ABSTRACT
The Indian Military Academy (IMA) was formally inaugurated in 1932. Together with the early but rudimentary preparatory schools and colleges, it provided the first formalized and institutional training for Indians who wanted to gain ‘officers’ commissions in the Indian Army. Although visible in official and semi-official literature, the precise factors that enabled the institutional emergence of the IMA have not been adequately scrutinized. This chapter will address the challenges that were faced in the training and commissioning of more Indian officers that set in motion a series of events which left an indelible mark on India’s defence architecture. The close analysis of the IMA aims to ‘reset’ our understanding of the ways in which Indianization and nationalization progressed. Its inauguration set off a series of manoeuvres which resulted in the crystallization of an active network of training spaces – some that had atrophied and others which were constructed afresh in the post-independence years. This chapter will focus on the IMA’s inaugural years to uncover the institutional and political challenges associated with commissioning Indian officers – in the larger context of colonial military institutionalisation in the subcontinent.
