Admiral Sardarilal Mathradas Nanda, PVSM, AVSM (10 October 1915 – 11 May 2009) was an Indian Navy admiral who served as the 6th Chief of the Naval Staff from 1 March 1970 until 28 February 1973. He led the Indian Navy during the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971 and successfully executed a naval blockade of both West and East Pakistan, helping India achieve an overwhelming victory during the war. For the important role he played in the war, the Government of India awarded him the Padma Vibhushan, India's second-highest civilian award. Nanda is recognised as one of the most notable commanders in the history of the Indian Navy.
Born in Manora, Karachi, in the Sind Province of British India, Nanda joined the Royal Indian Naval Volunteer Reserve in 1941. During World War II, he served onboard HMIS Travancore and as an instructor at the signals school in . After the war, he served on board which was based out of Japan as part of the British occupation forces. He subsequently served as the communication officer of .
Following the Independence of India, he was appointed executive officer of Cauvery, and in 1948, was appointed first lieutenant of the flagship . In 1949, he was appointed director of personnel services at NHQ and in 1950 took command of the R-class destroyer , which represented India at the coronation review of the fleet. Nanda subsequently commanded the and the 16th frigate squadron. In 1954, he was appointed Chief of Personnel and constituted commodore 2nd class in September 1956. Appointed the commissioning commanding officer of the new flagship of the Navy, the Crown Colony-class cruiser , he commissioned the ship in August 1957 at Birkenhead. In 1958, he took over as the Director General Naval Dockyard Expansion Scheme. After attending the Imperial Defence College in 1962, he returned to India and was appointed Chief of Materiel at NHQ.
Promoted to flag rank in May 1962, Nanda was appointed the Deputy Chief of the Naval Staff. As DCNS, he played an important role in the development of Goa as a naval base. In 1964, he took over as the managing director of Mazagon Dock Limited. In 1966, he was appointed Flag Officer Commanding Indian Fleet and then Flag Officer Bombay in 1968. The Bombay command was upgraded and Nanda took over as the first Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief Western Naval Command in the rank of vice admiral. On 1 March 1970, he took command as the seventh Chief of the Naval Staff. Under his command, the Navy attacked Karachi with missile boats and bombarded ports in East Pakistan with aircraft of , apart from successfully enforcing naval blockades on two fronts. He was awarded the Padma Vibhushan, the second-highest civilian award, and awards for distinguished service – the Param Vishisht Seva Medal and the Ati Vishisht Seva Medal.
Early life and education Nanda was born on 10 October 1915 to Mathra Das, an office superintendent at the workshop of the Port Trust in Manora, Karachi and Pooran Devi. His parents were from villages near Gujranwala in the Punjab Province. He was born in a Punjabi Hindu Khatri family. He was raised on Manora Island at the entrance to the Port of Karachi. He was the eldest of seven children – three boys and four girls. He attended a primary school on the island and then the N J High School in Karachi. He worked for the Port and Pilotage department at Manora after finishing his schooling.
After the outbreak of World War II, he applied for a commission in the Royal Indian Naval Volunteer Reserve (RINVR). He appeared before a selection board in Bombay in September 1941. Successful in the written test and the interview, he was commissioned in the RINVR on 11 October 1941 as an acting sub-lieutenant in the Executive Branch.
Naval career Early career Nanda started his career with a training course for six months on the Deepawati. He was then sent to Calcutta for his next assignment. At Calcutta, he was asked to go to Khulna and take command of a river steamer and patrol the Sundarbans. In June 1942, he was selected for a specialist communications course at , the Signals School in Colaba, Bombay. After the course, he served as the signals officer on board the minesweeper HMIS Travancore. In October 1942, he was promoted to the acting rank of lieutenant and appointed an instructor at the Signals School. After the end of the war, he stayed in the Navy despite rapid, large-scale demobilisation. He appeared before a selection board in Lonavala on 31 October 1945.
Nanda was serving at the Signals School at HMIS Talwar when the Royal Indian Navy mutiny broke out in February 1946. The mutiny first started at HMIS Talwar and spread to ships and other shore establishments. The mutiny was called off after the sailors met with Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. He was asked by the sailors to accompany them, which he did.
In June 1946, he was posted to the sloop , which was to sail for Japan from Madras. The ship was based out of Kure, Hiroshima, as part of the British occupation forces and was later transferred to Sasebo, Nagasaki, as part of the US occupation forces. On 19 October 1946 he was granted a permanent commission in the Royal Indian Navy (RIN) as a Lieutenant with backdated seniority of 10 October 1940. In January 1947, he was appointed communications officer of the sloop , then deployed at Karachi.
Post-Independence After the partition of India, the Cauvery was assigned to India and she set sail for Bombay. The British officers embarked for England and Nanda was appointed executive officer of the ship. and Cauvery commanded by Commander Ram Dass Katari and Commander Reggie Sawhney respectively made two trips to the United Kingdom. This was because the cruiser was being purchased by India and renamed HMIS Delhi and the crew was to be transported. In 1948, he was promoted to the acting rank of lieutenant commander and appointed first lieutenant of under the command of Captain H.N.S. Brown, with Commander Ram Dass Katari as his executive officer. To train for this appointment, he was ordered to join the Mediterranean Fleet. He served on board the aircraft carrier and subsequently on the cruiser .
HMIS Delhi was commissioned on 5 July 1948 by the High Commissioner of India to the United Kingdom V. K. Krishna Menon. On her way to India, she called at Portsmouth, Portland, Gibraltar and Malta. The Prime Minister of India Jawaharlal Nehru himself welcomed the ship at Bombay. She went on a cruise round the coasts of India, calling at Karwar, Cochin, Trincomalee, Madras, Vizag, Calcutta, Port Blair, Colombo and Calicut before returning to Bombay. In May 1949, she left on her Indian Ocean cruise. She called at Victoria, Seychelles, Port Louis in Mauritius, Dar es Salaam in Tanzania and Mombasa in Kenya. The cruise to the Indian Ocean republics and East Africa generated a tremendous amount of goodwill.
On 30 June 1949, at the end of the goodwill mission, Nanda was promoted substantive lieutenant-commander and to the acting rank of Commander. He was appointed director of personnel services (DPS) at Naval headquarters. Nanda was promoted to substantive commander on 31 December 1950. He served as the DPS for about two years. On 10 October 1951, he took command of the R-class destroyer, . The Ranjit was part of the 11th Destroyer Squadron commanded by Captain Ram Dass Katari. The other two ships in the squadron were and . Nanda took the ship on a goodwill cruise to Singapore, Saigon, Jakarta and other ports in Indonesia like Bali. In Jakarta, he called on and was received by the first President of Indonesia, Sukarno.
In early 1952, Princess Elizabeth and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh set out for a tour of Australia and New Zealand by way of Kenya. The Rajput and the Ranjit were nominated to escort the from Mombasa to Australia. With the death of King George VI, this was cancelled. To commemorate the Coronation of Elizabeth II, a massive Coronation review of the fleet was held at Portsmouth. The flagship INS Delhi, commanded by Captain Adhar Kumar Chatterji, destroyer INS Ranjit, commanded by Nanda, and the frigate , commanded by Commander Nilakanta Krishnan, represented India at the review. A naval armada consisting of ships from the Indian Navy, Royal Navy, Royal Australian Navy and the Royal New Zealand Navy sailed from Portsmouth to Gibraltar. The fleet carried out exercises along the way and was under the command of Lord Mountbatten. The Ranjit under Nanda acquitted itself well during these exercises. Subsequently, the Indian ships continued conducting exercises with the Mediterranean Fleet. They sailed from Gibraltar to Malta, the Greek islands and to Istanbul.
Nanda took command of on 31 August 1953 after returning to Bombay. He was also appointed Captain (F) 12th Frigate Squadron. On 15 February 1954, he was promoted to the acting rank of captain and appointed CAPBRAX (captain naval barracks) and commanding officer of . After a short stint, he was transferred back to Naval Headquarters as Chief of Personnel (COP) in September 1954. He was promoted to substantive captain on 31 December 1954. He served as the COP for about two and a half years. In September 1956, he was promoted to commodore 2nd Class.
In December 1956, he was appointed the commissioning commanding officer of . The Crown Colony-class cruiser was being refitted and modernised in Birkenhead, Liverpool, to be commissioned as the Mysore. He spent a few months in UK preparing his crew. INS Mysore was commissioned on 29 August 1957 by the High Commissioner of India to the United Kingdom Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit. Nanda took the ship to the Mediterranean and subsequently paid an official visit to the port of Split in Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. He called on President Josip Broz Tito at his home in the Brioni Islands. Returning to India, Nanda and the Mysore were welcomed by the entire Indian Fleet, commanded by the first Indian Fleet Commander Rear Admiral Ram Dass Katari. Katari's flag was transferred from INS Delhi to INS Mysore, thus becoming the new flagship of the Indian Fleet. The Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru visited the ship at Bombay and hosted a dinner on board with the Governor of Maharashtra Ali Yavar Jung, the Minister of Defence V. K. Krishna Menon, Chief Minister of Maharashtra Vasantrao Naik being present. After visiting the ports in India, Nanda took the ship to a goodwill visit to China and Japan in the summer of 1958. She called at Singapore, Hong Kong, Shanghai and Yokohama. On the return passage, she called at Haiphong. Before leaving India for the goodwill visit, Nanda had been selected to attend the Imperial Defence College (IDC) and was to embark for the UK after completing the visit. Instead he was informed after departing from Haiphong that his deputation to IDC stood cancelled.
Personally selected by the Defence Minister V K Krishna Menon, Nanda took over as the Director General Naval Dockyard Expansion Scheme (DG-NDES) on 1 October 1958. He undertook a major expansion of the dockyard. He extended the dimensions of the cruiser dock to accommodate the aircraft carrier being acquired from the UK. This resulted in tremendous advantage for the Indian Navy. For distinguished service during his tenure as DG-NDES, Nanda was awarded the Ati Vishisht Seva Medal in 1961. In June 1960, he was appointed Officer on Special Duty (OSD) at Naval HQ. Nanda was selected to attend the Imperial Defence College and embarked for the UK in early 1961. After completing the year-long course, he returned to India and was appointed Chief of Materiel (COM) in February 1962.
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