Arjun Subramaniam - Indias Wars: A Military History, 1947-1971

INDIAS WARS

A Military History

19471971

ARJUN SUBRAMANIAM

HarperCollins Publishers India

Khudadad Khan | Indra Lal Roy
Prem Bhagat | N. Krishnan
D. Shanker | Jumbo Majumdar
Arjan Singh | P.C. Lal | Moolgavkar
Sam Manekshaw | Thimayya
Inder Gill | Somnath Sharma
Mohd Usman | Mehar Singh
Hari Chand | Joginder Singh
Shaitan Singh | Harbaksh Singh

Dedicated to Indias Soldiers, Sailors and Air Warriors

Tarapore | Abdul Hamid
Devayya | Johnny Greene
Ranjit Singh Dayal | Sartaj Singh
Sagat Singh | Nirmaljit Sekhon
Chandan Singh | Arun Khetarpal
Albert Ekka | Bharat Kavina
Mahendra Nath Mulla
Hoshiar Singh | Vinod Patney
Arun Prakash | W.A.G. Pinto
and many more...

CONTENTS

I n the old days when fighter pilots had the luxury of making multiple passes over the target areas during ground attack missions, they let loose what was called a sighter burst in their first pass to check whether their guns were firing properly or not. This burst also allowed them to size up the enemy, assess ranges and impose themselves psychologically on the enemy. As the first chapter in Part I (Opening Perspectives) of the book, Sighter Burst aims at none of the above. Instead, it attempts to give you, the reader, an overview of what to expect in the pages ahead. Old habits die hard, they say, and I could not but help looking at this project as a mission with four primary objectives.

The first is to showcase the legacy of modern Indias military pioneers along with the exploits and sacrifices of its armed forces in protecting Indias sovereignty and democracy to both an international readership and a bulging youthful segment of the countrys population. My second objective is to chronicle the largely fragmented contemporary military history of India in the form of an easily readable joint narrative devoid of too many statistics, tables, graphs, or emphasis on casualties, claims and counter-claims. My third objective is to convince policymakers at all levels of the need to adopt a progressive approach towards declassifying material about national security and learning from the mistakes of previous wars, campaigns and conflicts, both external and internal. This would then, I sincerely hope, create a missing link between the study of military history and its impact on contemporary Indian strategic culture. My last objective is to urge not only Indias men and women in uniform but also the growing number of informed and literate youth to read more about war and conflict in the subcontinent after Independence as part of Indias overall historical discourse and draw inspiration from some of the brilliant military commanders of independent India.

Along the way, I hope to bring out some of the central themes of the book. Among these are the strong historical legacies, ethos and professionalism of the Indian armed forces; their slowness in shaking off colonial attitudes and legacies; their sustained contribution and sacrifice to maintain Indias chaotic democracy; how they have coped with the changing contours of modern conflict; and why Indias armed forces have emerged as a critical element of nation building one which the nation at large can ill afford to ignore.

A Personal Quest is an honest attempt to share my personal experiences of soldiering over thirty-three years, and why I feel that not enough has been done to chronicle Indias conflicts after Independence from a joint war-fighting perspective. The chapter is a tribute to my fellow warriors in olive green, white and blue. Their sacrifices on the battlefield so that their fellow countrymen may live in peace have no parallel in human endeavour. Whither Military History briefly examines the multiple reasons for the absence of modern Indian military history from the larger historical discourse in the country.

Part II of the book looks at the DNA of Indias Armed Forces. It sets the pace for an introductory and evolutionary overview of the growth of the armed forces, and attempts to provide the reader with a snapshot of the Indian Army, Indian Air Force and Indian Navy from the early years of the modern era till India gained Independence from the British in 1947. Rather than attribute the entire DNA to a colonial legacy, an attempt has also been made to highlight the influence of late-medieval Indian military thought on military ethos.

Part III of the book comprises Teething Years. It covers three principal conflicts during the early years after Independence the first IndiaPakistan war of 194748; the liberation of Hyderabad and Junagadh; and the short campaign to evict the Portuguese from Goa in December 1961. Indias baptism as a nation state was by waging war against state-sponsored tribals and regular Pakistani forces, which attempted to exploit the rather precarious political situation in the state of Jammu and Kashmir and sever it from the Indian Union. Thousands of tribals from the North-West Frontier Province (NWFP), complemented by regulars of the newly formed Pakistan Army, united under the flag of Islam and raided Kashmir in October 1947. In a three-pronged attack aimed at capturing the whole of Kashmir and forcing the Maharaja of Kashmir to cede to Pakistan, the raiders surprised both the maharaja and the Indian government with the timing and audacity of their attack. In response to an SOS from the Maharaja of Kashmir to the Government of India, the conflict, which began as a rearguard action by the Indian Army and the Royal Indian Air Force to save the state capital, Srinagar, expanded into a full-blown conflict between India and Pakistan across three distinct geographical sectors that lasted over a year. The conflict only ended when a UN-brokered agreement was signed by India and Pakistan in late 1948 to peacefully resolve the Kashmir issue.

While the war was raging in Kashmir, the government had to launch a small but coercive military action against the princely state of Junagadh to force it to abandon its secessionist aspirations and join the Union of India. In September 1948 a larger military action involving an army division backed by air power was launched against the Nizam of Hyderabad to compel him to abandon his grandiose plans of ruling over an independent state that was surrounded by the Union of India. While the Hyderabad military campaign was later termed a police action, from a strategic perspective it merits attention as Indias first successful attempt at coercion orchestrated by an assertive home minister, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel.

After almost thirteen years of relative peace and failed attempts by India to reach a negotiated settlement with the Portuguese over the colonies of Goa, Daman and Diu, a multi-pronged, tri-service operation code-named Operation Vijay was launched in December 1961 to evict the Portuguese from India and bring an end to centuries of colonial rule in India. Though the operation was a success and resulted in some chest-thumping by the Indian military, it deflected some amount of national attention from a more pressing security problem that was brewing on Indias northern and eastern frontiers with China.

Part IV of the book is titled Across Borders and deals with Indias experiences with full-blown conventional conflict in diverse terrain along borders with hostile neighbours. It begins with the IndiaChina war of 1962, which was fought over vast expanses of mountainous and jungle terrain. The narrative then shifts focus to the two large-scale wars with Pakistan in 1965 and 1971, which were fought over mountainous terrain in Jammu and Kashmir; across the plains of Punjab; in the riverine areas of East Pakistan; and, finally, southwards across the deserts of Rajasthan and swamps of Kutch.