Wednesday, February 19th, 2025

Why did India order condoms on a large scale during the 1971 war? You will be shocked to know the reason

New Delhi : This month, on 16th December, the country saluted the indomitable courage and bravery of our brave soldiers on ‘Vijay Diwas’. Remembered that glorious moment in history when 93,000 soldiers of Pakistan surrendered to the Indian Army in 1971. East Pakistan became history and a new country named Bangladesh was born on the world map. In that war, our three armies wrote a new story of bravery. But do you know that in the midst of the war, the Indian Army and Navy had ordered condoms on a large scale? After all, what was the reason for this? You will be shocked to know this.

English news website ‘Firstpost’ in one of its December 2021 Report Quoting Lieutenant Colonel RAK Manek, who had taken part in the 1971 war, he/she has explained why the Army ordered condoms. The Indian Army had started attacking East Pakistan. Manek was then a captain in the army. he/she told that East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) is a country full of rivers and streams. The land is marshy in many places. In such a situation, moving forward there with weapons was not an easy task. The soldiers were afraid of their rifles becoming useless because sometimes water and sometimes mud were getting into them, making them ineffective. But it is said that necessity is the mother of invention. It was important to keep the rifles dry. Then the soldiers thought of condoms. It came to mind that if the muzzle of the rifles was covered with a condom, it would help in keeping them dry.

Before the idea of ​​condom, the army had also adopted the idea of ​​cotton cloth. One from ‘The Print’ Report According to the report, arrangements were made for towels at the local level and an attempt was made to keep the rifles dry and prevent mud from getting into them by covering the barrels of the rifles with towels. Cotton cloth was also stuffed into the canal so that mud could not enter it. But this experiment failed. Some success could be achieved in stopping the mud from entering the barrel of the rifles with the help of towels but it could not stop the water from getting inside. After that the idea of ​​using condom came.

According to Manek, when the army doctor was asked to provide at least 3 condoms to every soldier, he/she started laughing. They thought it was a joke. But later he/she realized that it was not a joke. The Army ordered condoms on a large scale. This trick worked and the rifle remained effective because of the condom.

Like the Army, the Navy also used condoms in the 1971 war. What happened was that Chittagong port was surrounded by the Navy. To target Pakistani ships, the Navy made a plan to target them with limpet mines. These mines have to be placed under the enemy ship and later it explodes at a fixed time, destroying the ship. The problem was that the limpet mine would explode within half an hour as soon as it came in contact with water. It was difficult to set the mine in the enemy ship in such a short time and then escape safely. In such a situation, the method of condom was adopted. Limpet mines were made waterproof using condoms and were then used to destroy enemy ships. The report of ‘The Print’ also mentions the limpet mine being made waterproof with the help of condom jugaad.

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