People feel shocked when they learn of the background and the details of the India-China War because under the cover of “national security interests” things have been hidden away from the public, despite such a long lapse of time. Wrote Brigadier JP Dalvi: “The people of India want to know the...
An error in the Indian maps shows territory as large as Sikkim or Goa in Arunachal Pradesh as belonging to China. The error has yet to be corrected. Extracts below from an article by Madhav Nalapat in ‘The Sunday Guardian’ of 23 August 2014 are self-explanatory: “Prime Minister Manmohan Singh rejected an...
Politicisation of the army high command was one of the reasons India performed miserably in the India-China War. Instead of heeding sound military advice, Nehru and Menon had put in place submissive officers at the top in the military, who would carry out their orders. Krishna Menon ill-treated people. He...
Again and again, military men have seen themselves hurled into war by the ambition, passions and blunders of civilian governments, almost wholly uninformed as to the limits of their military potential and almost recklessly indifferent to the military requirements of the war they let loose. —Alfred Vagts, ‘The History of Militarism India...
The art of war is of vital importance to the State. It is a matter of life and death, a road either to safety or to ruin. Hence it is a subject of inquiry which can on no account be neglected. —Sun Tzu, ‘Art of War’ For a country that had been...
Apart from the dynastic streak vis-à-vis Indira, Nehru had a nepotistic streak. During the Nehruvian era of 1947–64 there were many Pandits, Saprus, Kauls, Katjus, Dhars, Nehrus, and their kins in various government posts. Wrote Neville Maxwell: “An official (non-Kashmiri, non-Brahmin) who worked closely with Nehru for a time wrote that...
Goa, Daman and Diu, and Dadra and Nagar Haveli—collectively known as the Estado da Índia—continued to remain occupied by Portugal after independence. They covered an area of about 4,000 sq km, and a population of about 6.4 lakh comprising about 61% Hindus, 37% Christians, and 2% Muslims. India finally carried...
India would have gained immensely had it aligned with the West, or had at least been pro-West, or bent a little towards them, especially the US and the UK. Had that been so perhaps there would have been no Kashmir issue, and neither China nor Pakistan would have dared to...
The then US president John F Kennedy was an admirer of Indian democracy, and when he learnt that China was on its way to detonate a nuclear device, he wanted that it ought to be a democratic country like India, and not communist China, which should have nuclear capability. The...
Secularism is dissociation of religion from the state. It is the principle of the separation of government institutions and functionaries mandated to represent the state from religious institutions, religious authorities, and religious functionaries. With dominance of Christianity in the West the results were disastrous: the Dark Ages, and violent punishments, repressions,...
