National Defence Academy - History

History

In 1941, Lord Linlithgow, then Governor-General of India received a gift of a hundred thousand pounds from a grateful Sudanese Government towards building a war memorial in recognition of the sacrifices of Indian troops in the liberation of Sudan in the East African Campaign during World War II. At the end of the war, Field Marshal Claude Auchinleck, then Commander-in-Chief of the Indian Army, drawing on experiences of the army during the war, led a committee to study various Military academies around the world and submitted a report to the Government of India in December 1946. The committee recommended the establishment of a Joint Services Military Academy, with training modeled on the United States Military Academy at West Point.

After the independence of India in August 1947, the Auchinleck Report was taken up by the Chiefs of Staff Committee in India, which immediately implemented the recommendations. The committee initiated an action plan in late 1947 to commission a permanent defence academy and began the search for a site to build the academy. They also decided to set up an interim training academy, known as the Joint Services Wing (JSW), which was commissioned on 1 January 1949 at the Armed Forces Academy (now known as the Indian Military Academy) in Dehradun. Initially, after two years of training at the JSW, Army cadets went on to the Military wing of the AFA for a further two-year pre-commission training, while the Navy and Air Force cadets were sent to Dartmouth and Cranwell in the United Kingdom for further training.

Following the partition, India's share of the monetary gift received from Sudan, amounted to £ 70,000 (the remaining £ 30,000 of the gift went to Pakistan). The Indian Army decided to use these funds to partly cover the cost of construction of the NDA. The foundation stone for the academy was laid by then Prime Minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru on 6 October 1949. The National Defence Academy was formally commissioned on 7 December 1954, with an inauguration ceremony held on 16 January 1955. The JSW program was transferred from the AFA to the NDA.