NDA: An Institution Seeking Reforms By Col PK ‘Royal’ Mehrishi (Veteran)

Introduction

The National Defence Academy is one of independent India’s most visionary military institutions. Its central idea,that future officers of the Army, Navy and Air Force must train together before entering their service academies,was far ahead of its time. Yet heritage cannot become an argument against renewal. Drones, autonomous systems, cyber operations, space assets, precision fires and weaponised information are transforming warfare. *NDA must preserve its martial ethos* while reforming how it develops judgement, character and competence. The aim is smarter, safer and more relevant training not softer training.

1. Aim: Raising of NDA at Khadakwasla

The Second World War revealed the operational cost of inadequate inter-service understanding. The Auchinleck Committee consequently recommended a joint-services academy. An interim Joint Services Wing began at Clement Town, Dehradun, in 1949. The permanent Academy was then established at Khadakwasla, near Pune, and formally commissioned in December 1954. The site offered hills, water, open country and proximity to military facilities, an excellent environment for integrated training.

Its purpose was to create officers who understood sister services, placed national duty above parochial loyalty and possessed the intellectual, moral and physical foundations for command. The admission of women cadets has widened this mandate and made professional, gender-neutral standards still more important.

2. What NDA has Created

NDA alumni have led formations, fleets, air commands and the three Services; fought India’s wars; and won the highest gallantry awards. More important is the common bond among thousands of officers. A naval officer, fighter pilot and infantry commander who once shared a classroom or squadron possess trust before meeting in an operational headquarters decades later. That network is an invisible instrument of jointness.

The Academy has also created a durable culture of punctuality, bearing, endurance, comradeship and service. Its motto, *Seva Paramo Dharma* service is the highest duty captures the moral compass of officership. Reform must strengthen this inheritance, not dilute it.

3. Structure and Training

Cadets spend three years at NDA in an integrated academic and military environment, organised into 19 squadrons that become their immediate communities. University academic education is combined with drill, physical conditioning, games, camps, service subjects, outdoor training and leadership appointments. Cadets later move to their respective pre-commission academies for specialised training.

This architecture has enduring merit. Squadron life creates responsibility; sport teaches courage and recovery; drill develops precision; camps reveal character under fatigue; and academics widen the mind. Yet an activity’s value should be judged by the professional behaviour it develops not merely by tradition or difficulty.

4. What Ails the Methodology

Any large, tradition- bound institution risks confusing hardship with learning and conformity with discipline*. Excessive fatigue can reduce retention, increase injury and reward concealment rather than resilience.

Humiliation, unauthorised punishment or an informal hierarchy that escapes adult supervision can *produce obedience in barracks but poor judgement in battle*. Fear may secure immediate compliance; it rarely builds moral courage.Training can also become fragmented: academics in one compartment, physical training in another and leadership assessed largely through appointments or impressions.

A cadet may perform well in drill yet remain weak in ethical reasoning, digital literacy, communication or team leadership. A single standard for every physical task may ignore role, physiology and progressive development; conversely, lowered standards undermine combat credibility.The correct answer is scientifically validated, task-related and gender-neutral occupational standards, supported by individual progression.

5. Collective Individualism

Today’s cadet inhabits a world of “collective individualism”: young people value identity and voice, yet form powerful communities through networks and shared causes. They question authority, learn digitally and expect reasons behind rules. Properly channelled, questioning produces initiative, the essence of mission command.

The Academy must therefore teach cadets when to challenge, *how to dissent respectfully* and when to obey instantly. Consider a tactical exercise in which communications fail. A cadet trained only to await instructions freezes; one trained in commander’s intent adapts while remaining aligned with the mission. *Individual initiative and collective purpose are not opposites*. They are the twin requirements of modern combat.

6. Modern Physical Mental and Spiritual Training

Physical training should move from volume alone to periodised performance: strength, endurance, mobility, speed, load carriage, recovery, nutrition and sleep. Wearable data may identify overtraining, but must support coaching rather than create intrusive surveillance.

Rehabilitation should return cadets to capability without branding injury as weakness.Mental training should include stress inoculation, attention control, tactical decision games, peer feedback and access to confidential psychological support. Resilience is not silent suffering; it is the ability to recover, learn and continue. After every field problem, a structured after-action review should ask: *What was intended? What occurred? Why? What will we change?*

Spiritual training should remain inclusive and non-sectarian: reflection, conscience, purpose, humility and service should be paramount .

The Bhagavad Gita states-

“योगः कर्मसु कौशलम्”

“Yoga is excellence in action” (2.50), linking inner balance with professional skill. It also advises,

“उद्धरेदात्मनात्मानं”* one must elevate oneself through oneself (Bhagavad Gita 6.5).

The Katha Upanishad urges,

“उत्तिष्ठत जाग्रत प्राप्य वरान्निबोधत”

arise, awake and learn from the wise (1.3.14).

These are not decorative quotations; they support self-mastery, teachability and duty.

7. Combat Ready Officers of Tomorrow

Tomorrow’s officer will fight on an electronically contested and legally scrutinised battlefield. A young leader may face a drone swarm, disrupted navigation, online disinformation, civilians and an ambiguous order simultaneously. Cadets therefore need exposure to counter-drone concepts, cyber hygiene, electronic warfare, artificial intelligence, space dependence, information operations, military law and the ethics of lethal decisions.

Practical training could use short, repeated scenarios.

e.g. - In one simulated setting a mixed- service cadet team protects a relief convoy after a flood while hostile misinformation spreads online. The team must allocate air reconnaissance, ground security, communications and civil liaison, then defend its choices before instructors. Such exercises join tactics, ethics, communication and joint planning.

8. What Can Be Done

First; define a graduate competency framework covering character, leadership, joint understanding, tactical judgement, communication, digital fluency and physical readiness.

Second ; Assess cadets repeatedly through observed performance, not only examinations and end-term reports.

Third; adopt scenario-based and mastery learning. Cadets should practise, receive precise feedback, retrain and demonstrate competence. Simulation, wargaming and decision-forcing cases can create frequent cognitive pressure without excessive cost or injury.

Fourth; professionalise the trainer cadre. Every instructor and divisional officer *should be trained in coaching, adolescent development, assessment, injury prevention and psychological first aid*. Command climate must be measured through confidential surveys, independent inspections and transparent reporting of injuries and misconduct.

Fifth; protect legitimate squadron traditions while eliminating practices that have no learning value. A *“training value audit”* should require each major activity to state its objective, evidence, risk and assessment method. Alumni and combat veterans can contribute, but serving trainers, behavioural scientists, sports specialists and recent graduates must jointly review the curriculum.

Finally; make jointness operational. Mixed-service teams should work on drone employment,logistics, humanitarian assistance, intelligence fusion and information warfare. Exchange modules with technology institutes, operational formations and friendly foreign academies would expose cadets to innovation without weakening military identity.

Conclusion

NDA does not need cosmetic modernisation; it needs *evidence-led evolution*. Its foundations,service, courage,comradeship, discipline and jointness ,remain sound. What must change is the method by which these virtues are cultivated and measured.

Toughness without reflection can become rigidity; knowledge without hardship can become fragility. The desired officer combines all of these qualities: physically robust, mentally agile, spiritually anchored, technologically competent and morally courageous.

The Academy’s task is not to reproduce the officer of yesterday. It is to prepare a leader who can think independently, act jointly and fight ethically amid uncertainty. The finest tribute to NDA’s legacy would be to reform it continuously so that it remains not merely a great institution of the past, but the forge of India’s combat leaders of tomorrow.

RELEVANT QUOTES : "Heritage cannot become an argument against renewal. Drones, autonomous systems, cyber operations, space assets, precision fires and weaponised information are transforming warfare. *NDA must preserve its martial ethos* while reforming how it develops judgement, character and competence. "

"The purpose of NDA was to create Officers who understood sister services, placed national duty above parochial loyalty and possessed the intellectual, moral and physical foundations for command. The admission of women cadets has widened this mandate and made professional, gender-neutral standards still more important."

"NDA alumni have led formations, fleets, air commands and the three Services; fought India’s wars; and won the highest gallantry awards. More important is the common bond among thousands of officers. "

"This architecture has enduring merit. Squadron life creates responsibility; sport teaches courage and recovery; drill develops precision; camps reveal character under fatigue; and academics widen the mind. Yet an activity’s value should be judged by the professional behaviour it develops not merely by tradition or difficulty."

"Any large, tradition - bound institution risks *confusing hardship with learning and conformity with discipline*. Excessive fatigue can reduce retention, increase injury and reward concealment rather than resilience."

"Humiliation, unauthorised punishment or an informal hierarchy* that escapes adult supervision can *produce obedience in barracks but poor judgement in battle*. Fear may secure immediate compliance; it rarely builds moral courage."

"A cadet may perform well in drill yet remain weak in ethical reasoning, digital literacy, communication or team leadership. A single standard for every physical task may ignore role, physiology and progressive development; conversely, lowered standards undermine combat credibility."

"The Academy must therefore teach cadets when to challenge, how to dissent respectfully* and when to obey instantly. "

"Physical training should move from volume alone to periodised performance: strength, endurance, mobility, speed, load carriage, recovery, nutrition and sleep. Wearable data may identify overtraining, but must support coaching rather than create intrusive surveillance.Rehabilitation should return cadets to capability without branding injury as weakness."

"Spiritual training should remain inclusive and non-sectarian: reflection, conscience, purpose, humility and service should be paramount ."

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NOTE - The views in the article are the author's personal views based on his / her study , research and experience.The maps and photographs are for symbolic representation only.