Career in The British Indian Army
Mitha, as a young man, rejected both a career in business and the bride chosen for him by his grandfather, deciding instead to embark upon a career in the army.
After finishing high school he joined a pre-cadet academy, and was selected for a commission in the British Indian Army. He passed out of the Indian Military Academy, Dehradun, in 1942 and was commissioned in the 4th Bombay Grenadiers. After volunteering for the Parachute Regiment, he served in Burma during World War II and was dropped behind Japanese lines for high-risk operations.
Maj Gen Mitha refers to the blatant racism that British officers practiced against their Indian colleagues in his posthumously published book, Unlikely Beginnings. He wrote, "If there were ten officers in a mess, two of them British, they would see to it that they had little, if anything, to do with their Indian counterparts".
Read more about this topic: Aboobaker Osman Mitha
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