09-07-2025
- Politics
- Business Standard
A General's diaries are curated into a breezy military history of India
Devangshu Datta Mumbai
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Commanded by Destiny: A General's Rise from Soldier to Statesman
by General S M Shrinagesh
Published by Penguin
328 pages ₹699
Satyawant Mallanna Shrinagesh (1903-1977) served as the army chief between 1955 and 1957. Post-retirement, he served two stints as governor of undivided Assam in the 1950s, and early 1960s, and also served as governor of Mysore State (1964-65) and of Andhra Pradesh (1962-64). In between the periods when he was ensconced in sundry Raj Bhavans, he served as the principal of the Administrative Staff College, Hyderabad.
This book was put together by his grandson, Gaurav Shrinagesh, presumably by curating the late general's diaries