• Know about Major Rama Rane’s (PVC recipient) leadership and bravery during the 1948 war with Pakistan in Jammu and Kashmir and Lessons from his life.

High in the icy heights of Kashmir, the narrow roads from Srinagar and Rajouri were booby-trapped with mines and felled trees, and under fire from enemy guns. Into this crucible stepped Second Lieutenant Rama Raghoba Rane of the Bombay Sappers, armed with wire cutters, explosive charges, and an unshakable belief that discipline and skill could forge a passage through these mountain passes.

Early Life and Lessons

Born on June 26, 1918 in Chendia, Karnataka, Rama absorbed lessons in discipline and purpose from his father, a police constable who polished his boots every night. When young Rama asked why, his father replied, “Someone will follow these footprints tomorrow. Let them see they were made by a careful man.”

At school, whispers of the freedom movement stirred his conscience. A teacher’s words: ‘Be honest, be strong, learn a skill that saves lives’ became his guiding creed.

This article was first published in the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan Journal.

Schoolyard Courage and Vision

Rama’s resolve showed early when he protected a smaller classmate without striking a blow, his calm authority dissolving a bully’s threat. In daydreams, he sketched elegant bridges spanning rivers knowing a good bridge turns a long, scary journey into a short, safe one.

This vision of connection drew him to military engineering, where each cleared obstacle meant lives saved.

Service in Burma after Joining the Bombay Sappers

At twenty-two, Rama joined the Bombay Sappers in 1940. Rigorous training honed his ability to map minefields, build steel pontoon bridges overnight, and place demolition charges with precision.

Awarded the Commandant ’s Cane as best recruit, he credited comrades rather than boasting. Deployed to Burma in World War II, he worked under monsoon skies to repair crossings and clear hidden explosives. Each newly opened trail transformed fear into forward momentum, proving that the sapper’s quiet toil could tip the balance of war.

Opening the Path at Zojila Pass

The strategic Zojila Pass lay buried in snow. In January 1948, enemy fire swept the only supply road linking Srinagar to the rest of India. Volunteering for the mission, Second Lieutenant Rane led a small team through nights of blinding snow and lethal mines. Using wire cutters and torches, he disarmed trap after trap, even as shell bursts showered rocks around him.

By the fifth morning, he had carved a fourteen-mile strip through snowdrifts, mines, and fallen trees. Tanks and convoys rolled through, delivering food, medicine, and reinforcements.

Naushera to Rajouri: a Road of Shadows

In the bitter winter of 1948, the winding path between Naushera and Rajouri lay broken and deadly. Snowdrifts hid felled pine trees, mines waited under shattered gravel, and enemy machine guns crouched like eagles on the ridges. Beyond that jagged barrier, frightened families in Rajouri watched and waited for help. Clearing this single road could mean life or death.

Orders at Twilight

On the evening of April 9, Second Lieutenant Rama Raghoba Rane stood with his 37 Assault Field Company under a bruised-purple sky. Their orders were simple yet terrifying: “Open the road by dawn. Whatever it takes.”

Rama met each sapper’s eyes

“We work as we trained—careful, quick, together. Every minute we save is a lifesaver,” he said. They checked wire cutters, grenades, pickaxes, and demolition charges, then slipped into the cold darkness.

Clearing the Minefield

Before first light on April 10, scouts crept ahead, bodies low, sniffing out tripwires and buried pressure plates. Suddenly, mortar shells aimed down, hurling earth and rock. A blast tore into Rama’s shoulder, but he barely flinched.

Rallying his shaken team, he crawled forward under fire, probing for mines with gloved hands and marking a safe lane with white tape. By evening, despite the loss of two sappers and his own wounds, he had opened the first stretch for tanks.

Building a Bridge of Hope

At dawn on April 10, Rama faced the next challenge—a blasted culvert where the river roared below like a wounded beast. “We don’t need a full bridge,” he told his worried men, sketching a plan in the dirt. “Timber here. Stones there. Lash wires are tight. Test it with a jeep, then the first tank.” For seventeen hours without rest, he balanced logs, drove spikes, and braved enemy bullets to give his tanks a safe crossing.

Endurance and Resolve

The following day, April 11, enemy sniper nests flickered above like fireflies. Tanks veered into the riverbed to avoid ambush, but stayed on the  road, clearing rocks and tangled wreckage for the hungry supply column. Machine guns spat lead as he worked - bandaging his own bleeding thighs between shifts.  

Hunger and fatigue pressed on him like an avalanche, yet he refused evacuation. His quiet courage kept hope alive in every sapper’s heart.

The Bypass through the Bush

When yet another roadblock loomed—a thicket of thorn and boulder—Rama shrugged off his coat. “We’ll make our own path,” he decided. With machetes flashing under a rising sun, his team hacked a rough diversion through scrub and stone. Tyres groaned, hands burned, but within hours, a battered truck clattered through.

A tank commander ’s voice crackled over the radio: “Engineer sahib, you’ve given us a road where there wasn’t one.” Rama’s reply was simple: “Not a road. A promise kept.”

Promise Fulfilled

On the morning of April 12, armoured columns rolled into Rajouri. Refugees emerged from hiding, tears of relief shining on their faces as food and medicine arrived. For families who had listened for distant rumbles through long nights, the approaching engines sounded like salvation itself.

Honouring a Courageous Hero

Second Lieutenant Rama Raghoba Rane’s unparalleled courage, patriotism, and selfless leadership—etched into every freezing, torch lit night and every burning, bullet-raked day—earned him the Param Vir Chakra, India’s highest gallantry award; today his medal and sapper’s belt rest at the National War Memorial as a beacon to young engineers, reminding us that true bravery is not the absence of fear but the resolve to stand tall in its face, and that each steady step taken to protect others can light the darkest of roads and inspire generations to come.

His legacy endures in stone, steel, and story:

a. National War Memorial, New Delhi: his name among the nation’s bravest. 

b. National War Memorial, Pune: school groups honour his deeds by his regimental plaque

c. MT Lieutenant Rama Raghoba Rane (tanker): a vessel at sea bearing his name

d. Bombay Sappers establishments: busts, portraits, and training halls preserving his example.

Lessons from His Life

a. Courage is steady work: repeat careful steps even when it’s hardest.

b. Skill saves lives: master your craft so your hands guide safety.

c. Lead from the front: share every risk so your team knows they matter.

d. Pain doesn’t decide: wounds hurt, but clear decisions must prevail.

e. Make a way, don’t just find one: build new paths when old ones fail.

f. Share the credit: true strength lifts others, even in victory.

A Legacy of Courage.

Rane served for twenty-one years, earning five Mentions-in-Despatches for valour and skill. Time and again, wherever danger lay buried or weather obscured the way, he led from the front, turning impossible roads into passages of hope. From his father’s gleaming boots to the torchlit minefields of Zojila and Rajouri, his life embodied the promise that careful footsteps can light the path for a nation.

Major Rama Raghoba Rane died on July 11, 1994 in Pune. His spirit still guides every sapper’s hand as they defuse a minefield and resides in every young heart that swells at the echo of his story. He never trumpeted his own valour—only let the silent roar of his deeds speak.

When he laid down his uniform in 1968, he wove an unbreakable promise into the very soul of the Corps of Engineers: that courage is a living flame passed from one hand to the next.

In the hush before dawn, in the metallic whisper of sapper tape in the wind, you can almost hear him urging, “Wherever a path to safety or kindness is barred, be the hand that opens it.”

This article was first published in the Bhavan’s Journal, February 16-28, 2026 issue. This article is courtesy and copyright Bhavan’s Journal, Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, Mumbai-400007. eSamskriti has obtained permission from Bhavan’s Journal to share. Do subscribe to the Bhavan’s Journal – it is very good.

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3. All about Accession of Jammu and Kashmir to India