Lt. Gen. Zorawar Chand Bakhshi (Punjabi/Hindi: ज़ोरावर चन्द बख़शी) (born 1919) is a retired soldier of the Indian Army, and has the distinction of being "India's most decorated General"[1]
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Bakhshi belongs to the Lau clan of the Muhiyal community, noted for its martial tradition. His father, Sardar Bahadur Bakshi Lal Chand Lau OBI was a decorated soldier in the British Indian Army.
His family belonged to the village of Gulyana,tehsil Gujarkhan Rawalpindi District. As with many other non-Muslims of that region, his family had to shift to India after the independence of Pakistan. Prior to the partition, he graduated from Rawalpindi's Gordon College in 1942.
After being commissioned into the Baloch Regiment of the British Indian Army in 1942, his first major battle was against the Japanese in Burma in World War II, where he earned a Mention-in-Despatches for overcoming a heavily fortified Japanese position. After the Liberation of Burma, he participated in the operations to liberate Malaysia from Japanese control, earning a fast-track promotion to the rank of a Major for his role.
Upon the Partition of India in 1947, he was transferred to the 5th Gorkha Rifles regiment of the Indian Army.
In the Indo-Pakistani War of 1948, he was awarded a Vir Chakra for his bravery. Soon afterward he was awarded the MacGregor Medal in 1949. In the Indo-Pakistani War of 1965, he was instrumental in the capture of the Haji Pir Pass from the Pakistani Forces, for which he was awarded the Maha Vir Chakra. In the early 1960s, he led his battalion in a United Nations Operation to undo the secession of the province of Katanga from Congo, in the process earning a Vishisht Seva Medal. In 1969-1970, he led successful counter-insurgency operations in pockets of North East India. During the 1971 war, he was instrumental in the capture of territory in what is now referred to as the crucial Chicken-Neck Sector, for which we was awarded the Param Vishisht Seva Medal.
He is popularly known as "Zoru" in the Indian Army.[2]