On the Indian Army of my time
ebook
https://www.dropbox.com/s/8br8w9rs1zctdt0/On%20the%20Indian%20Army%20of%20my%20time.pdf?dl=0
https://www.academia.edu/100135521/On_the_Indian_Army_of_my_time
For my Commanding Officers
- in gratitude
Preface
This e-book’s contents date to when I was in uniform, either in regimental service as a middle piece officer of the Light Infantry and in the Rashtriya Rifles or in extra-regimental assignments elsewhere in the junior echelon of service. The period straddles the turn of the century, with the commentaries written sometime between 1995-2005 or so. The book is thus a good snapshot of the army at the time, a worm’s eye view as it were.
I had a somewhat unique vantage point, having done a War Studies course on study leave somewhat early in service. I thought that the course provided me some insight which made my viewing the Service somewhat different from the perspective of my colleagues in traditional career paths. I therefore believed that communicating these observations to the Service was an obligation, for having spared me for undertaking the course.
While I have inserted a few articles that did see the light of day in Service publications, majority of the pieces here were not so lucky. Some of these were written as observations on contents of Service periodicals – such as the part in this book on Letters to Editor. Others were as responses to in-Service essay competitions – sent with no intention of winning, but only to make a point as contribution to Service thinking. Some were contrarion, but only constructively so.
The articles cover War and Insurgency, the primary preoccupation of the Army in my time and carried in successive sections here. The Punjab and Sri Lankan engagements in the eighties – both of which I saw as a foot slogger – and the extensive commitments in the nineties in Kashmir and Assam - both of which provided locales for jungle bashing and my claim to have soldiered once. The tussle was between votaries of the hard and softline, with me lining up with the latter and fleshing out the Ashokan tradition in Indian strategic thought on the intellectual frontlines within the Service. These writings are part of the second section, on Insurgency, in this ebook.
As backdrop, was the discussion on how to keep the conventional deterrent honed, to keep the subconventional challenge manageable. India dramatically came up with a nuclear answer to this. At the time of writing, this answer was deflated by Pakistan’s upping of the subconventional ante. The professional concerns nuclearization generated energised a small debate within the Service. I lent shoulder to the less popular – though to my mind more sober and mature – strategic alternative by overlaying the Limited War theory on the emerging strategic equation in South Asia. The output is carried in the section on War in this ebook.
Admittedly, some of the impulse behind articles collated here in the Military Sociology part, was grouching, no more than the usual survival strategy of infantrymen. But it was also informed by my learning – admittedly somewhat immodestly put – from my elective ‘Armed Forces and Society’ at the bespoke course. It discusses not only higher order matters as civil-military relations but also the military’s relationship with its mandate, officership and the military as a calling.
A significant aspect of historical interest is in the Letters to Editor pages here. The Letters to Editors were written in response to articles carried on their publication’s pages. These letters usually queried the insertion of Hindutva world view into the professional consciousness using the pages of in-Service journals by officer purveyors. This is in the period of the right-wing government’s first stint in power. It is easy to see how ideological entrepreneurs in uniform used Service conduits to infiltrate Hindutva into the military. At the time they were still in the closet. Editorial inattention allowed for Hindutva discourse to be normalised in the Service. I think this was at the cost of professionalism. The Letters provide a glimpse of Hindutva’s early infiltration into military innards.
I have put in a section on Book Reviews, for in-Service readers. Reading is a habit that is advocated for officers, though increasingly they are not from the catchment of reading public. Besides, service life is apparently considerably busier these days, than was in my time. The idea is to encourage reading, which is ambitious these days and, on that count, inescapable – especially for upwardly mobile officers.
This book owes to the latitude extended to me by my Commanding Officers – for no reasons I was privy to (though I suspect it was to keep me far from the Adjutant’s chair). I have benefited from their stewardship of my time in Service. I used the time to engage with issues way outside my pay grade, as a hobby for most part.
This collection of in-Service reflection is in part testimony of intellectual concerns of officers of my generation. Put out by an atypical officer, there is no claim to any consensus on the thoughts expressed. I take full responsibility for deficits. The hope is that when some military historian or researcher wishes to understand the Service of the turn of the century, she would find here an enlightening page or two.
Further reading
Ali writings comments and reviews
Institutional Interest: A Study Of Indian Strategic Culture By Major Ali Ahmed
Right wing ascendance in India and politicisation of India’s military.
Indian Security A Vantage Point_Ali Ahmed.pdf
On Indias Military - Writings from within - Ali Ahmed1.pdf
From Within - Reflections on Indias army - Ali Ahmed1.pdf
Contents
War
1. Reflection On The Threat Of Nuclear War – 9
2. Nuclear Risk Reduction – 13
3. The Doctrinal Challenge – 14
4. The Politico-Military Utility Of Ballistic Missiles - Case Study Of India – 17
5. Limited (Nuclear) War – 25
6. The Threat Of War - 26
7. Limited War: A Sub-Continental Perspective – 27
8. Two Front Threat Perspective – 34
Insurgency
9. LIC And International Law – 38
10. LIC : Intervention As Paradigm – 42
11. A Controversial Look: Counter-Insurgency And Human Rights – 45
12. Jihad And Revolutionary War – 52
13. Jihadi War In Strategic Theory – 64
14. On Military Leadership In Counter-Insurgency Operations - 68
15. 'Kashmir Diary: The Psychology Of Militancy' - A Critical Review - 71
16. Questionable Statistics on Kashmir - 74
17. Hindu India: The Security Dimension - 76
18. Counter-Guerilla Strategy: A Perspective Of The Future - 78
19. Threat To Indian Society Posed By Man-Portable Weapons And Explosives - 83
20. J&K: The Perspectives Contrasted - 90
21. Tackling Psychological Pressures On SF In LIC – 93
22. Comments On Article: The J&K Peace Process - 97
23. Widening The Discourse On Terror – 103
24. Offensive Air Power In J&K? – 104
Military Sociology
25. Military And Politics: Can the Military be apolitical? Should it? - 108
26. Civil-Military Relations: A Theoretical Perspective - 111
27. Company Command: A Template - 113
28. What Is `It'? - 115
29. Reflections On Officership In The Infantry – 117
30. Officership In The Army : A Redefinition - 119
31. Change And The Indian Military: The Unaddressed Dimensions - 125
32. The Strategic ‘Community’ - 133
33. The ‘Pathology’ Of Info War - 136
34. A Question Of Identity: The Leader-Manager Binary – 140
35. Reflection On Military Ethos - 143
36. The Fauji Memsahib : A More Than Cosmetic Change - 146
37. An Anti-Drill Diatribe - 150
Letters to Editor
38. Infantry India, 7 Jul 1998 - 154
39. Infanry India, 24 Nov 1995 – 156
40. USI Journal, 28 Nov 1998 - 157
41. Naam, Namak, Nishan, Infantry Plus, 29 March 2001 – 160
42. Defence Management Journal, 11 May 2001 – 160
43. The Threat Of Politicisation, Infantry India - 164
44. Equally ‘Free And Frank’, Pinnacle – 166
45. Combat Journal, 6 Feb 2003 – 167
46. Pratividrohi, 2 Sep 2003 - 168
47. Infantry India, 11 Oct 2003 – 170
48. Of Martyrs And Infantrymen, 2 Feb 2003 – 171
Book Reviews
49. C Raja Mohan, Crossing the Rubicon; The Shaping of India’s New Foreign Policy - 174
50. Wajahat Habibullah, 'The Political Economy of the Kashmir Conflict - Opportunities for Economic Peacebuilding and for U.S. Policy - 175
51. Lt Gen (Retd.) Sood, VK; Swahney, P., Operation Parakram: The War Unfinished – 177
52. Philpot, D., Revolutions in Sovereignty: How Ideas Shaped Modern International Relations - 179
53. Major Vivek Chadha, The Book of Military Quotations – 180
54. Michael C. Desch, Civilian Control of the Military – The Changing Security Environment – 180
55. Maroof Raza, ed. Generals and Governments in India and Pakistan – 182
56. Karnad, B., ‘Nuclear Weapons and Indian Security: The Realist Foundations of Strategy’ – 183
57. Robert W Stern, Democracy and Dictatorship in South Asia: Dominant Classes and Political Outcomes In India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh – 185
58. Kanwal, G., Nuclear Defense: Shaping the Arsenal – 185
59. Thomas Risse, Stephen C Ropp and Kathryn Sikkink, (eds.) The Power of Human Rights: International Norms and Domestic Change – 187
60. Stephen D Krasner, Sovereignity: Organised Hypocricy - 187
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Hello Ali - Read this. Very interesting. From this, I now know that you are from the LI and served in the RR. Which units, if you'd like to disclose? I am from 4/4 GR, and served 8RR from 1994-97, in Manipur and Doda, Would love to hear more from you. My id is alok.asthana@gmail.com