Meet Savitribai Khanolkar, The Swiss-Born Lady Who Designed Param Veer Chakra

Param Vir Chakra means “Wheel of the Ultimate Brave”. This is the highest honor given to officers and other personnel of the military throughout India for their bravery during times of war in the presence of the enemy. But do you know who designed Param Vir Chakra? It was designed by a woman who is not even an Indian by birth. Her name is Savitribai Khanolkar.

On 26th January 1950, the PVC award was introduced and this gallantry award is also posthumously. The honor of Param Vir Chakra is equivalent to the Medal of Honor in the United States and the Victorian cross of the United Kingdom.

Major Somnath Sharma, was the first to receive this honorary award. A number of state governments of India as well as ministries of the central government deliver allowances and rewards to the Param Vir Chakra recipients (in case of the recipient’s death, it is given to their family members).

The medal has been awarded 21 times as of January 2018 of which 14 were posthumous and 16 originated from actions in Indo-Pakistani disputes.

1. The design credit of Param Vir Chakra goes to Eva Yvonne Linda, who is better known for her Indian identity, Savitri Khanolkar

She did not only design the Param Veer Chakra (PVC) but also the Ashok Chakra (AC), Mahaveer Chakra (MC), Keerthi Chakra (KC), Veery Chakra (VC), and Shaurya Chakra (SC).

2. Savitribai Khalnolkar real real name is Eve Yvonne Maday de Maros.

3. Eva Yvonne Linda’s family background

Eva was born in 1913, to a Hungarian father and a Russian mother. Her father worked as a head librarian at the League of Nations, the reason being she was engulfed so much in books. He was a professor at Geneva University(Sociology), and he was also the President of the Société de Sociologie de Genève. Her mother was Marthe Hentzelt, a professor at Institut Jean-Jacques Rousseau (Rousseau Institute).

4. Savitribai Khanolkar husband and how did Eva become Savitribai?

Savitribai Khanolkar real name is Eve Yvonne Maday de Maros. As said if you long for something, it comes to you. She once met a bunch of students in Russia from Sandhurst Military College who were on a term break and Vikram Ramji Khanolkar was one of them. Both of them got interested in each other and they even started writing to each other.

Eva and Vikram got married in 1932, and after they got married she changed her name to Savitribai Khanolkar She even changed her eating, drinking, and other habits as well.

5. Savitribai was interested in Vedas, and Upanishads

When Vikram was transferred to Patna she got involved in Vedas, and Upanishads and also started reading Sanskrit plays and many more. Not only this, she even started delivering Sermons in Ramakrishna’s mission. She also involved herself in sketching and painting and mastered that art as well.

She did not take much time to transform herself into an Indian, and she always believed that her soul was Indian and that someone calling her a foreigner didn’t impress her much.

6. Designing the Param Vir Chakra- A symbol of sacrifice, valor, and peace

The Indian Army had been planning to honor the soldiers who had been extraordinary in showing their valor in the war of 1947, and the responsibility to design this symbol of honor was given to Major General Atal.

But when he met Savitribai, he was amazed to see her command over the Indian culture, tradition, language, and especially her sketching skills. When he offered this honor to her to design she was not only amazed and honored to accept, she, presented the design soon after.

She put all her vast knowledge of Indian tradition and designed a medal that proudly depicted sacrifice, valor, and peace. The chakra was designed in such a way that it has the symbols of Indra and Dadhichi, a national symbol in the center, and a lotus on the other side.

She accepted the Indian culture, tradition wholeheartedly which made her name written in history. Her soul and personality were of an Indian which not only transported her to India but made her Indian in a true sense.

7. Savitribai Khanolkar’s social work

Savitri Bai had worked with soldiers, their families, and refugees displaced during the Partition. She found peace in spirituality after her husband’s death in 1952 and retired to the Ramakrishna Math.

8. The popular book ‘Saints of Maharashtra’ is written by Savitribai

9. Savitri Khanolkar daughter is Kumudini Khanolkar

She was married to the Engineer-in-Chief of the Indian Army. Her husband was the younger brother of the first recipient of the nation’s highest gallantry award, the Param Vir Chakra, Major Somnath Sharma.

9. The design of the Param Vir Chakra by Savitri Bai

Savitri was a student of the Vedas and was influenced by the story of a saint, Rishi Dadhichi who donated his spine to the gods for them to make a weapon known as Vajra. She also considered Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj to be one of the greatest Indian warriors.
So, she included his sword, Bhavani in the design. The medal is cast in bronze and has a 32 mm purple ribbon attached at the top.

The medal contains India’s national emblem in between. The state emblem is encircled by four Vajras, on the right, left, up, and down. Each Vajra is flanked by two swords of Shivaji Maharaj. The name is written in both English and Hindi languages separated by two Lotus flowers on either side of the medal.

10. Savitri Khanolkar was a linguist as she was well-versed in a variety of languages like Hindi, English, Marathi, Konkani, and French.

11. Savitribai Khanolkar was a passionate lady, her hobbies included arts, music, and dance.

12. Savitri Khanolkar used to say that she was mistakenly born in Europe, instead of India when someone called her a foreigner.

13. Savitribai met many well-known personalities for designing independent India’s gallantry medals.

14. Her name was forgotten due to patriarchy

Although the Param Vir Chakra has always been received only by men, and even if we talk traditionally, valor has always been a muscular trait. Isn’t it? People tend to remember only the sacrifice by men. Well, with the history of patriarchy, it was highly prevalent.

In the independence as well, women have played a great role and sacrificed too but never got the due credit. Same way when Savitribai Khanolkar designed the most honorable award for Indians that too not being one of them, her name was etched in history. But does anyone remember it or even talk about it? The answer is NO.

15. Savitri Bai Khanolkar took her last breath on 26 November 1990

This is the list of Param Vir Chakra winners:

• Somnath Sharma (1947)
• Jadunath Singh (1948)
• Rama Raghoba Rane (1948)
• Piru Singh (1948)Karam Singh (1948)
• Gurbachan Singh Salaria (1961)
• Dhan Singh Thapa (1962)
• Joginder Singh (1962)
• Shaitan Singh (1962)
• Abdul Hamid (1965)
• Ardeshir Tarapore (1965)
• Albert Ekka (1971)
• Nirmal Jit Singh Sekhon (1971)
• Arun Khetarpal (1971)
• Hoshiar Singh Dahiya (1971)
• Bana Singh (1987)
• Ramaswamy Parameshwaran (1987)
• Manoj Kumar Pandey (1999)
• Yogendra Singh Yadav (1999)
• Sanjay Kumar (1999)
• Vikram Batra (1999)

Savitribai Khanolkar’s name has been lost in the deep sea and like her, there are many names that we need to recover which are bygone.