MPSC 2025 Prelims Paper-I · Question 12 of 100

Correct — option (2), Rajendra Singh — Lieutenant General Rajendrasinghji Jadeja, who as General Officer Commanding-in-Chief of Southern Command held overall command over the military action that brought Hyderabad State into the Indian Union. When the Nizam of Hyderabad refused accession and negotiations under the Standstill Agreement broke down, the Indian Army launched Operation Polo on 13 September 1948; troops entered Hyderabad territory under the overall supervision of Lt. Gen. Rajendrasinghji, while Major General J. N. Chaudhuri commanded the actual invading force on the ground. The Nizam's forces surrendered within days, a ceasefire was declared on 17 September, and Hyderabad's formal accession followed on 18 September 1948. Rajendrasinghji's guiding role at the command level over the whole operation is exactly what this question is asking for, distinguishing him from the officer who executed the operation in the field.

• (1)K. M. Cariappa — Cariappa was a senior and highly decorated Lieutenant General at this time, but his command responsibility in 1948 lay elsewhere: from January 1948 he headed the Delhi and East Punjab Command, soon renamed Western Command, directing operations against Pakistani-backed forces in Jammu and Kashmir. He went on to become independent India's first Indian Commander-in-Chief in January 1949, but the Hyderabad operation of September 1948 was not under his command.
• (3)S. M. Srinagesh — Srinagesh's 1948 postings were also tied to the Kashmir theatre rather than Hyderabad — he served as Adjutant General at Army Headquarters in early 1948 and then as overall commander of Indian troops in Jammu and Kashmir through to the ceasefire of January 1949. He later rose to GOC-in-C Southern Command and eventually to Chief of the Army Staff in 1955, but that Southern Command posting came after Rajendrasinghji's, not during the Hyderabad operation itself.
• (4)Sir Robert Lockhart — Lockhart, a British officer, served as independent India's first Commander-in-Chief of the Army from August 1947, but he had left that post well before Operation Polo — he was succeeded during 1948, ahead of the September action, by General Roy Bucher, another British officer who is recorded as having urged caution on the Cabinet over military action against Hyderabad. Lockhart's own tenure does not connect him to the operation this question describes.

Hyderabad's accession was the largest and most militarily consequential of the princely-state integration episodes after August 1947, precipitated by the Nizam's refusal to join either India or Pakistan and by escalating disorder within the state, including the activities of the Razakar militia. When negotiation under the Standstill Agreement of November 1947 failed to produce accession, the Government of India ordered a short, decisive military operation — codenamed Operation Polo — that ended Nizam rule as an independent political entity within five days.

MPSC's questions on the integration of the princely states frequently test the specific chain of command for each operation, since more than one senior officer is usually involved — an overall commander at the Command level and a field commander directing troops — and it is easy to remember 'a general was involved in Hyderabad' without fixing exactly which general held which role. The useful discipline is separating overall command (Rajendrasinghji, Southern Command) from field command (J. N. Chaudhuri) for Hyderabad, just as a similar distinction applies to the Kashmir operations of the same period.

• Operation Polo, the Indian Army's action against Hyderabad State, was launched on 13 September 1948 after the Nizam refused accession and negotiations broke down.
• Lt. Gen. Rajendrasinghji Jadeja, GOC-in-C Southern Command, held overall command of the operation; Maj. Gen. J. N. Chaudhuri commanded the invading force in the field.
• The Nizam's forces surrendered within days; a ceasefire was announced on 17 September and Hyderabad's formal accession followed on 18 September 1948.
• K. M. Cariappa and S. M. Srinagesh both held senior commands in 1948, but in the Jammu and Kashmir theatre rather than Hyderabad.
• Sir Robert Lockhart was independent India's first Commander-in-Chief (August 1947) but had left that post before Operation Polo; Roy Bucher held the post at the time of the Hyderabad action.

• Assuming any senior general active in 1948 must be linked to whichever operation a question names, without checking which command he actually held
• Confusing overall command of an operation (Rajendrasinghji, at the Command level) with field command (Chaudhuri, leading the troops)
• Losing track of the sequence of Commanders-in-Chief — Lockhart, then Bucher, then Cariappa — and which one held the post at which moment

MPSC's princely-state integration questions often ask precisely which officer held which level of command for a specific operation, since several senior generals were active across Kashmir and Hyderabad in the same narrow 1947–49 window. A short table of officer, command level, theatre and dates removes the ambiguity these questions rely on.

No directly related past PYQ was found.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  During Operation Polo in September 1948, who commanded the Indian Army's invading force in the field, under Lt. Gen. Rajendrasinghji's overall command?

  • (a)Maj. Gen. J. N. Chaudhuri
  • (b)K. M. Cariappa
  • (c)S. M. Srinagesh
  • (d)Roy Bucher

  Answer(a) Maj. Gen. J. N. Chaudhuri — he led the troops that entered Hyderabad territory, while Rajendrasinghji, as GOC-in-C Southern Command, held overall command of the operation. Cariappa and Srinagesh were commanding in the Jammu and Kashmir theatre at this time, and Roy Bucher was Commander-in-Chief of the Indian Army as a whole.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Who served as independent India's first Commander-in-Chief of the Army, from August 1947?

  • (a)Sir Robert Lockhart
  • (b)K. M. Cariappa
  • (c)Roy Bucher
  • (d)Rajendrasinghji Jadeja

  Answer(a) Sir Robert Lockhart — succeeded by Roy Bucher in 1948, and then by K. M. Cariappa in January 1949 as the first Indian officer to hold the post. Rajendrasinghji became India's second Indian Commander-in-Chief in 1953.