History of National Defence Academy
National Defence Academy (NDA) is an Iconic Institution and a global brand of excellence in the sphere of military education. Over the years, it has emerged as a unique military academy, attracting the best of youth from our nation and friendly foreign countries and transforming them into gentlemen officers. During the last seven decades of its glorious existence, National Defence Academy has grown both in grace and grandeur and from its portals have emerged ‘The Leaders of the men’, who have demonstrated the essence of inter-services camaraderie and jointmanship, thereby vindicating the faith and vision of its founding fathers. The alumni have proved to be great mountaineers, cosmonauts, sportsmen, researchers, creative writers, artists and more recently, Olympic champions. Their achievements are all pervading and showcased in every echelon of our Armed Forces and also in the civil society.
THE CONCEPT
The concept of the NDA was conceived at the conclusion of the Second World war. Six years of fierce combat had emphatically underlined the need for ‘Jointness’ in modern warfare. It was believed then and correctly so that it is primarily element of synergy that provides significant asymmetric edge in a conflict situation. At the time of its inception, the concept of NDA is unique and pioneering that was far ahead of its time. In fact, so exciting and novel was the concept that many nations looked at it with avid interest to see how it would shape out in practice.
The Government of Sudan in 1941 had given a generous gift of a hundred thousand pounds to Lord Linlithgow, the Viceroy of India, to build a war memorial to commemorate the sacrifices of the Indian troops in the Second World War for the liberation of Sudan. It was this core corpus that was later utilised to build the Sudan Block, the grand edifice of the National Defence Academy. On 02 May 1945, a Committee was formed under the Chairmanship of the Commander-in-Chief, India, Field Marshal Sir Claude J Auchinleck, GCB, GCIE, DSO, OBE, popularly known as ‘Auk’, to examine the feasibility of forming an institution with excellent facilities for training the officers of the Armed Forces jointly. Many foreign training academies were visited to analyse the efficacy of their working and evolve a suitable concept for an Indian War Academy.
THE COMMITTEE
‘Auk’ ceased to be the Commander-in-Chief of the undivided Indian Armed Forces on 15 August 1947, and the blueprint of the unique Academy envisaged by him remained in cold storage for about eight months. But the enthusiasm it had generated and the alarming vaccum in the officer cadre did not allow it to be shelved. In fact, its birth became a paramount necessity. The report was finally referred to the Chiefs of Staff Committee in 1947. Their suggestion for the formation of an Interim Joint Inter Services Wing at the Indian Military Academy, Dehradun, was accepted for the implementation. Concurrently an action plan to commission a permanent war academy at Khadakwasla(Pune) was commenced and Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru himself laid the foundation stone on 06 Oct 1949.
INAUGURATION
On 1 January 1949, the Armed Forces Academy having its military Academy and the Indian Military Academy and the Joint Services Wing were commissioned. After two years of training at JSW, the Army cadets went on to the Military wing for a further two year pre-commission training. The Naval and the Air force cadets were sent to Dartmouth and Cranwell in UK for advanced training. On 07 December 1954, the interim process crystallized with the commissioning of National Defence Academy and the Academy was formally inaugurated on 16 January 1955