CDS (I) 2024 General Knowledge · Question 106 of 120

Correct — D, Manoj Mukund Naravane. Four Stars of Destiny is the memoir of General M. M. Naravane, the 28th Chief of the Army Staff, who held the office from 31 December 2019 to 30 April 2022. The title works on the four stars of a full General's rank badge, and the book is an account of a career that ended in the Army's top chair during the 2020 confrontation with China in eastern Ladakh. The memoir was set for publication in 2024 and became widely discussed in January of that year, weeks before this paper was written, though its release was held up by the Ministry of Defence's review process.

• (a)Sam Manekshaw — Field Marshal Manekshaw commanded the Army in the 1971 war and died in 2008; much has been written about him, but the four-star title belongs to a General, and a Field Marshal wears five stars.
• (b)K. J. S. Dhillon — A Lieutenant General, and so a three-star officer, whose name is familiar from Kashmir-related news briefings; the title of this book points to a four-star rank, and he is not its author.
• (c)Bipin Rawat — General Rawat was Chief of the Army Staff and then India's first Chief of Defence Staff, and he died in the Coonoor helicopter crash of December 2021 without writing an autobiography.

Defence-service memoirs are a standing source of CDS and NDA questions because they attach a name, a rank and a period of command to a single title. Naravane's tenure as Army Chief covered the Ladakh confrontation of 2020, the long disengagement talks that followed, and the last stretch before the Agnipath recruitment change, which is why a memoir from that chair was of unusual public interest.

The four options are separable by rank and by date once you read the title literally. 'Four stars' is the insignia of a full General, which rules out a Field Marshal at once, and an autobiography must be written by someone alive to write it, which rules out a serving officer who died in 2021. That leaves two Generals, and only one of them had just been in the news over a book. There is a further honest point students should know: publication of the memoir was delayed because serving and retired officers must clear such writing with the Ministry of Defence, and the same requirement applies to any account of operational events. Naravane has since published a novel, The Cantonment Conspiracy, in 2025.

• Four Stars of Destiny is the memoir of General Manoj Mukund Naravane.
• Naravane was the 28th Chief of the Army Staff, from 31 December 2019 to 30 April 2022.
• Publication, scheduled for 2024, was delayed by the Ministry of Defence's review process.
• Naravane's later book, the novel The Cantonment Conspiracy, appeared in 2025.

• Reading 'four stars' as a general compliment rather than as the rank badge of a full General.
• Attributing any recent Army book to the best-known name on the list.
• Assuming a book announced in the press has actually been released.

As a straight 'who wrote this book' item. The reliable preparation is a running list of the year's notable titles with their authors, especially service memoirs and books by holders of high office.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  General Manoj Mukund Naravane held which office from December 2019 to April 2022?

  • (a)Chief of Defence Staff
  • (b)Chief of the Army Staff
  • (c)Chief of the Naval Staff
  • (d)National Security Adviser

  Answer(b) Chief of the Army Staff — he was the 28th holder of the post.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Which of the following officers of the Indian Army held the five-star rank of Field Marshal?

  • (a)Bipin Rawat
  • (b)Sam Manekshaw
  • (c)K. J. S. Dhillon
  • (d)Manoj Mukund Naravane

  Answer(b) Sam Manekshaw — one of only two Indian Army officers ever to hold the rank, the other being K. M. Cariappa.