The Indian Army and Air Force were already primed for action and thus wasted no time. The first aircraft, a Dakota DC-3, carrying a company of valiant Sikhs under Lieutenant Colonel Dewan Ranjit Rai roared into the sky from Gurgaon to rescue a beleaguered state on October 27, 1947, from Palam. There was a Madras Battalion stationed there too, but it was commanded by a British officer, so the honour of being the first troops to fly to defend Srinagar fell on one Sikh.
There was a profound historical irony in this moment. The state of Jammu and Kashmir had been created by the British only after the defeat of the Sikh Empire in the Anglo-Sikh Wars. The victorious British had then sold the territory to Raja Gulab Singh of Jammu for a princely sum. This was the same conflict that saw the British snatch the famed Koh-i-Noor diamond from the Sikhs, which was then “forcibly gifted” to Queen Victoria. Now, just a century later, it was Sikh soldiers who were the first to land, fighting to save the very territory that had been taken from their empire.
On October 27, three Royal Indian Air Force Dakota DC-3s rose from Palam Air Base...