Thread by @srikantkesnur

Folks, this is an excellent Twitter thread by my young friend & Navy enthusiast @zwerubae on a little known aspect of Indian Naval history. It's very well researched & has great pics accompanying. About the Women's Royal Indian Naval Service or WRINS for short. I will only add

https://twitter.com/zwerubae/status/1624737139308265472

2/n. Few small bits in this thread to accompany the earlier one. While the monograph by #ValentinaVitali remains one of the most authoritative studies on WRINS, a very short piece by Peggy Cooper in the book 'Bombay Bucaneers' is worth reading too. @MHSofIndia had also done an

3/n. Article on WRINS few years ago. Adm SM Nanda in his autobiography 'The Man who Bombed Karachi' also makes a mention of WRINS. In fact he was appointed as their Divisional & Training Officer. As may be expected, in the initial days many of the WRINS were 'wives or daughters'

4/n. Of naval officers but this soon expanded to include others. Of course given the social conditions at that time, most of them belonged to well to do or educated families. Peggy Cooper mentions that one reason why WRINS was created was that 'the Khaki clad Women's Auxiliary

5/n. Personnel looked rather incongruous in Navy Offices'. Since 2/3 of WRINS were Indian and others were British/Anglo Indian the Saree was introduced in the uniform. Cooper also brings out that after the loss of Singapore 'a heavy burden was thrown on RIN signals organization

6/n. Hence it was beneficial to recruit a number of intelligent English speaking girls to take over these duties where possible'. While Bombay was where majority were based, they were also posted in Naval bases in Madras, Calcutta, Karachi, Visakhapatnam, Kochi & Chittagong.

7/n. Apart from the distinctive uniform, the other break with WAC (I) was that WRINS were governed by RIN rules and standards while the former complied with Army discipline. The Blue and Gold WRINS crest carried within it the Ganges Tern. The decision by the India War Committee

8/n. To wind up both WRINS (and WAC (I)) was bemoaned by many including the CinC VAdm Godfrey, Adm Nanda who found their performance 'excellent' and Peggy Cooper herself. It provides an important point of discussion or counter factual for military and social historians. Had we

9/n. Continued to have Women in our Armed Forces from independence, we may not have needed to reinvent the wheel in early 90s & go through several birth pangs. A subject for another discussion. To follow up with some trivia. Women did indeed make their presence briefly in Navy

10/n. In the 50s & 60s as Radar Plotters in Tactical Schools/Centres. Again, they mostly consisted of those within Naval community. How long this lasted, what were their terms of employment are good areas of research by putative scholars in maritime studies. But interestingly,

11/n. The first Lady to have gone across a Jackstay in the Indian Navy was possibly a lady Radar Plotter. In Sep 1959, Meera Nagarkar, wife of OIC ND School, Cdr WS Nagarkar, bounced across the waves in a Bosuns chair from INS Mysore to INS Delhi. Captain of Delhi, the Great

12/n. N Krishnan 'refused to return his prize' until threatened by an edict by FOCIF RAdm A Chakravarti. Of course, this was all in fun & jest leading to the famous headline 'what's Jill doing on a Jackstay' & a cartoon in the style of late Mario Miranda. While women officers

13/n. Continued to be inducted in the medical branch, all three services opened upto them in other branches from the early 90s. Over the last three decades, that has expanded in breadth & depth across branches, and into permanent commission. Now with women Agniveers & girl cadets

14/n. In NDA, we have come a long way from the early 40s. We need to be grateful for the likes of #KalyaniSen who were the pioneers. The study of WRINS could provide us several fascinating details about women in Armed Forces. Incidentally, on the subject of Naval Uprising

15/n. There seems to be slightly different versions. While, the British ones have it that the WRINS did not take part in it, the Indian ones suggest that the 'mutineers' themselves desired to keep them away from it. Either way, WRINS were evacuated from HMIS Talwar as the first

16/n. Stirrings of trouble began on 18 Feb 46. This does not suggest that there were no discipline or related problems with WRINS in their brief 3 year existence. Some accounts in 'Bombay Bucaneers' allude to some aspects of discipline & punishments but they need greater study

17/n. And collaboration with primary sources. Another trivia. Kalyani Sen was a fiesty woman in College and made her mark in elocution. A double masters in English and Pol Science and a gold medalist in debating she married Capt (later) Lt Gen LP (Bogey) Sen in 1939. However,

18/n. They divorced in 1953. Their second daughter, the late Mala Sen distinguished herself as an activist for women's rights and author among other books of 'India's Bandit Queen' on Phoolan Devi. @indiannavy @IndiannavyMedia @indiannavyfp @IN_WNC @NWWA_INDIANNAVY @arunp2810

19/n. Thread #WRINS
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20/n. Thread #WRINS
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21/n. Thread #WRINS
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22/n. Thread #WRINS
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23/n. Thread #WRINS
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