Stories of Param Veer Chakra Awardees of 1971 Indo-Pak War

1971 Indo-Pak war was the second direct confrontation between India and Pakistan. Lasting 13 days, it resulted in unconditional surrender by the Eastern Command of Pakistani Armed Forces and the emergence of a new nation, Bangladesh, on December 16, 1971. Indian Army took around 90,000 members of Pakistan Armed Forces as Pris oners of War (Po W).

While Indians saw many brave souls lay down their lives to save the honour of their country, four men – in particular – stood out due to their extreme valour and were awarded Param Veer Chakra (PVC), India’s highest military honour, for their supreme sacrifice.

As India enters its 71st year of Independence today, these PVC stories inspire us to put our nation before anything else. These stories remind us that our Independence has been earned the hard way, and it takes much more than the courage of our army-men to preserve it.

December 16 is celebrated as Vijay Diwas each year to commemorate the victory over Pakistan and in remembrance of all those who fought valiantly, many to their last breath and left behind inspiring stories for younger generations.

These are their inspirational STORIES.

Disclaimer: Below citations are taken from respective Wikipedia pages.

Lance Naik Albert Ekka was in the left forward company of a battalion of the Brigade of Guards during their attack on the enemy defences at Gangasagar on the Eastern front. This was a well-fortified position held in strength by the enemy. The assaulting troops were subjected to intense shelling and heavy small-arms fire, but they charged onto the objective and were locked in bitter hand-to-hand combat. Lance Naik Albert Ekka noticed an enemy light machine-gun (LMG) inflicting heavy casualties on his company. With complete disregard for his personal safety, he charged the enemy bunker, bay oneted two enemy soldiers and silenced the LMG.

Though seriously wounded in this encounter, he continued to fight alongside his comrades through the mile deep objective, clearing bunker after bunker with undaunted courage. Towards the nor thern end of the objective, one enemy medium machine-gun (MMG) opened up from the second storey of a well-fortified building inflicting heavy casualties and holding up the attack. Once again this gallant soldier, without a thought for his personal safety, despite his serious injury and the heavy volume of enemy fire, crawled forward till he reached the building and lobbed a grenade into the bunker killing one enemy soldier and injuring the other. The MMG however continued to fire. Withoutst anding courage and determination Lance Naik Albert Ekka scaled a side wall and entering the bunker, bay oneted the enemy soldier who was still firing and thus silenced the machine-gun, saving further casualties to his company and ensuring the success of the attack. In this process however, he received serious injuries and succumbed to them after the capture of the objective.

In this action, Lance Naik Albert Ekka displayed the most conspicuous valour and determination and made the supreme sacrifice in the best traditions of the Army.

Flying Officer Nirmal Jit Singh Sekhon was a pilot of a Gnat detachment based at Srinagar for the air defense of the valley against Pakistani air attacks. From the very outbreak of the hostilities, he and his colleagues fought successive waves of intruding Pakistani aircraft with valor and determination, maintaining the high reputation of the Gnat aircraft.

On 14 December 1971, Srinagar airfield was attacked by a wave of enemy Sabre aircraft. Flying Officer Sekhon was on readiness duty at the time. Immediately, however, no fewer than six enemy aircraft were overhead, and they began bombing and strafing the airfield. In spite of the mortal danger of attempting to take off during the attack, Flying Officer Sekhon took off and immediately engaged a pair of the attacking Sabres. In the fight that ensued, he secured hits on one aircraft and damaged another. By this time the other Sabre aircraft came to the aid of their hard-pressed companions and Flying Officer Sekhon’s Gnat was again outnumbered, this time by four to one.

Even though alone, Flying Officer Sekhon engaged the enemy in an unequal combat. In the fight that followed, at treetop height, he almost held his own, but was eventually overcome by the sheer weight of numbers. His aircraft was shot down by a gunfire of one of the Sabres and he was killed.

Moral

True valor lies not just in winning battles, but in the brave sacrifice these heroes made. Their stories show us that courage means standing firm for what’s right, even when facing overwhelming odds or personal danger.

Historical & Cultural Context

The Panchatantra (Sanskrit: Pañcatantra, “five treatises”) is an ancient Indian collection of interlinked animal fables traditionally attributed to Vishnu Sharma in roughly the 3rd century BCE. Composed to teach three reckless princes the arts of governance (niti-shastra), its stories were carried by merchants and translators across Persia, Arabia and Europe, seeding the world’s fable tradition.

While the Panchatantra traditionally features animal characters, this retelling adapts its narrative structure to celebrate real historical figures. The Param Veer Chakra, India’s highest military decoration, represents the same values of wisdom and valor found in the original Panchatantra tales compiled by Vishnu Sharma around 200 BCE. Both seek to teach through inspired examples: the ancient fables through animal characters, this modern adaptation through human heroes who embody timeless Indian ideals of selflessness and duty.

Reflection & Discussion

1. What made each hero decide that protecting others was more important than their own safety?
2. In your school or community, when have you seen someone show real courage by standing up for the right thing?
3. If these heroes had chosen to protect themselves instead, how would that have changed the outcome for their country?

Did You Know?

• The Panchatantra was written around 200 BCE by Vishnu Sharma to educate three young princes.
• The Panchatantra has been translated into over 50 languages, making it one of the most translated works in history.
• Many of Aesop’s Fables are believed to have roots in the Panchatantra stories.

What This Tale Teaches Us Today

Old stories keep their power because their lessons never stop being useful. Here is how this one still applies:

• Stories that have survived for centuries have done so because their lessons still work.
• Reading folk tales aloud to children builds vocabulary, imagination, and a sense of cultural inheritance.
• Every folk tale is also a time machine – a small window into how our ancestors thought about the world.

Why This Story Still Matters

Stories of Param Veer Chakra Awardees of 1971 Indo-Pak War joins a vast global library of folk tales that human beings have been telling one another for thousands of years. Every culture has produced its own stories, but the deepest themes – courage, kindness, cleverness, loyalty, the cost of greed – appear again and again in different clothes. Modern readers who spend time with folk tales inherit something precious: a sense that people have always wrestled with the same basic questions, and that good stories can still help us find good answers. That is why these tales persist. Each one is a small tool for living, handed down quietly through generations.

Cultural Context and Continuing Influence

Folk tales like this one survived for hundreds of years through oral storytelling before any scholar thought to write them down. Grandparents told them to grandchildren, travelers traded them along roads and rivers, and mothers repeated them to babies who would one day repeat them to their own children. Each small retelling sharpened the story, discarded unnecessary parts, and polished the essential lesson. That long process of refinement is why a good folk tale feels so weighty – it has been shaped by thousands of listeners across generations, each contributing something small to the story we read today.

Modern readers sometimes wonder whether folk tales are still relevant in an age of apps and smartphones. The answer is yes, perhaps more than ever. The technology changes, but the underlying questions – about kindness, courage, loyalty, greed, family, fear, love – do not. These are the same questions that children asked around a fire in ancient India, around a hearth in medieval Ireland, around a campfire in 19th-century Korea. And they are the same questions children ask their parents today, just phrased differently. That is why a family that reads folk tales together is doing real cultural and emotional work, not simply entertaining itself.

Reading Folk Tales With Children

Reading folk tales aloud to children is one of the oldest and most effective forms of moral education. Unlike a lecture or a rule, a story slides past a child’s natural resistance and plants its lesson in the imagination, where it quietly grows. Years later, when the child meets a real situation that resembles the story – a bully at school, a dishonest coworker, a moment of temptation – the old tale rises to the surface of memory and offers guidance. That is why parents and teachers across every culture have trusted stories to do the work of raising good humans, long before formal schools or textbooks existed.

When reading this story with a young listener, try pausing at key moments and asking what the child thinks will happen next. Let them guess, even if they are wrong. That small act of prediction turns a passive listener into an active thinker. After the story ends, a simple open question – “What would you have done?” or “Who do you think was the smartest character?” – invites the child to connect the tale to their own life. Those conversations are where real learning happens, not during the reading itself but in the quiet moments that follow.

Older children and teenagers sometimes think they have outgrown folk tales. In reality, the best tales only deepen with age. A ten-year-old hears the surface plot; a fifteen-year-old notices the irony; a twenty-year-old sees the economic and political pressures on the characters; a forty-year-old understands the parents in the story for the first time. A good folk tale is a gift that keeps unfolding for decades. Families who read and reread the same stories across the years discover this naturally, and pass the discovery down.