Review: India’s Wars

Last year, the Government of India organised a series of events to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the 1965 War. These were accompanied by the usual tom-toming of India’s achievements by members of the government, the military and the press. A few hagiographies were also penned to coincide with the “celebrations” (a bad word when used for war commemoration).
The people had very little idea of what was happening. Things haven’t changed much since those events. Enter India’s Wars: A Military History, 1947-1971 by Air Vice Marshal Arjun Subramaniam, a book that promises to fill the gaps in public consciousness about the wars Independent India has fought up to 1971.
The book is impressive on two counts: the research has been pretty detailed, killing the scope of jingoism to colour the narrative; and it tries to make military history more readable and acceptable to a layman.
In India, for long, military history writing has remained an exclusive domain of serving or retired soldiers. And overt nationalism has been the bane of some of these authors who have produced hagiographies that are at times quite laddish in tone and tenor.
Subramaniam’s work is different. He may have well written the first comprehensive history of the tri-services in India’s wars since 1947 and that by itself has been a mammoth task.
He impresses with the myth-busting around the first India-Pakistan war over Kashmir and the 1962 debacle. He brings out the less-acknowledged role of the Indian Air Force in both conflicts. For instance, the first troops were air-lifted to Srinagar in 1947. The first Stuart tanks of 7 Cavalry were also air-lifted, which fought a decisive action at Joji La leading to an Indian victory. He also talks about the IAF struggling to keep the supply lines open in 1962 when airdrops were the only means to keep the small Indian pockets of resistance going against the Chinese onslaught.
The author has also been critical of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru for ignoring the Army’s needs, trying to wrest Goa from the Portuguese with diplomacy for too long, and provoking China without the wherewithal to resist an aggression. However, he has balanced it out with his appreciation of Nehru for the many rights he did, which included taking some strategic calls, such as overruling his British commanders and involving the IAF in 1947-48, or diverting troops to defend Poonch against the advice of his British and Indian commanders.
The book has a few pitfalls too, starting with some annoying factual errors to some amazing generalisations about India’s past: Subramaniam traces the DNA of Indian military to the Marathas and Sikhs but dismisses the Mughals completely as foreigners. On these two fronts, Subramaniam’s book stands at variance with established academic history. But these don't take away much from the book.
The book is important for the lay reader in that it makes him more aware of the military—its glorious past and present, its stellar role in upholding the vibrant Indian democracy, and its silent gallantry in putting lives on the line.
The Indian military is something to be proud of and celebrated. India’s Wars does just that. A must-read for all ages.
(Manimugdha S Sharma)