village ponds where we had separate ghats for men, women and from the very childhood we were told if you see a naked woman your eyes will get damaged as it is an extreme PAAP. And we believed it. We never even by a mistake glanced in that direction where the women used to bathe and if we ever found that there were some women taking bath we avoided it and waited away from the ‘ghat’ or / ‘pattan’ as we used to call it. These guidelines persisted all our lives.
Similarly, many such religious and social dictates made the Dogra people very disciplined and the Dogra Soldier brought all these characteristics with him and practiced it even in the Army. The Army naturally exploited this trait to the advantage of the Unit. That’s why the Dogras are known for their discipline in the whole Indian Army. In fact, Dogra Units are most welcome by any Commander.
I know, as myself, being a Dogra from the Jammu and Kashmir Rifles, a pure Dogra Unit which I joined in 1948 at the age of 19 after my training in the Army Training School at Srinagar and Udhampur (Patnitop). When I joined the paltan had almost 800 Dogras from all over the State. For me it was a mini-Jammu region. I had never been to Kishtwar and many places when I joined the Bn, but I found Dogra Soldiers from all the areas, backward far off places Doda, Kishtwar, Poonch, Rajouri, Basholi, Bani etc. Later on the Dogra Recruitment was opened from HP and Punjab into our Regiment. In my Bn, by the time I was a Captain with six years service, we had large number of Dogras from Himachal, from Mandi, Suket, Nahan and then from Punjab, Hoshiarpur, Gurdaspur, Dinanagar, Pathankot. It was like a mini Dugardesh of Jammu, HP and Punjab and later when the Officers came from South and East, West, Gujrat, Maharashtra it was a mini-India.
But looking at the Dogra aspect of culture is fascinating. We had 800 people living in one Unit, in one place not for a day, a week, a month or a year but for years in war and in peace, in winter, in summer in all the seasons and we celebrated entire customs, rituals, festivals, dances throughout the year. It had become like a global village where you observe festivals like Baisakhi, Holi, Dussehra together. In fact, we celebrate them in a much more organized manner than even in the villages. These customs and standardized with a very learned Unit Pandit who gives talks and lectures to all the Officers, JCOs, men on Sundays and on religious days. Mandirs, Gurudwaras and Mosques are all open in the Unit in the Army, from morning to evening and the men can spend available time with the religious teacher, learn anything, discuss anything including personal problems and get his advice and also improve their own religious knowledge. I observed in my Unit we had an excellent temple with all the Murties which one doesn’t even find in the villages. The unit was like a mini village or a big family where surprisingly we had 800 Dogras, all from different villages of the Dogra regions of India. When the unit goes to peace time for 3 years they bring their families and their children now and the numbers swell to include 200 to 300 families joining The families including the children live together, not just from Dogra areas from Mandi to Kishtwar, but these days families of Officers from Kerala and other parts of India exposed to the Dogra aspect of culture and language. Their customs, food, songs and dances intermingle, sometimes resulting in inter-cultural marriage alliances in the families. What a treasure of culture is ‘The Unit’.
I used to hold intercompany competitions. If one company had a predominant troop from Jammu the other from HP, the third from Hoshiarpur or Gurdaspur, the competitions would bring out the best with the result we have the best from Punjab, the best of Himachal and the best of Jammu. In Jammu once we said we have the kud dance there will be kuds of Kishtwar, kuds of Reasi, kuds of Udhampur and then there would be kud of Himachal and then there will be a competition again similarly the Bhangra the Punjabi Bhangra the Jammu Bhangra and like this the Pahari Songs, the Bansuri (flute) of HP. There will be competitions and the best would come out in singing, dancing. Similarly in the arena of Dogra cuisine, we will get the best representation from each area The NCOs, Jawans and particularly their ladies would provide the best dishes and the best songs of their areas. We held competitions of their skills, whether in arts like singing and dancing or culinary skills and the best would be drawn our. This is something to be preserved, documented and I personally feel the best cultural contribution of any region, community or tribe that is being showcased and maintained in many units.
Good units keep their unit ethos, the Dogra Cultural Ethos and now some of the units are even documenting them because the means are available. I think the best source for cross cultural interaction in the future may be the Army Units. I felt the Dogra Soldier and the Dogra Culture are preserved by the units and when the Dogra Troops retire, they bring with them all these happy memories of how they celebrated culture back to the village and pass it on to the younger generations. Then the next generation from the villages takes this this ethos goes to the units and the cycle continues. It is a very happy mix of the Army culture and the Dogra Soldier’s Dogri Village Culture.