India's military history
V .R. RAGHAVAN
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A randomly selected events from the arrival of the East India Company to present day
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A MILITARY HISTORY OF INDIA AND SOUTH ASIA — From the East India Company to the Nuclear Era: Eds Daniel P. Marston, Chandar S. Sundaram — Editors; Praeger Security International, 88, Post Road West, Westport, CT 06881.
The writing of histories serves many purposes. They record events, they explain the rationale of events, and evaluate the causes and consequences of events. A military history can record battles or wars as also the cause and effect of technology on warfare. They can in addition explain military events through political, economic and social perspectives. A Military History of India and South Asia is an attempt to read a pattern in an exciting period. This book however focusses on randomly selected events through the era, from the arrival of East India Company to the Indian subcontinent obtaining nuclear weapons. This period can be described as one in which western or modern technology and war-fighting methodology confronted India. The military conquest and colonisation of India by the British was a consequence of superior technology. That technology had effectively changed the face of battle and organisational foundations of war.
Historical rendition
A reading of this face-off between the Indian way of war in the 18th Century and another perfected in the wars of Europe offers grounds for a fascinating historical rendition. As important as technology and battle tactics, their assimilation by the Indian soldiery offers another rich field of study into history. The socio-economic impact of these events into the agrarian communities of India was not inconsiderable. The Indian ruling classes who fielded armies on to battlefields were themselves impacted by this confrontation between two ways of conducting wars. This period of military history has been extensively studied and analysed, albeit primarily by British military writers. Both generals and generalists have recorded battles, movement of armies and the Indian response, as for example, of the Mughals, Marathas, Sikhs and southern rulers like Tipu Sultan.
The authors of this book have structured it on the well known and predictable themes of East India Company's operation, the Mutiny of 1857, the Martial Races debate, and the two World Wars, before reading into the wars fought by independent India's military forces. The sequencing and sourcing of material is based on a wide reach of writings that are widely known. This straight line and often staccato rendition of history would have been acceptable, if enough had been offered to reflect on the meaning of it all. The deeper significance which should form the basis of historical analysis, is sadly absent or ineffectively addressed. The rapid and factual rendition of wars and battles do no more than place facts on paper without clarifying what the reader is to make out of them.
The account of military history since 1947 is wholly inadequate in terms of facts and analysis. The nature of the wars fought by India and Pakistan can be plumbed in terms of force structures, economic foundations of military organisation and even as a geopolitical contest of arms. The Indian military is hugely involved in counter-insurgency operations for over 50 years. Apparently this does not count as military history in the authors' reckoning. India's acknowledged role as one of the largest source of U.N. peacekeeping operations does not form part of this reading of military history. The chapter on the conflict in Sri Lanka is barely able to list the facts and misses out on the strategy adopted by the two sides in one of the longest and bloodiest armed conflicts in South Asia. There is a weak and ineffectual chapter on nuclear issues which fails to examine the consequences of nuclearisation, either between India and Pakistan or its impact on the global proliferation scene.
One of the major trends in Indian military history has been the relationship between the leaders and the led. The authors refer to this in the chapters on the 1857 Mutiny and on the Indian National Army of Subhash Chandra Bose. Post-1947, there has been a significant shift in this relationship as reflected in the egalitarian recruitment and officering pattern in the armed forces. This book misses a major opportunity to delve into this important factor which is the backbone of modern India's military successes.
Interpreting history
In history studies, there is already a movement for a change in approach to interpreting history including military history. It looks at the interdependent nature of history and the linkages between military, societal, economic and political foundations of history. The authors refer to this `new military history', but have chosen not to work their book on such lines. As Stephen Cohen in his foreword perceptively remarks, "the field (of history) still awaits that grand synthesis". This critique notwithstanding, the book may be found useful by those who wish to take a quick look at the 300-year period of colonial military history presented as a chronicle of events .
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