Madan Singh Rawat, VrC

Biography

Rifleman Madan Singh Rawat was born on 26 October 1944 in Gadri village of Pauri Garhwal district, Uttarakhand, a region celebrated for its deep martial traditions and its contribution to the Indian Armed Forces. Raised with values of courage, discipline and devotion to the nation, and inspired by the legacy of soldiers from the Garhwal hills, he enlisted in the Indian Army on 26 October 1961 at the young age of seventeen. His dedication and physical endurance soon marked him as a promising soldier, and he was enrolled into the 4th Battalion of the Garhwal Rifles, a regiment renowned for its gallantry and battlefield achievements. During the Indo-China War of 1962, Rifleman Rawat served with 4 Garhwal Rifles under 62 Infantry Brigade in the North-East Frontier Agency, tasked with forward reconnaissance and offensive probing in the Mago sector of the Kameng Frontier Division. On the night of 14 November 1962, a high-risk seven-man combat patrol was launched under Second Lieutenant Vinod Kumar Goswamy, with the objective of observing Chinese activity north of the Tawang Chu and, if possible, capturing a prisoner for interrogation. Advancing stealthily through dense forest and rugged terrain, the patrol located a Chinese sentry near a hut believed to hold some twenty enemy soldiers. Rifleman Rawat volunteered to approach the sentry. Muffling the sentry's mouth and pulling him to the ground, he grappled with him while the patrol leader seized the rifle. When another Chinese soldier emerged and opened fire, Rawat continued to pin the sentry single-handed under intense resistance. Though the alerted enemy made extraction impossible and the patrol withdrew, Rifleman Rawat sustained grievous wounds in the close combat and was killed during the action. For his exemplary courage and devotion to duty, he was posthumously awarded the Vir Chakra.