Download - Indian History - The Freedom Movement
Indian independence movement
History of South Asia
(Indian Subcontinent)
Stone Age 70,000–3300 BCE
• Mehrgarh Culture • 7000–3300 BCE
Indus Valley Civilization
3300–1700 BCE
Late Harappan Culture
1700–1300 BCE
Vedic period 1500–500 BCE
Iron Age 1200–300 BCE
• Maha Janapadas • 700–300 BCE
• Magadha Empire • 545 BCE - 550
• Maurya Empire • 321–184 BCE
Middle Kingdoms 300 BCE–1279 CE
• Chera Empire • 300 BCE–200 CE
• Chola Empire • 250 BCE–1070 CE
• Satavahana • 230 BCE–220 CE
• Kushan Empire • 60–240 CE
• Gupta Empire • 280–550
• Pala Empire • 750–1174
• Chalukya Dynasty • 543–753
• Rashtrakuta • 753–982
• Western Chalukya Empire
• 973–1189
Hoysala Empire 1040–1346
Kakatiya Empire 1083–1323
Islamic Sultanates 1206–1596
• Delhi Sultanate • 1206–1526
• Deccan Sultanates • 1490–1596
Ahom Kingdom 1228–1826
Vijayanagara Empire 1336–1646
Mughal Empire 1526–1858
Maratha Empire 1674–1818
Sikh Confederacy 1716–1799
Sikh Empire 1799–1849
British East India Company
1757–1858
British Raj 1858–1947
Modern States 1947–present
1
The term "Indian independence
movement" is diffuse, incorporating
various national and regional campaigns,
agitations and efforts of both Nonviolent
and Militant philosophy and involved a
wide spectrum of political organizations,
philosophies, and movements which had
the common aim of ending the British
Colonial Authority as well as other
colonial administrations in South Asia.
The initial resistance to the movement
can be traced back to the very
beginnings of Colonial Expansion in
Karnataka by the Portuguese in the 16th
century and by the British East India
Company in Bengal, in the middle and
late 1700s. The first organised militant
movement was in Bengal, that later took
political stage in the form of mainstream
movement from the latter part of the
1800s was increasingly led by the
leaders of the then newly formed Indian
National Congress with prominent
moderate leaders seeking only their
basic rights to appear for civil services
examinations and more rights, economic
in nature, for the people of the soil. They
used moderate methods of prayer,
petition and the press (3p's). Beginning
of early 1900s saw a more radical
approach towards political independence
proposed by leaders as the Lal Bal Pal
and Sri Aurobindo. Militant nationalism
also emerged in the first decades,
culminating in the failed Indo-German
Pact and Ghadar Conspiracy during the
World War I. The end of the war saw the
Congress adopt the policies of
nonviolent agitation and civil
disobedience led by Mahatma Gandhi.
Other leaders, such as Netaji Subhash
Chandra Bose, later came to adopt a
military approach to the movement. The
World War II period saw the peak of the
movements like INA movement led by
Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose from East
Asia and Quit India movement.
India remained a Dominion of The Crown
till 26 January 1950, when it adopted its
Constitution to proclaim itself a Republic.
Pakistan proclaimed itself a Republic in
1956 but faced a number of internal
power struggles that has seen
suspensions of democracy. In 1971, the
Pakistani Civil War culminating in the
1971 War saw the splintering-off of East
Pakistan into the nation of Bangladesh.
The independence movement also
served as a major catalyst for similar
movements in other parts of the world,
leading to the eventual disintegration
and dismantling of the British Empire
and its replacement with the
Commonwealth of Nations. Gandhi's
philosophy of nonviolent resistance
inspired the American Civil Rights
Movement (1955-1968) led by Martin
Luther King, Jr., the quest for democracy
in Myanmar led by Aung San Suu Kyi and
the African National Congress's struggle
against apartheid in South Africa led by
Nelson Mandela. However not all these
leaders adhered to Gandhi's strict
2
principle of nonviolence and
nonresistance.
European ruleRobert Clive, 1st Baron Clive with Mir Jafar after the Battle of Plassey
European traders came to Indian shores
with the arrival of the Portuguese
explorer Vasco da Gama in 1498, Capad
beach, at the port of Calicut in search of
the lucrative spice trade. After the 1757
Battle of Plassey, during which the
British army under Robert Clive defeated
the Nawab of Bengal, the British East
India Company established itself. This is
widely seen as the beginning of the
British Raj in India. The Company gained
administrative rights over Bengal, Bihar,
and Orissa in 1765 after the Battle of
Buxar. They then annexed Punjab in
1849 after the death of Maharaja Ranjit
Singh in 1839 and the First Anglo-Sikh
War (1845–1846) and then the Second
Anglo-Sikh War (1848–49).
The British parliament enacted a series
of laws to handle the administration of
the newly-conquered provinces,
including the Regulating Act of 1773, the
India Act of 1784, and the Charter Act of
1813; all enhanced the British
government's rule. In 1835 English was
made the medium of instruction.
Western-educated Hindu elites sought to
rid Hinduism of controversial social
practices, including the varna (caste)
system, child marriage, and sati. Literary
and debating societies initiated in
Bombay and Madras became forum for
open political discourse. The educational
attainment and skillful use of the press
by these early reformers created the
growing possibility for effecting broad
reforms within colonial India, all without
compromising larger Indian social values
and religious practices.
Even while these modernizing trends
influenced Indian society, Indians
increasingly despised British rule. The
memoirs of Henry Ouvry of the 9th
Lancers record many "a good thrashing"
to careless servants. A spice merchant,
Frank Brown, wrote to his nephew that
stories of maltreatment of servants had
not been exaggerated and that he knew
people who kept orderlies "purposely to
thrash them". As the British increasingly
dominated the continent, they grew
increasingly abusive of local customs by,
for example, staging parties in mosques,
dancing to the music of regimental
bands on the terrace of the Taj Mahal,
using whips to force their way through
crowded bazaars (as recounted by
General Henry Blake), and mistreating
sepoys. In the years after the annexation
of Punjab in 1849 , several mutinies
among sepoys broke out; these were put
down by force.
[] Regional movements prior to 1857Sannyasi Rebellion and Conspiracy Of The Pintos and Polygar Wars
Several regional movements against
foreign rule were staged in various parts
of pre-1857 India. However, they were
3
not united and were easily controlled by
the foreign rulers. Examples include the
rebellion of Abbakka Rani in Karnataka
from 1555 to 1570 against the
Portuguese, Sannyasi Rebellion in
Bengal in the 1770s, [1] the 1787 ethnic
revolt against Portuguese control of Goa
known as the Conspiracy Of The Pintos, [2]
the revolt of Titumir in Bengal in 1830's
and uprisings by South Indian local
chieftains like Veerapandya
Kattabomman against British rule.[3]
Other movements included the Santal
Rebellion and the resistance offered to
the British by Titumir in Bengal,[4][5] the
Kittur Rebellion led by Rani Chennamma
in Karnataka, Polygar Wars in Tamil
Nadu, Kutch Rebellion in Saurashtra.[6]
[] The Indian Rebellion of 1857Secundra Bagh after the 93rd Highlanders and 4th Punjab regiment fought the rebels, Nov 1857.
The Indian Rebellion of 1857 was a
period of uprising in the northern and
central India against British rule in 1857–
58. The rebellion was the result of
decades of ethnic and cultural
differences between Indian soldiers and
their British officers. The indifference of
the British towards Indian rulers like the
Mughals and ex-Peshwas and the
annexation of Oudh were political factors
triggering dissent amongst Indians.
Dalhousie’s policy of annexation, the
doctrine of lapse or escheat, and the
projected removal of the descendants of
the Great Mughal from their ancestral
palace to the Qutb, near Delhi also
angered some people. The specific
reason that triggered the rebellion was
the rumored use of cow and pig fat
in .557 calibre Pattern 1853 Enfield
(P/53) rifle cartridges. Soldiers had to
break the cartridges with their teeth
before loading them into their rifles. So if
there was cow and pig fat, it would be
offensive to Hindu and Muslim soldiers,
respectively. In February 1857, sepoys
(Indian soldiers in the British army)
refused to use their new cartridges. The
British claimed to have replaced the
cartridges with new ones and tried to
make sepoys make their own grease
from beeswax and vegetable oils, but
the rumour persisted.
In March 1857, Mangal Pandey , a soldier
of the 34th Native Infantry in
Barrackpore, attacked his British
sergeant and wounded an adjutant.
General Hearsay, who said Pandey was
in some kind of "religious frenzy,"
ordered a jemadar to arrest him but the
jemadar refused. Mangal Pandey was
hanged on 7 April along with the
jemadar. The whole regiment was
dismissed as a collective punishment. On
May 10, when the 11th and 20th Cavalry
assembled, they broke rank and turned
on their commanding officers. They then
liberated the 3rd Regiment, and on 11
May the sepoys reached Delhi and were
joined by other Indians. The Red Fort,
the residence of the last Mughal emperor
Bahadur, was attacked and captured by
the sepoys. They demanded that he
4
reclaim his throne. He was reluctant at
first, but eventually agreed to the
demands and became the leader of the
rebellion.
Soon, the revolt spread throughout
northern India. Revolts broke out in
places like Meerut , Jhansi , Kanpur ,
Lucknow etc. The British were slow to
respond, but eventually responded with
brute force. British moved regiments
from the Crimean War and diverted
European regiments headed for China to
India. The British fought the main army
of the rebels near Delhi in Badl-ke-Serai
and drove them back to Delhi before
laying siege on the city. The siege of
Delhi lasted roughly from 1 July to 31
August. After a week of street fighting,
the British retook the city. The last
significant battle was fought in Gwalior
on 20 June 1858 . It was during this battle
that Rani Lakshmi Bai was killed.
Sporadic fighting continued until 1859
but most of the rebels were subdued.
Some notable leaders were Ahmed Ullah,
an advisor of the ex-King of Oudh; Nana
Sahib; his nephew Rao Sahib and his
retainers, Tantia Topi and Azimullah
Khan; the Rani of Jhansi; Kunwar Singh;
the Rajput chief of Jagadishpur in Bihar;
Firuz Saha, a relative of the Mughal
Emperor, Bahadur Shah and Pran Sukh
Yadav who along with Rao Tula Ram of
Rewari fought with Britishers at
Nasibpur, Haryana.
[] Aftermath
The war of 1857 was a major turning
point in the history of modern India. The
British abolished the British East India
Company and replaced it with direct rule
under the British crown. A Viceroy was
appointed to represent the Crown. In
proclaiming the new direct-rule policy to
"the Princes, Chiefs, and Peoples of
India," Queen Victoria promised equal
treatment under British law, but Indian
mistrust of British rule had become a
legacy of the 1857 rebellion.
The British embarked on a program in
India of reform and political
restructuring, trying to integrate Indian
higher castes and rulers into the
government. They stopped land grabs,
decreed religious tolerance and admitted
Indians into the civil service, albeit
mainly as subordinates. They also
increased the number of British soldiers
in relation to native ones and allowed
only British soldiers to handle artillery.
Bahadur Shah was exiled to Rangoon ,
Burma where he died in 1862, finally
bringing the Mughal dynasty to an end.
In 1877, Queen Victoria took the title of
Empress of India.
[] Rise of organized movements
The decades following the Sepoy
Rebellion were a period of growing
political awareness, manifestation of
Indian public opinion and emergence of
Indian leadership at national and
provincial levels. Dadabhai Naoroji
formed East India Association in 1867,
and Surendranath Banerjee founded
5
Indian National Association in 1876 .
Inspired by a suggestion made by A.O.
Hume, a retired British civil servant,
seventy-three Indian delegates met in
Bombay in 1885 and founded the Indian
National Congress. They were mostly
members of the upwardly mobile and
successful western-educated provincial
elites, engaged in professions such as
law, teaching, and journalism. At its
inception, the Congress had no well-
defined ideology and commanded few of
the resources essential to a political
organization. It functioned more as a
debating society that met annually to
express its loyalty to the British Raj and
passed numerous resolutions on less
controversial issues such as civil rights
or opportunities in government,
especially the civil service. These
resolutions were submitted to the
Viceroy's government and occasionally
to the British Parliament, but the
Congress's early gains were meagre.
Despite its claim to represent all India,
the Congress voiced the interests of
urban elites; the number of participants
from other economic backgrounds
remained negligible.
The influences of socio-religious groups
such as Arya Samaj (started by Swami
Dayanand Saraswati) and Brahmo Samaj
(founded, among others, by Raja Ram
Mohan Roy) became evident in
pioneering reform of Indian society. The
inculcation of religious reform and social
pride was fundamental to the rise of a
public movement for complete
nationhood. The work of men like Swami
Vivekananda, Ramakrishna Paramhansa,
Sri Aurobindo, Subramanya Bharathy,
Bankim Chandra Chatterjee, Sir Syed
Ahmed Khan, Rabindranath Tagore and
Dadabhai Naoroji spread the passion for
rejuvenation and freedom.
By 1900, although the Congress had
emerged as an all-India political
organization, its achievement was
undermined by its singular failure to
attract Muslims, who felt that their
representation in government service
was inadequate. Attacks by Hindu
reformers against religious conversion,
cow slaughter, and the preservation of
Urdu in Arabic script deepened their
concerns of minority status and denial of
rights if the Congress alone were to
represent the people of India. Sir Syed
Ahmed Khan launched a movement for
Muslim regeneration that culminated in
the founding in 1875 of the
Muhammadan Anglo-Oriental College at
Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh (renamed Aligarh
Muslim University in 1921). Its objective
was to educate wealthy students by
emphasizing the compatibility of Islam
with modern western knowledge. The
diversity among India's Muslims,
however, made it impossible to bring
about uniform cultural and intellectual
regeneration.
[] Rise of Indian nationalism
The first spurts of nationalistic sentiment
that rose amongst Congress members
6
were when the desire to be represented
in the bodies of government, to have a
say, a vote in the lawmaking and issues
of administration of India. Congressmen
saw themselves as loyalists, but wanted
an active role in governing their own
country, albeit as part of the Empire.
This trend was personified by Dadabhai
Naoroji , who went as far as contesting,
successfully, an election to the British
House of Commons, becoming its first
Indian member.
Bal Gangadhar Tilak was the first Indian
nationalist to embrace Swaraj as the
destiny of the nation. Tilak deeply
opposed the British education system
that ignored and defamed India's
culture, history and values. He resented
the denial of freedom of expression for
nationalists, and the lack of any voice or
role for ordinary Indians in the affairs of
their nation. For these reasons, he
considered Swaraj as the natural and
only solution. His popular sentence
"Swaraj is my birthright, and I shall have
it" became the source of inspiration for
Indians.
In 1907, the Congress was split into two.
Tilak advocated what was deemed as
extremism. He wanted a direct assault
by the people upon the British Raj, and
the abandonment of all things British. He
was backed by rising public leaders like
Bipin Chandra Pal and Lala Lajpat Rai,
who held the same point of view. Under
them, India's three great states -
Maharashtra, Bengal and Punjab shaped
the demand of the people and India's
nationalism. Gokhale criticized Tilak for
encouraging acts of violence and
disorder. But the Congress of 1906 did
not have public membership, and thus
Tilak and his supporters were forced to
leave the party.
But with Tilak's arrest, all hopes for an
Indian offensive were stalled. The
Congress lost credit with the people, A
Muslim deputation met with the Viceroy,
Minto (1905–10), seeking concessions
from the impending constitutional
reforms, including special considerations
in government service and electorates.
The British recognized some of Muslim
League's petitions by increasing the
number of elective offices reserved for
Muslims in the Government of India Act
1909. The Muslim League insisted on its
separateness from the Hindu-dominated
Congress, as the voice of a "nation
within a nation."
[ ] Partition of Bengal
In 1905, Curzon, the Viceroy and
Governor-General (1899–1905), ordered
the partition of the province of Bengal
for improvements in administrative
efficiency in that huge and populous
region, where the Bengali Hindu
intelligentsia exerted considerable
influence on local and national politics.
The partition outraged Bengalis. Not only
had the government failed to consult
Indian public opinion, but the action
appeared to reflect the British resolve to
divide and rule. Widespread agitation
7
ensued in the streets and in the press,
and the Congress advocated boycotting
British products under the banner of
swadeshi. People showed unity by tying
Rakhi on each other's wrists and
observing Arandhan (not cooking any
food).
During the partition of Bengal new
methods of struggle were adopted.
These led to swadeshi and boycott
movements. The Congress-led boycott of
British goods was so successful that it
unleashed anti-British forces to an
extent unknown since the Sepoy
Rebellion. A cycle of violence and
repression ensued in some parts of the
country (see Alipore bomb case). The
British tried to mitigate the situation by
announcing a series of constitutional
reforms in 1909 and by appointing a few
moderates to the imperial and provincial
councils. In what the British saw as an
additional goodwill gesture, in 1911
King-Emperor George V visited India for
a durbar (a traditional court held for
subjects to express fealty to their ruler),
during which he announced the reversal
of the partition of Bengal and the
transfer of the capital from Calcutta to a
newly planned city to be built
immediately south of Delhi, which later
became New Delhi. However, ceremony
of transfer on 23 December 1912 was
marked by the attempt to assassinate
the then Viceroy, Lord Hardinge, in what
came to be known as the Delhi-Lahore
conspiracy.
[] World War ISee also: Hindu German Conspiracy and Defence of India Act 1915
World War I began with an
unprecedented outpouring of loyalty and
goodwill towards the United Kingdom
from within the mainstream political
leadership, contrary to initial British
fears of an Indian revolt. India
contributed massively to the British war
effort by providing men and resources.
About 1.3 million Indian soldiers and
laborers served in Europe, Africa, and
the Middle East, while both the Indian
government and the princes sent large
supplies of food, money, and
ammunition. However, Bengal and
Punjab remained hotbeds of anti colonial
activities. Terrorism in Bengal,
increasingly closely linked with the
unrests in Punjab, was significant
enough to nearly paralyse the regional
administration.[7][8] Also from the
beginning of the war, expatriate Indian
population, notably from United States,
Canada, and Germany, headed by the
Berlin Committee and the Ghadar Party,
attempted to trigger insurrections in
India on the lines of the 1857 uprising
with Irish Republican, German and
Turkish help in a massive conspiracy
that has since come to be called the
Hindu German conspiracy[9][10][11] This
conspiracy also attempted to rally
Afghanistan against British India.[12] A
number of failed attempts were made at
mutiny, of which the February mutiny
8
plan and the Singapore mutiny remain
most notable. This movement was
suppressed by means of a massive
international counter-intelligence
operation and draconian political acts
(including the Defence of India act 1915)
that lasted nearly ten years.[13][14]
In the aftermath of the WW I, high
casualty rates, soaring inflation
compounded by heavy taxation, a
widespread influenza epidemic, and the
disruption of trade during the war
escalated human suffering in India. The
Indian soldiers smuggled arms into India
to overthrow the British rule. The prewar
nationalist movement revived as
moderate and extremist groups within
the Congress submerged their
differences in order to stand as a unified
front. In 1916, the Congress succeeded
in forging the Lucknow Pact , a temporary
alliance with the Muslim League over the
issues of devolution of political power
and the future of Islam in the region.
The British themselves adopted a "carrot
and stick" approach in recognition of
India's support during the war and in
response to renewed nationalist
demands. In August 1917, Edwin
Montagu, the secretary of state for India,
made the historic announcement in
Parliament that the British policy for
India was "increasing association of
Indians in every branch of the
administration and the gradual
development of self-governing
institutions with a view to the
progressive realization of responsible
government in India as an integral part
of the British Empire." The means of
achieving the proposed measure were
later enshrined in the Government of
India Act 1919 , which introduced the
principle of a dual mode of
administration, or diarchy, in which both
elected Indian legislators and appointed
British officials shared power. The act
also expanded the central and provincial
legislatures and widened the franchise
considerably. Diarchy set in motion
certain real changes at the provincial
level: a number of non-controversial or
"transferred" portfolios, such as
agriculture, local government, health,
education, and public works, were
handed over to Indians, while more
sensitive matters such as finance,
taxation, and maintaining law and order
were retained by the provincial British
administrators.
[] Gandhi arrives in India
Mahatma Gandhi had been a prominent
leader of the anti-Apartheid movement
in South Africa, and had been a vocal
opponent of basic discrimination and
abusive labour treatment as well as
suppressive police control such as the
Rowlatt Acts. During these protests,
Gandhi had perfected the concept of
satyagraha, which had been inspired by
the philosophy of Baba Ram Singh
(famous for leading the Kuka Movement
in the Punjab in 1872). The end of the
protests in South Africa saw oppressive
9
legislation repealed and the release of
political prisoners by General Jan Smuts,
head of the South African Government of
the time.
Gandhi, a stranger to India and its
politics after twenty years, had initially
entered the fray not with calls for a
nation-state, but in support of the unified
commerce-oriented territory that the
Congress Party had been asking for.
Gandhi believed that the industrial
development and educational
development that the Europeans had
brought with them were required to
alleviate many of India's problems.
Gopal Krishna Gokhale, a veteran
Congressman and Indian leader, became
Gandhi's mentor. Gandhi's ideas and
strategies of non-violent civil
disobedience initially appeared
impractical to some Indians and
Congressmen. In Gandhi's own words,
"civil disobedience is civil breach of
unmoral statutory enactments." It had to
be carried out non-violently by
withdrawing cooperation with the
corrupt state. Gandhi's ability to inspire
millions of common people became clear
when he used satyagraha during the
anti-Rowlatt Act protests in Punjab.
Gandhi’s vision would soon bring millions
of regular Indians into the movement,
transforming it from an elitist struggle to
a national one. The nationalist cause was
expanded to include the interests and
industries that formed the economy of
common Indians. For example, in
Champaran, Bihar, the Congress Party
championed the plight of desperately
poor sharecroppers and landless farmers
who were being forced to pay oppressive
taxes and grow cash crops at the
expense of the subsistence crops which
formed their food supply. The profits
from the crops they grew were
insufficient to provide for their
sustenance.
[] The Rowlatt Act and its aftermath
The positive impact of reform was
seriously undermined in 1919 by the
Rowlatt Act, named after the
recommendations made the previous
year to the Imperial Legislative Council
by the Rowlatt Commission, which had
been appointed to investigate what was
termed the "seditious conspiracy" and
the German and Bolshevik involvement
in the militant movements in India.[15][16]
[17] The Rowlatt Act, also known as the
Black Act, vested the Viceroy's
government with extraordinary powers
to quell sedition by silencing the press,
detaining the political activists without
trial, and arresting any individuals
suspected of sedition or treason without
a warrant. In protest, a nationwide
cessation of work (hartal) was called,
marking the beginning of widespread,
although not nationwide, popular
discontent. The agitation unleashed by
the acts culminated on 13 April 1919 , in
the Jallianwala Bagh massacre (also
known as the Amritsar Massacre) in
Amritsar, Punjab. The British military
10
commander, Brigadier-General Reginald
Dyer, blocked the main entrance, and
ordered his soldiers to fire into an
unarmed and unsuspecting crowd of
some 5,000 men, women and children.
They had assembled at Jallianwala Bagh,
a walled in courtyard in defiance of the
ban. A total of 1,651 rounds were fired,
killing 379 people (as according to an
official British commission; Indian
estimates ranged as high as 1,499[18])
and wounding 1,137 in the episode,
which dispelled wartime hopes of home
rule and goodwill in a frenzy of post-war
reaction.
[] The Non-cooperation movements
It can be argued that the independence
movement, even towards the end of First
World War, was far removed from the
masses of India, focusing essentially on
a unified commerce-oriented territory
and hardly a call for a united nation.
That came in the 1930s with the entry of
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi into
Indian Politics in 1915.
[] The first Non cooperation movement
The first satyagraha movement urged
the use of Khadi and Indian material as
alternatives to those shipped from
Britain. It also urged people to boycott
British educational institutions and law
courts; resign from government
employment; refuse to pay taxes; and
forsake British titles and honours.
Although this came too late to influence
the framing of the new Government of
India Act of 1919, the movement
enjoyed widespread popular support,
and the resulting unparalleled
magnitude of disorder presented a
serious challenges to foreign rule.
However, Gandhi called off the
movement following the Chauri Chaura
incident, which saw the death of twenty-
two policemen at the hands of an angry
mob.
In 1920, the Congress was reorganized
and given a new constitution, whose
goal was Swaraj (independence).
Membership in the party was opened to
anyone prepared to pay a token fee, and
a hierarchy of committees was
established and made responsible for
discipline and control over a hitherto
amorphous and diffuse movement. The
party was transformed from an elite
organization to one of mass national
appeal and participation.
Gandhi was sentenced in 1922 to six
years of prison, but was released after
serving two. On his release from prison,
he set up the Sabarmati Ashram in
Ahmedabad, on the banks of river
Sabarmati, established the newspaper
Young India, and inaugurated a series of
reforms aimed at the socially
disadvantaged within Hindu society - the
rural poor, and the untouchables.
This era saw the emergence of new
generation of Indians from within the
Congress Party, including C.
Rajagopalachari, Jawaharlal Nehru,
11
Vallabhbhai Patel, Subhash Chandra
Bose and others- who would later on
come to form the prominent voices of
the Indian independence movement,
whether keeping with Gandhian Values,
or diverging from it.
The Indian political spectrum was further
broadened in the mid-1920s by the
emergence of both moderate and
militant parties, such as the Swaraj
Party, Hindu Mahasabha, Communist
Party of India and the Rashtriya
Swayamsevak Sangh. Regional political
organizations also continued to
represent the interests of non-Brahmins
in Madras, Mahars in Maharashtra, and
Sikhs in Punjab. However, brahmins like
Mahakavi Subramanya Bharathi,
Vanchinathan and Neelakanda
Brahmachari played a major role from
Tamil Nadu in both freedom struggle and
fighting for equality for all castes and
communities.
[] Purna Swaraj
Following the rejection of the
recommendations of the Simon
Commission by Indians, an all-party
conference was held at Bombay in May
1928. This was meant to instill a sense
of resistance among people. The
conference appointed a drafting
committee under Motilal Nehru to draw
up a constitution for India. The Calcutta
session of the Indian National Congress
asked the British government to accord
dominion status to India by December
1929, or a countrywide civil
disobedience movement would be
launched. By 1929, however, in the
midst rising political discontent and
increasingly violent regional movements,
the call for complete independence from
Britain began to find increasing grounds
within the Congress leadership. Under
the presidency of Jawaharlal Nehru at its
historic Lahore session in December
1929, The Indian National Congress
adopted a resolution calling for complete
independence from the British. It
authorized the Working Committee to
launch a civil disobedience movement
throughout the country. It was decided
that 26 January 1930 should be observed
all over India as the Purna Swaraj (total
independence) Day. Many Indian political
parties and Indian revolutionaries of a
wide spectrum united to observe the day
with honour and pride.
[] Salt March and Civil Disobedience
Gandhi emerged from his long seclusion
by undertaking his most famous
campaign, a march of about 400
kilometres from his commune in
Ahmedabad to Dandi, on the coast of
Gujarat between 12 March and 6 April
1930. The march is usually known as the
Dandi March or the Salt Satyagraha. At
Dandi, in protest against British taxes on
salt, he and thousands of followers broke
the law by making their own salt from
seawater.
In April 1930 there were violent police-
crowd clashes in Calcutta. Approximately
over 100,000 people were imprisoned in
12
the course of the Civil disobedience
movement (1930-31), while in Peshawar
unarmed demonstrators were fired upon
in the Qissa Khwani bazaar massacre.
The latter event catapulted the then
newly formed Khudai Khidmatgar
movement (founder Khan Abdul Ghaffar
Khan, the Frontier Gandhi) onto the
National scene. While Gandhi was in jail,
the first Round Table Conference was
held in London in November 1930,
without representation from the Indian
National Congress. The ban upon the
Congress was removed because of
economic hardships caused by the
satyagraha. Gandhi, along with other
members of the Congress Working
Committee, was released from prison in
January 1931.
In March of 1931, the Gandhi-Irwin Pact
was signed, and the government agreed
to set all political prisoners free
(Although, some of the key
revolutionaries were not set free and the
death sentence for Bhagat Singh and his
two comrades was not taken back which
further intensified the agitation against
Congress not only outside it but within
the Congress itself). In return, Gandhi
agreed to discontinue the civil
disobedience movement and participate
as the sole representative of the
Congress in the second Round Table
Conference, which was held in London in
September 1931. However, the
conference ended in failure in December
1931. Gandhi returned to India and
decided to resume the civil disobedience
movement in January 1932.
For the next few years, the Congress and
the government were locked in conflict
and negotiations until what became the
Government of India Act of 1935 could
be hammered out. By then, the rift
between the Congress and the Muslim
League had become unbridgeable as
each pointed the finger at the other
acrimoniously. The Muslim League
disputed the claim of the Congress to
represent all people of India, while the
Congress disputed the Muslim League's
claim to voice the aspirations of all
Muslims. hi
[] Elections and the Lahore resolutionJinnah with Gandhi, 1944.
The Government of India Act 1935, the
voluminous and final constitutional effort
at governing British India, articulated
three major goals: establishing a loose
federal structure, achieving provincial
autonomy, and safeguarding minority
interests through separate electorates.
The federal provisions, intended to unite
princely states and British India at the
centre, were not implemented because
of ambiguities in safeguarding the
existing privileges of princes. In February
1937, however, provincial autonomy
became a reality when elections were
held; the Congress emerged as the
dominant party with a clear majority in
five provinces and held an upper hand in
two, while the Muslim League performed
poorly.
13
In 1939, the Viceroy Linlithgow declared
India's entrance into World War II
without consulting provincial
governments. In protest, the Congress
asked all of its elected representatives to
resign from the government. Jinnah, the
president of the Muslim League,
persuaded participants at the annual
Muslim League session at Lahore in 1940
to adopt what later came to be known as
the Lahore Resolution , demanding the
division of India into two separate
sovereign states, one Muslim, the other
Hindu; sometimes referred to as Two
Nation Theory. Although the idea of
Pakistan had been introduced as early as
1930, very few had responded to it.
However, the volatile political climate
and hostilities between the Hindus and
Muslims transformed the idea of
Pakistan into a stronger demand.
[] Revolutionary activities
Apart from a few stray incidents, the
armed rebellion against the British rulers
was not organized before the beginning
of the 20th century. The Indian
revolutionary underground began
gathering momentum through the first
decade of 1900s, with groups arising in
Maharastra, Bengal, Orissa, Bihar, Uttar
Pradesh, Punjab, and the then Madras
Presidency including what is now called
South India. More groups were scattered
around India. Particularly notable
movements arose in Bengal, especially
around the Partition of Bengal in 1905,
and in Punjab.[19] In the former case, it
was the educated, intelligent and
dedicated youth of the urban Middle
Class Bhadralok community that came to
form the "Classic" Indian revolutionary,[19] while the latter had an immense
support base in the rural and Military
society of the Punjab. Organisations like
Jugantar and Anushilan Samiti had
emerged in the 1900s. The revolutionary
philosophies and movement made their
presence felt during the 1905 Partition of
Bengal. Arguably, the initial steps to
organize the revolutionaries were taken
by Aurobindo Ghosh, his brother Barin
Ghosh, Bhupendranath Datta etc. when
they formed the Jugantar party in April
1906.[20] Jugantar was created as an
inner circle of the Anushilan Samiti which
was already present in Bengal mainly as
a revolutionary society in the guise of a
fitness club.
The Anushilan Samiti and Jugantar
opened several branches throughout
Bengal and other parts of India and
recruited young men and women to
participate in the revolutionary activities.
Several murders and looting were done,
with many revolutionaries being
captured and imprisoned. The Jugantar
party leaders like Barin Ghosh and
Bagha Jatin initiated making of
explosives. Amongst a number of
notable events of political terrorism were
the Alipore bomb case, the Muzaffarpur
killing tried several activists and many
were sentenced to deportation for life,
while Khudiram Bose was hanged. The
14
founding of the India House and the The
Indian Sociologist under Shyamji Krishna
Varma in London in 1905 took the
radical movement to Britain itself. On 1
July 1909, Madan Lal Dhingra, an Indian
student closely identified with India
House in London shot dead William Hutt
Curzon Wylie, a British M.P. in London.
1912 saw the Delhi-Lahore Conspiracy
planned under Rash Behari Bose , an
erstwhile Jugantar member, to
assassinate the then Viceroy of India
Charles Hardinge. The conspiracy
culminated in an attempt to Bomb the
Viceregal procession on 23 December
1912, on the occasion of transferring the
Imperial Capital from Calcutta to Delhi.
In the aftermath of this event,
concentrated police and intelligence
efforts were made by the British Indian
police to destroy the Bengali and Punjabi
revolutionary underground, which came
under intense pressure for some time.
Rash Behari successfully evaded capture
for nearly three years. However, by the
time that WW I opened in Europe, the
revolutionary movement in Bengal (and
Punjab) had revived and was strong
enough to nearly paralyse the local
administration.[21][22]
During the First World War, the
revolutionaries planned to import arms
and ammunitions from Germany and
stage an armed revolution against the
British.[23]
The Ghadar Party operated from abroad
and cooperated with the revolutionaries
in India. This party was instrumental in
helping revolutionaries inside India catch
hold of foreign arms.
After the First World War, the
revolutionary activities began to slowly
wane as it suffered major setbacks due
to the arrest of prominent leaders. In the
1920s, some revolutionary activists
began to reorganize. Hindustan Socialist
Republican Association was formed
under the leadership of Chandrasekhar
Azad. Bhagat Singh and Batukeshwar
Dutt threw a bomb inside the Central
Legislative Assembly on 8 April 1929
protesting against the passage of the
Public Safety Bill and the Trade Disputes
Bill. Following the trial (Central Assembly
Bomb Case), Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev and
Rajguru were hanged in 1931. Allama
Mashriqi founded Khaksar Tehreek in
order to direct particularly the Muslims
towards the independence movement.[24]
Surya Sen, along with other activists,
raided the Chittagong armoury on 18
April 1930 to capture arms and
ammunition and to destroy government
communication system to establish a
local governance. Pritilata Waddedar led
an attack on a European club in
Chittagong in 1932, while Bina Das
attempted to assassinate Stanley
Jackson, the Governor of Bengal inside
the convocation hall of Calcutta
University. Following the Chittagong
armoury raid case, Surya Sen was
hanged and several others were
deported for life to the Cellular Jail in
15
Andaman. The Bengal Volunteers started
operating in 1928. On 8 December 1930,
the Benoy-Badal-Dinesh trio of the party
entered the secretariat Writers' Building
in Kolkata and murdered Col. N. S.
Simpson, the Inspector General of
Prisons.
On 13 March 1940 , Udham Singh shot
Michael O'Dwyer, generally held
responsible for the Amritsar Massacre, in
London. However, as the political
scenario changed in the late 1930s —
with the mainstream leaders considering
several options offered by the British and
with religious politics coming into play —
revolutionary activities gradually
declined. Many past revolutionaries
joined mainstream politics by joining
Congress and other parties, especially
communist ones, while many of the
activists were kept under hold in
different jails across the country.
[] The climax: War, Quit India, INA and Post-war revolts
Indians throughout the country were
divided over World War II, as Linlithgow,
without consulting the Indian
representatives had unilaterally declared
India a belligerent on the side of the
allies. In opposition to Linlithgow's
action, the entire Congress leadership
resigned from the local government
councils. However, many wanted to
support the British war effort, and indeed
the British Indian Army was one of the
largest volunteer forces during the war.
Especially during the Battle of Britain,
Gandhi resisted calls for massive civil
disobedience movements that came
from within as well as outside his party,
stating he did not seek India's freedom
out of the ashes of a destroyed Britain.
However, like the changing fortunes of
the war itself, the movement for
freedom saw the rise of two movements
that formed the climax of the 100-year
struggle for independence.
The first of these, the Azad Hind
movement led by Netaji Subhash
Chandra Bose, saw its inception early in
the war and sought help from the Axis
Powers. The second saw its inception in
August 1942 led by Gandhi and began
following failure of the Cripps' mission to
reach a consensus with the Indian
political leadership over the transfer of
power after the war.
[] The Indian National ArmySee also: Legion Freies Indien, Battaglione Azad Hindoustan, Capt. Mohan Singh, Indian Independence League, and INA trials
Jubilant INA and Japanese troops after capturing a post on the Indo-Burmese Border. Although largely ignored by post-Independence historians of India, the contributions of the Azad Hind movement are now considered significant.[25]
The arbitrary entry of India into the war
was strongly opposed by Subhash
Chandra Bose, who had been elected
President of the Congress twice, in 1937
and 1939. After lobbying against
participation in the war, he resigned
16
from Congress in 1939 and started a
new party, the All India Forward Bloc.
When war broke out, the Raj had put him
under house arrest in Calcutta in 1940.
However, at the time the war was at its
bloodiest in Europe and Asia, he escaped
and made his way through Afghanistan
to Germany to seek Axis help to raise an
army to fight the shackles of the Raj.
Here, he raised with Rommel's Indian
POWs what came to be known as the
Free India Legion. This came to be the
conceptualisation in embryonic form of
Bose's dream of raising a liberation Army
to fight the Raj. However, the turn of
tides in the Battlefields of Europe saw
Bose make his way ultimately to
Japanese South Asia where he formed
what came to be known as the Azad
Hind Government as the Provisional Free
Indian Government in exile, and
organized the Indian National Army with
Indian POWs and Indian expatriates at
South-East Asia, with the help of the
Japanese. Its aim was to reach India as a
fighting force that would build on public
resentment to inspire revolts among
Indian soldiers to defeat the Raj.
The INA was to see action against the
allies, including the British Indian Army,
in the forests of in Arakan, Burma and
Assam, laying siege on Imphal and
Kohima with the Japanese 15th Army.
During the war, the Andaman and
Nicobar islands were captured by the
Japanese and handed over by them to
the INA; Bose renamed them Shahid
(Martyr) and Swaraj (Independence).
The INA would ultimately fail, owing to
disrupted logistics, poor arms and
supplies from the Japanese, and lack of
support and training.[1] The supposed
death of Bose is seen as culmination of
the entire Azad Hind Movement.
Following the surrender of Japan, the
troops of the INA were brought to India
and a number of them charged with
treason. However, Bose's audacious
actions and radical initiative had by this
time captured the public imagination
and also turned the inclination of the
native soldiers of the British Indian
Forces from one of loyalty to the crown
to support for the soldiers that the Raj
deemed as collaborators.[26][27]
After the war, the stories of the Azad
Hind movement and its army that came
into public limelight during the trials of
soldiers of the INA in 1945 were seen as
so inflammatory that, fearing mass
revolts and uprisings — not just in India,
but across its empire — the British
Government forbade the BBC from
broadcasting their story.[28] Newspapers
reported the summary execution of INA
soldiers held at Red Fort.[29] During and
after the trial, mutinies broke out in the
British Indian Armed forces, most
notably in the Royal Indian Navy which
found public support throughout India,
from Karachi to Bombay and from Vizag
to Calcutta.[30][31][32] Many historians have
argued that it was the INA and the
17
mutinies it inspired among the British
Indian Armed forces that were the true
driving force behind India's final
independence.[33][34][35]
[] Quit India
The Quit India Movement (Bharat
Chhodo Andolan) or the August
Movement was a civil disobedience
movement in India launched in August
1942 in response to Gandhi's call for
immediate independence of India and
against sending Indians to the World War
II.
At the outbreak of war, the Congress
Party had during the Wardha meeting of
the working-committee in September
1939, passed a resolution conditionally
supporting the fight against fascism,[36]
but were rebuffed when they asked for
independence in return. In March 1942,
faced with an increasingly dissatisfied
sub-continent only reluctantly
participating in the war, and
deteriorations in the war situation in
Europe and South East Asia, and with
growing dissatisfactions among Indian
troops- especially in Europe- and among
the civilian population in the sub-
continent, the British government sent a
delegation to India under Stafford Cripps,
in what came to be known as the Cripps'
Mission. The purpose of the mission was
to negotiate with the Indian National
Congress a deal to obtain total co-
operation during the war, in return of
progressive devolution and distribution
of power from the crown and the Viceroy
to elected Indian legislature. However,
the talks failed, having failed to address
the key demand of a timeframe towards
self-government, and of definition of the
powers to be relinquished, essentially
portraying an offer of limited dominion-
status that was wholly unacceptable to
the Indian movement.[37] To force the Raj
to meet its demands and to obtain
definitive word on total independence,
the Congress took the decision to launch
the Quit India Movement.
The aim of the movement was to bring
the British Government to the
negotiating table by holding the Allied
War Effort hostage. The call for
determined but passive resistance that
signified the certitude that Gandhi
foresaw for the movement is best
described by his call to Do or Die, issued
on 8 August at the Gowalia Tank Maidan
in Bombay, since re-named August
Kranti Maidan (August Revolution
Ground). However, almost the entire
Congress leadership, and not merely at
the national level, was put into
confinement less than twenty-four hours
after Gandhi's speech, and the greater
number of the Congress khiland were to
spend the rest of the war in jail.
On August 8 , 1942 , the Quit India
resolution was passed at the Bombay
session of the All India Congress
Committee (AICC). The draft proposed
that if the British did not accede to the
demands, a massive Civil Disobedience
would be launched. However, it was an
18
extremely controversial decision. At
Gowalia Tank, Mumbai, Gandhi urged
Indians to follow a non-violent civil
disobedience. Gandhi told the masses to
act as an independent nation and not to
follow the orders of the British. The
British, already alarmed by the advance
of the Japanese army to the India–Burma
border, responded the next day by
imprisoning Gandhi at the Aga Khan
Palace in Pune. The Congress Party's
Working Committee, or national
leadership was arrested all together and
imprisoned at the Ahmednagar Fort.
They also banned the party altogether.
Large-scale protests and demonstrations
were held all over the country. Workers
remained absent en masse and strikes
were called. The movement also saw
widespread acts of sabotage, Indian
under-ground organisation carried out
bomb attacks on allied supply convoys,
government buildings were set on fire,
electricity lines were disconnected and
transport and communication lines were
severed. The Congress had lesser
success in rallying other political forces,
including the Muslim League under a
single mast and movement. It did
however, obtain passive support from a
substantial Muslim population at the
peak of the movement.
The British swiftly responded by mass
detentions. A total over 100,000 arrests
were made nationwide, mass fines were
levied, bombs were airdropped and
demonstrators were subjected to public
flogging.
The movement soon became a
leaderless act of defiance, with a
number of acts that deviated from
Gandhi's principle of non-violence. In
large parts of the country, the local
underground organisations took over the
movement. However, by 1943, Quit India
had petered out.
[] RIN Mutiny
The Royal Indian Navy Mutiny (the RIN
Mutiny or the Bombay Mutiny)
encompasses a total strike and
subsequent mutiny by the Indian sailors
of the Royal Indian Navy on board ship
and shore establishments at Bombay
(Mumbai) harbor on 18 February 1946.
From the initial flashpoint in Bombay,
the mutiny spread and found support
through India, from Karachi to Calcutta
and ultimately came to involve 78 ships,
20 shore establishments and 20,000
sailors.
The RIN Mutiny started as a strike by
ratings of the Royal Indian Navy on the
18th February in protest against general
conditions. The immediate issues of the
mutiny were conditions and food, but
there were more fundamental matters
such as racist behaviour by British
officers of the Royal Navy personnel
towards Indian sailors, and disciplinary
measures being taken against anyone
demonstrating pro-nationalist
sympathies. By dusk on 19 February, a
Naval Central Strike committee was 19
elected. Leading Signalman M.S Khan
and Petty Officer Telegraphist Madan
Singh were unanimously elected
President and Vice-President
respectively..[38] The strike found
immense support among the Indian
population already in grips with the
stories of the Indian National Army. The
actions of the mutineers were supported
by demonstrations which included a one-
day general strike in Bombay. The strike
spread to other cities, and was joined by
the Air Force and local police forces.
Naval officers and men began calling
themselves the Indian National Navy and
offered left-handed salutes to British
officers. At some places, NCOs in the
British Indian Army ignored and defied
orders from British superiors. In Madras
and Pune, the British garrisons had to
face revolts within the ranks of the
British Indian Army. Widespread rioting
took place from Karachi to Calcutta.
Famously the ships hoisted three flags
tied together — those of the Congress,
Muslim League, and the Red Flag of the
Communist Party of India (CPI),
signifying the unity and
demarginalisation of communal issues
among the mutineers.
[] Independence, 1947 to 1950Transfer of power, 15 August 1947.
On 3 June 1947, Viscount Louis
Mountbatten, the last British Governor-
General of India, announced the
partitioning of the British Indian Empire
into a secular India and a Muslim
Pakistan. On 14 August 1947, Pakistan
was declared a separate nation from
them. At midnight, on 15 August 1947,
India became an independent nation.
Violent clashes between Hindus,
Muslims, and Sikhs followed. Prime
Minister Nehru and Deputy Prime
Minister Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel invited
Mountbatten to continue as Governor
General of India. He was replaced in June
1948 by Chakravarti Rajagopalachari.
Patel took on the responsibility of
unifying 565 princely states, steering
efforts by his “iron fist in a velvet glove”
policies, exemplified by the use of
military force to integrate Junagadh,
Jammu and Kashmir, and Hyderabad
state (Operation Polo) into India.
The Constituent Assembly completed the
work of drafting the constitution on 26
November 1949; on 26 January 1950 the
Republic of India was officially
proclaimed. The Constituent Assembly
elected Dr. Rajendra Prasad as the first
President of India, taking over from
Governor General Rajgopalachari.
Subsequently, a free and sovereign India
absorbed three other territories: Goa
(from Portuguese control in 1961),
Pondicherry (which the French ceded in
1953–1954) and Sikkim which was
absorbed in 1975. In 1952, India held its
first general elections, with a voter
turnout exceeding 62%.
20
The Republic of India has fought three
wars and one major incursion battle with
Pakistan and one border war with China.
[] Major wars
[] First Indo-Pak war, 1947
Independent India, formed on August 15,
1947, has seen three wars with Pakistan
(1947-48, 1965, 1971). The first war took
place after Pakistani soldiers and armed
tribesmen invaded the independent
province of Kashmir. When the forces
almost reached the capital Srinagar the
Maharaja, Hari Singh, and the
democratically elected Prime Minister of
Kashmir, Sheikh Abdullah, signed an
agreement with India in which all
Kashmiri lands were ceded to India. India
sent their troops in shortly after and
freed a majority of the new Indian state
of Jammu and Kashmir from Pakistani
infiltrators.
The Indo-Pakistani War of 1947,
sometimes known as the First Kashmir
War, was fought between India and
Pakistan over the region of Kashmir from
1947 to 1948. It was the first of four
wars fought between the two newly
independent nations. The result of the
war still affects the geopolitics of both
the countries. The British made Gulab
Singh the first Maharaja of the princely
state of Jammu and Kashmir, after they
defeated the Sikh during the First Anglo-
Sikh War (1845-46) and signed the
Treaty of Lahore in 1846.[6] Gulab Singh
founded a dynasty, the Royal House of
Jammu and Kashmir, that was to rule the
state, the second-largest principality
under the British Raj, until India gained
its independence in 1947.
Prior to the withdrawal of the British
from India, the state came under
pressure from both India and Pakistan to
join them. The Maharaja of Kashmir, Hari
Singh wanted to remain independent
and tried to delay the issue. However at
the time of British withdrawal the state
was invaded by tribals from the North
West Frontier Province (NWFP) and
regular Pakistani soldiers. The Maharaja
then decided to accede Kashmir to
secular India, which sent troops to
safeguard the Kashmir border. The
legitimacy of the accession is still
disputed by the Pakistanis.
According to the instruments of partition
of India, the rulers of princely states
were given the choice to freely accede to
either India or Pakistan. Thay were also
asked to take into account the
demographic nature, history, geography
and future prospects their subjects into
consideration. Raja Hari Singh, ruler of
Kashmir, acceded to India. Due to a lack
of demographic data concerning
religious affiliations, it is difficult to
determine whether public opinion was a
factor Raja Hari Singhs' decision.
[] Summary of war
AZK (Azad Kashmir) forces (Azad in Urdu
means liberated or free) are the local
militia supported by the Pakistanis. The
21
AZK had several advantages in the war,
notably:
Prior to the war the Jammu and Kashmir state forces had been spread thinly around the border as a response to militant activity, and so were badly deployed to counter a full scale invasion.
Some of the state forces joined AZK forces.
The AZK were also aided by regular Pakistani soldiers who manned some of their units, with the proportion increasing throughout the war.
As a result of these advantages the main
invasion force quickly brushed aside the
Jammu and Kashmir state forces. But the
attacker’s advantage was not vigorously
pressed and the Indians halted the
offensive by airlifting reinforcements.
This was at the price of the state
formally acceding to India. With Indian
reinforcements the Pakistani / AZK
offensive ran out of steam towards the
end of 1947. The exception to this was in
the High Himalayas sector where the
AZK were able to make substantial
progress until turned back at the
outskirts of Leh in late June 1948.
Throughout 1948 many small-scale
battles were fought. None of these gave
a strategic advantage to either side and
the fronts gradually solidified. Support
for the AZK forces by Pakistan became
gradually more overt with regular
Pakistani units becoming involved. A
formal cease-fire was declared on 31
December 1948.
[] Sino-Indian war, 1962
The Sino-Indian War (simplified
Chinese: 中印边境战争; traditional
Chinese: 中印邊境戰爭; pinyin: Zhōng-Yìn
Biānjìng Zhànzhēng; Hindi: भा�रत-ची�न युद्ध
Bhārat-Chīn Yuddh), also known as the
Sino-Indian Border Conflict, was a
war between People's Republic of China
and India. The initial cause of the conflict
was a disputed region of the Himalayan
border in Arunachal Pradesh, known in
China as South Tibet. Fighting began on
20 October 1962 between the People's
Liberation Army and the Military of India.
The conflict coincided closely with the
Cuban Missile Crisis which began in
October 1962. The first heavy
engagement of the war was a Chinese
attack on an Indian patrol north of the
McMahon Line.[10] The conflict eventually
widened to include the region of Aksai
Chin which the PRC regarded as a
strategic link, via the China National
Highway route G219, between the
Chinese-administered territories of Tibet
and Xinjiang. The war ended when the
Chinese captured both disputed areas
and unilaterally declared a ceasefire on
20 November 1962, which went into
effect at midnight. At present china
controls askai chin an area claimed by
india whereas india controls arunachal
pradesh (north east frontier agency).
parts of arunachal pradesh are claimed
by china as "south tibet".
The Sino-Indian War is notable for the
harsh conditions under which much of
the fighting took place, entailling large-
22
scale combat at altitudes of over 4250
metres (14,000 feet).[10] This presented
enormous logistical problems for both
sides. The Sino-Indian War was also
noted for the non-use of navy and
airforce by both the Chinese and Indian
sides.
The aftermath of the war saw sweeping
changes in the Indian military to prepare
it for similar conflicts in the future, and
placed pressure on Indian prime minister
Jawaharlal Nehru, who was seen as
responsible for failing to anticipate the
Chinese invasion.
Location
China and India share a long border,
sectioned into three stretches by Nepal
and Bhutan, which follows the Himalayan
mountains between Burma and what
was then East Pakistan. A number of
disputed regions lie along this border. At
its western end is the Aksai Chin region,
an area the size of Switzerland, that sits
between the Chinese "autonomous
region" of Xinjiang, and Tibet (which
China was in the process of subduing
and which in 1965 would itself be
declared an "autonomous region"). The
eastern border, between Burma and
Bhutan, comprises the present Indian
state of Arunachal Pradesh (formerly the
North East Frontier Agency). Both of
these regions were overrun by China in
the 1962 conflict.
Most combat took place at high
altitudes. The Aksai Chin region is a vast
desert of salt flats around 5000 metres
above sea level, and Arunachal Pradesh
is extremely mountainous with a number
of peaks exceeding 7000 metres.
According to military doctrine, to be
successful an attacker generally requires
a 3:1 ratio of numerical superiority over
the defender; in mountain warfare this
ratio should be considerably higher as
the terrain favours defense. At the
beginning of the war China took full
advantage of this: the Chinese Army had
possession of the highest ridges in the
regions. The high altitude and freezing
conditions also cause logistical and
welfare difficulties; in past similar
conflicts (such as the Italian Campaign of
World War I) more casualties have been
caused by the harsh conditions than
enemy action. The Sino-Indian War was
no different, with many troops on both
sides dying in the freezing cold.[12]
[] BackgroundBritish map published in 1909 showing the Indo-Tibetan traditional border
The cause of the war was a dispute over
the sovereignty of the widely-separated
Aksai Chin and Arunachal Pradesh
border regions. Aksai Chin, claimed by
India to belong to Kashmir and by China
to be part of Xinjiang, contains an
important road link that connects the
Chinese regions of Tibet and Xinjiang.
China's construction of this road was one
of the triggers of the conflict. Arunachal
Pradesh (called South Tibet by China) is
also claimed by both nations—although
23
it is roughly the size of Austria, it is
sparsely inhabited (by numerous local
tribes) due to its mountainous terrain.
United States intervention
The PLA penetrated close to the outskirts
of Tezpur, Assam, a major frontier town
nearly fifty kilometers from the Assam-
North-East Frontier Agency border. [6]
The local government ordered the
evacuation of the civilians in Tezpur to
the south of the Brahmaputra River, all
prisons were thrown open, and
government officials who stayed behind
destroyed Tezpur's currency reserves in
anticipation of a Chinese advance.[7]
On the evening of November 20, Nehru,
seeing the disintegration of his own
armies, made an appeal to the United
States, for armed aid, including
airstrikes, if Chinese forces continued to
advance, and air cover, in case of raids
by the Chinese air force. With the
Chinese outnumbering every Indian
division and faced with the idea of
bombing on Indian towns, the United
States Navy ordered an aircraft carrier to
the Bay of Bengal due to reach there in
late November.
China had reached its claim lines so the
PLA did not advance farther, and on
November 19 it declared a unilateral
cease-fire. Zhou Enlai declared a
unilateral ceasefire to start on midnight,
November 21. Zhou's ceasefire
declaration stated,
Beginning from November 21, 1962, the
Chinese frontier guards will cease fire
along the entire Sino-Indian border.
Beginning from December 1, 1962, the
Chinese frontier guards will withdraw to
positions 20 kilometers behind the line
of actual control which existed between
China and India on November 7, 1959. In
the eastern sector, although the Chinese
frontier guards have so far been fighting
on Chinese territory north of the
traditional customary line, they are
prepared to withdraw from their present
positions to the north of the illegal
McMahon Line, and to withdraw twenty
kilometers back from that line. In the
middle and western sectors, the Chinese
frontier guards will withdraw twenty
kilometers from the line of actual
control.
Aftermath[] China
According to the PLA's official military
history, the war achieved China's policy
objectives of defeating the Indian forces
and securing peaceful borders in the
western sector, as China retained de
facto control of the Aksai Chin. After the
war, India abandoned the Forward
Policy, and the de facto borders
stabilized along the Line of Actual
Control.
Published scholarship in China is still
expected to explain and justify, not to
criticize, the decisions of the Chinese
Communist Party, at least on such
sensitive matters as war.[2] Chinese
24
publications on the war themselves do
not mention specific dates or events and
use generalized terms. The first book-
length analysis of the war from China
which was allowed to be sold was
published in 1993.[2]
[] India
After India was swiftly defeated by China
memorials were erected for the Indian
troops who died in the war. Arguably,
the main lesson India learned from the
war was the need to strengthen its own
defenses. The country could no longer
follow Nehru's trusting polemics of
"Hindi-Chini bhai-bhai" and non-violent
peace. Because of India's inability to
sense danger, Prime Minister Nehru
faced harsh accusations from
government officials, as he was the one
who had promoted good relations with
China.[6] Indians in general became
highly skeptical of China and its military.
Many Indians view the war as a betrayal
of India's attempts at establishing a
long-standing peace with China. The war
also put an end to Nehru's earlier hopes
that India and China would form a strong
Asian Axis to counteract the increasing
influence of the Cold War superpowers.[2]
The unpreparedness of the army was
blamed on Defense Minister Menon, who
resigned his government post to allow
for someone who might modernize
India's military further. India's policy of
weaponization via indigenous sources
and self-sufficiency was thus cemented.
Sensing a weakened army, Pakistan, a
close ally of China, initiated the Second
Kashmir War with India in 1965, however
this war was still indecisive and led to
cease fire.[61] Two years later in 1967,
there was a short border skirmish,
dubbed "Chola Incident" by India,
between PLA troops and Indian troops,
which went more favourably for India.[62]
The Indian government commissioned
an investigation, resulting in the
classified Henderson-Brooks-Bhagat
Report on the causes of the war and the
reasons for failure. India's performance
in high-altitude combat in 1962 led to an
overhaul of the Indian Army in terms of
doctrine, training, organization and
equipment. By 1964, India's military
manpower had doubled.[10]
[] Later skirmishes
Indian media also declared a series of
skirmishes after the 1962's war, but
never been confirmed by Chinese or
international media. One report is that:
In late 1967, there were two skirmishes
between Indian and Chinese forces in
Sikkim. The first one was dubbed the
"Nathu La incident", and the other the
"Chola incident". Prior to these incidents
had been the Naxalbari uprising in India
by the Communist Naxalites and
Maoists.[63]
Also Indian media declared on 11th
September 1967, Chinese troops opened
fire on Indian troops who were protecting
an Engineering Company in Nathula. The
conflict escalated over the next five days
25
to an exchange of heavy artillery and
mortar fire between the Indians and the
Chinese. 62 Indian soldiers were killed as
the Indians drove back the Chinese
forces.[64][65][66][67][68] The extent of Chinese
casualties in this incident is not known.
As Indian side's report,a similar incident
occurred in 1984, when squads of Indian
soldiers began actively patrolling the
Sumdorong Chu Valley in Arunachal
Pradesh in a move to industrialize the
region.[26][69][70][71][72] The Indian team left
the area before the winter.[26] In the
winter of 1986, the Chinese deployed
their troops to the Sumdorong Chu
before the Indian team could arrive in
the summer and built a helipad.[73]
However, after being quickly deployed to
the valley, the Indian Army was
successful in shocking the Chinese in
Sumdorong Chu reported by some Indian
Media.[74][75] Chinese troops were forced
to move sideways along the Thag La
ridge, away from the valley. The Army's
strong response was regarded as the
exorcism of the ghost of 1962.[76] By
1987, Beijing's tone becoming ominously
similar to that in 1962 and this prompted
many Western diplomats to predict war.
For logistical and tactical considerations
the Chinese focused on the September
7, 1993 “Peace and Tranquility along the
LAC Agreement” with India.
Summary India fought a border war
against China (1962). China won the
border skirmish, leading India to revamp
the entire military system. After the war
ended, the Department of Defence
Production was set up to create an
indigenous defense production base
which is self-reliant and self-sufficient.
Since 1962, 16 new ordinance factories
have been set up.
[] Second Indo-Pak war, 1965
The Indo-Pakistani War of 1965 was a
culmination of skirmishes that took place
between April 1965 and September 1965
between India and Pakistan. This conflict
became known as the Second Kashmir
War fought by India and Pakistan over
the disputed region of Kashmir, the first
having been fought in 1947. The war
began following the failure of Pakistan's
Operation Gibraltar, which was designed
to infiltrate and invade Jammu and
Kashmir. The five-week war caused
thousands of casualties on both sides. It
ended in a United Nations (UN)
mandated ceasefire and the subsequent
issuance of the Tashkent Declaration .
Much of the war was fought by the
countries' land forces in Kashmir and
along the International Border between
India and Pakistan. This war saw the
largest amassing of troops in Kashmir
since the Partition of India in 1947, a
number that was overshadowed only
during the 2001-2002 military standoffs
between India and Pakistan. Most of the
battles were fought by opposing infantry
and armored units, with substantial
backing from air forces. Many details of
this war, like those of other Indo-
26
Pakistani Wars, remain unclear and
many media reports have been riddled
with media biases.
On August 15, 1965, Indian forces
crossed the ceasefire line and launched
an attack on the region referred to by
the disputants as either "Azad Kashmir"
or "Pakistan-occupied Kashmir".
Pakistani reports cite this attack as
unprovoked.[9] Indian reports cite the
attack as a response to massive armed
infiltrations of Kashmir by Pakistan.[10]
Initially, the Indian Army met with
considerable success, capturing three
important mountain positions after a
prolonged artillery barrage. By the end
of August, however, both sides had
experienced successes; Pakistan had
made progress in areas such as Tithwal,
Uri and Punch and India had captured
the Haji Pir Pass, eight kilometers inside
Pakistani-administered territory.[11]
On September 1, 1965, Pakistan
launched a counterattack, called
"Operation Grand Slam", with the
objective to capture the vital town of
Akhnoor in Jammu, which would sever
communications and cut off supply
routes to Indian troops. Attacking with
an overwhelming ratio of troops and
technically superior tanks, Pakistan
initially progressed against Indian forces,
who were caught unprepared and
suffered heavy losses.[11] India
responded by calling in its air force to
blunt the Pakistani attack. The next day,
Pakistan retaliated, its air force attacked
Indian forces and air bases in both
Kashmir and Punjab. Although Operation
Grand Slam ultimately failed, as the
Pakistan Army was unable to capture
Akhnoor, it became one of the turning
points in the war when India decided to
relieve pressure on its troops in Kashmir
by attacking Pakistan further south.
Pakistan's Ichogil Canal was a vital barrier that needed to be crossed by Indian troops. This bridge across the canal was destroyed by the Pakistan Army before retreating.
India crossed the International Border on
the Western front on September 6,
marking an official beginning of the war.[9] On September 6, the 15th Infantry
Division of the Indian Army, under World
War II veteran Major General Prasad,
battled a massive counterattack by
Pakistan near the west bank of the
Ichogil Canal (BRB Canal), which was a
de facto border of India and Pakistan.
The General's entourage itself was
ambushed and he was forced to flee his
vehicle. A second, this time successful,
attempt to cross the Ichhogil Canal was
made over the bridge in the village of
Barki, just east of Lahore. These
developments brought the Indian Army
within the range of Lahore International
Airport. As a result, the United States
requested a temporary ceasefire to allow
it to evacuate its citizens in Lahore.
One unit of the Jat regiment, 3 Jat, had
also crossed the Ichogil canal and
captured[12] the town of Batapore (Jallo
Mur to Pakistan) on the west side of the 27
canal. The same day, a counter offensive
consisting of an armored division and
infantry division supported by Pakistan
Air Force Sabres forced the Indian 15th
Division to withdraw to its starting point.
Although 3 Jat suffered minimal
casualties, the bulk of the damage being
taken by ammunition and stores
vehicles, the higher commanders had no
information of 3 Jat's capture of
Batapore and misleading information led
to the command to withdraw from
Batapore and Dograi to Ghosal-Dial. This
move brought extreme
disappointment[13] to Lt-Col Desmond
Hayde, CO of 3 Jat. Dograi was
eventually recaptured by 3 Jat on 21
September, for the second time but after
a much harder battle due to Pakistani
reinforcements.
Lt. Col. Hari Singh of the Indian 18th Cavalry posing outside a captured Pakistani police station (Barkee) in Lahore District.
On the days following September 9, both
nations' premiere formations were
routed in unequal battles. India's 1st
Armored Division, labelled the "pride of
the Indian Army", launched an offensive
towards Sialkot. The Division divided
itself into two prongs, came under heavy
Pakistani tank fire at Taroah and was
forced to withdraw. Similarly, Pakistan's
pride, the 1st Armored Division, pushed
an offensive towards Khemkaran, with
the intent to capture Amritsar (a major
city in Punjab, India) and the bridge on
River Beas to Jalandhar. The Pakistani
1st Armored Division never made it past
Khem Karan, however, and by the end of
September 10 lay disintegrated under
the defences of the Indian 4th Mountain
Division at what is now known as the
Battle of Asal Uttar (Real Answer
literally, or Fitting Response as the more
appropriate English equivalent). The
area became known as 'Patton Nagar'
(Patton Town) as Pakistan lost or
abandoned nearly 100 mostly US-made
Patton tanks.
The war was heading for a stalemate,
with both nations holding territory of the
other. The Indian army suffered 3,000
battlefield deaths, while Pakistan
suffered no less than 3,800. The Indian
army was in possession of 710 mile²
(1,840 km²) of Pakistani territory and the
Pakistan army held 210 mile² (545 km²)
of Indian territory. The territory occupied
by India was mainly in the fertile Sialkot,
Lahore and Kashmir sectors,[14] while
Pakistani land gains were primarily in
deserts opposite Sindh and in Chumb, in
the northern sector.[15]
[edit] Involvement of other nations
The United States of America, which had
previously supplied military equipment
to India and Pakistan, imposed an
embargo against further supplies to both
countries once the war had started. The
US was apprehensive that military
equipment that it had provided to be
used in a battle against communism,
28
would instead be used by the countries
to fight one another. The American
embargo especially affected Pakistan
since the majority of its equipment was
provided by America. This would cause
Pakistan to believe that it could not
continue the war beyond September.[62]
Following imposition of the American
embargo, other NATO allies (including
the UK) discontinued providing military
equipment to the nations.
Both before and during the war, China
had been a major military associate of
Pakistan and had invariably admonished
India, with whom it had fought a war in
1962. There were also reports of Chinese
troop movements on the Indian border
to support Pakistan.[63] As such, India
agreed to the UN mandate in order to
avoid a war on both borders.
India's participation in the Non-Aligned
Movement yielded little support from its
members. Pakistan, however, gained
assistance from countries of Asia with
large Islamic populations, including
Turkey, Iran and Indonesia. The USSR
was more neutral than most other
nations during the war and even invited
both nations to talks that it would host in
Tashkent.
Consequences of the war[India
The war had created a tense state of
affairs in its aftermath. Though the war
was indecisive, Pakistan suffered much
heavier material and personnel
casualties compared to India. Many war
historians believe that had the war
continued, with growing loss and
decreasing supplies, Pakistan would
have been eventually defeated. India's
decision to declare ceasefire with
Pakistan caused some outrage among
the Indian populace, who believed they
had the upper hand.
India continued to increase its defense
spending after the war. The Indian
Military, which was already undergoing
rapid expansions, made improvements
in command and control to address
some shortcomings. Partly as a result of
the inefficient information gathering
preceding the war, India established the
Research and Analysis Wing for external
espionage and intelligence.
India viewed the American policy during
the war as biased, since Pakistan had
started the war but the US did little to
restrain Pakistan.[64] After the war, India
slowly started aligning with the Soviet
Union, both politically and militarily. This
would be cemented formally years later
before the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971.
In light of the failures of the previous war
against the Chinese, the performance in
this war was viewed as a "politico-
strategic" victory in India. The Indian
premier, Shastri was hailed as a hero in
India.[65]
Pakistan
At the conclusion of the war, many
Pakistanis considered the performance
29
of their military to be positive.
September 6 is celebrated as 'Defence
Day' in Pakistan, in commemoration of
the successful defence of Lahore against
the Indian army. The performance of the
Pakistani Air Force, in particular, was
praised.
The myth of a mobile, hard hitting
Pakistan Army, however, was badly
dented in the war, as critical
breakthroughs were not made.[66]
Several Pakistani writers criticized the
military's ill-founded belief that their
"Martial Race" of soldiers could defeat
India in the war.[67][68] Moreover, Pakistan
had lost more ground than it had gained
during the war and, more importantly,
failed to achieve its goal of occupying
Kashmir; this result has been viewed by
many impartial observers as a defeat for
Pakistan.[69][70][71]
Many high ranking Pakistani officials and
military experts later criticized the faulty
planning of Operation Gibraltar that
ultimately led to the war. The Tashkent
declaration was also criticized in
Pakistan, though few citizens realised
the gravity of the situation that existed
at the end of the war.
Political leaders were also criticized.
Following the advice of Zulfikar Ali
Bhutto, Pakistan's foreign minister, Ayub
Khan had raised very high expectations
among the people of Pakistan about the
superiority - if not invincibility - of its
armed forces,[72] but Pakistan's inability
to attain its military aims during the war,
created a political liability for Ayub.[73]
The defeat of its Kashmiri ambitions in
the war led to the army's invincibility
being challenged by an increasingly
vocal opposition.[74] And with the war
creating a huge financial burden,
Pakistan's economy, which had
witnessed rapid progress in the early
60s, took a severe beating.[75][76]
Pakistan was surprised by the lack of
support by the United States, an ally
with whom the country had signed an
Agreement of Cooperation. USA declared
its neutrality in the war by cutting off
military supplies to both sides,[7] leading
Islamabad to believe that they were
"betrayed" by the United States.[77] After
the war, Pakistan would increasingly look
towards China as a major source of
military hardware and political support.
Another negative consequence of the
war was the growing resentment against
the Pakistani government in East
Pakistan(present day Bangladesh),
particularly for West Pakistan's
obsession with Kashmir.[78] Bengali
leaders accused the central government
of not providing adequate security for
East Pakistan during the conflict, even
though large sums of money were taken
from the east to finance the war for
Kashmir.[79] In fact, despite some
Pakistan Air Force attacks being
launched from bases in East Pakistan
during the war, India did not retaliate in
that sector,[80] although East Pakistan
30
was defended only by a two-infantry
brigade division (14 Division) without
any tank support.[81] Sheikh Mujibur
Rahman was critical of the disparity in
military resources deployed in East and
West Pakistan, calling for greater
autonomy for East Pakistan, which
ultimately led to the Bangladesh
Liberation war and another war between
India and Pakistan in 1971.
The second Indo-Pak war was also fought
over Kashmir issue. It ended in with
Indian forces gaining chunks of lands all
around except Punjab where it was even.
USSR interfered and got the truce
between the two nations at Tashkent
agreement, which also saw the
mysterious death of Indian PM Lal
Bahadur Shastri. At the same time, there
was the possibility of a second Sino-
Indian war along the Nathu La Pass in
Sikkim [2].
Ten battalions of the Sikh Regiment saw
action in the 1965 war. In a bid to seal
off routes of infiltrations for the
Pakistanis in J & K, 1 Sikh who were in
the Tithwal sector attacked Pakistani
positions . A company led by Major
Somesh Kapur captured Richhmar Ridge
on 24 August 1965 and then attacked
and captured the Pir Sahiba feature on
the night of 25/26 August. From this
feature the Indian troops could now
overlook an extensive area under
Pakistan control. Through out
September, Pakistani troops tried hard to
recapture this feature but were
unsuccessful. 1 Sikh received 3 Vir
Chakras ( Major Somesh Kapur and L/
Havildar Gurdev Singh and Sepoy
Gurmel Singh (posth.)) for these
operations .
[] The Chola Incident
The 1967 Sino-Indian skirmish also
known as the Chola incident, was a
day-long battle between Indian troops
and members of the Chinese People's
Liberation Army in Sikkim.[1] The conflict
ran from October 1 to October 2 1967.[1]
The skirmish occurred in the country of
Sikkim. India was responsible for the
defense of Sikkim at that time. The
region is one of high altitudes and thus
mountainous maneuvers were crucial in
battle. Early Chinese positions in regions
of higher altitudes would thus have
provided them with an advantage. To
reclaim high ground would generally
require a higher ratio of attackers to
defenders.
[edit] BackgroundMain articles: Sino-Indian relations, McMahon Line, and Sino-Indian War
China has claimed that the McMahon
Line created by Britain in NEFA was
illegal. Thus they claimed the territory of
Sikkim as part of South Tibet, a part of
China. [2] Since then, China has accepted
Sikkim as part of India that it refused to
do earlier. [3]
31
A Sino-India skirmish took place in 1967
and is known today as the Chola
Incident.
[] Third Indo-Pak war, 1971
The Indo-Pakistani conflict was sparked
by the Bangladesh Liberation war, a
conflict between the traditionally
dominant West Pakistanis and the
majority East Pakistanis. The Bangladesh
Liberation war ignited after the 1970
Pakistani election, in which the East
Pakistani Awami League won 167 of 169
seats in East Pakistan and secured a
simple majority in the 313-seat lower
house of the Majlis-e-Shoora (Parliament
of Pakistan). Awami League leader,
Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, presented the
Six Points to the President of Pakistan
and claimed the right to form the
government. After the leader of the
Pakistan Peoples Party, Zulfikar Ali
Bhutto, refused to yield the premiership
of Pakistan to Mujibur, President Yahya
Khan called out the military, which was
made up largely of West Pakistanis.
Mass arrests of dissidents began, and
attempts were made to disarm East
Pakistani soldiers and police. After
several days of strikes and non-
cooperation movements, the Pakistani
military cracked down on Dhaka on the
night of March 25, 1971. The Awami
League was banished, and many
members fled into exile in India. Mujib
was arrested and taken to West
Pakistan.
On 27 March 1971, Ziaur Rahman, a
rebellious major in the Pakistani army,
declared the independence of
Bangladesh on behalf of Mujibur. In April,
exiled Awami League leaders formed a
government-in-exile in Boiddonathtola of
Meherpur. The East Pakistan Rifles, an
elite paramilitary force, defected to the
rebellion. A guerrilla troop of civilians,
the Mukti Bahini, was formed to help the
Bangladesh Army.
The Indo-Pakistani War of 1971 was a
major military conflict between India and
Pakistan. The war is closely associated
with the Bangladesh Liberation War
(sometimes also referred to as the
Pakistani Civil War). Although there is
some disagreement about the exact
dates of the war, hostilities between
India and Pakistan commenced officially
on the evening of December 3, 1971.
The armed conflict on India's western
front during the period between 3
December 1971 and 16 December 1971
is called the "Indo-Pakistani War" by
both the Bangladeshi and Indian armies.
The war ended in the surrender of the
Pakistani military after armed hostilities
on two fronts.
In the third Indo-Pak war, India
intervened decisively in what was then
East Pakistan due to the mass exodus of
refugees to India following West
Pakistani military action there. The new
nation of Bangladesh was created as a
result. India succeeded in removing
Pakistani soldiers from what is now
32
known as "East Pakistan" resulting in the
formation of Bangladesh. This conflict is
often cited as India's greatest military
victory, but also among the greatest
genocides of the 20th century wherein
Pakistani forces slaughtered anywhere
from 1 million to 3 million Bangladeshi's,
the vast majority being Hindu.
[] Siachin war, 1984
The Siachin war between India and
Pakistan occurred in 1984. The area of
the dispute was the Siachen Glacier - the
world's highest battlefield. The Glacier
was under territorial dispute, but in the
late 1970s and early 1980s, Pakistan
began organizing several tourist
expeditions to the Glacier. India, irked by
this development, mounted Operation
Meghdoot, and captured the top of the
Glacier by establishing a military base
which it still maintains to this day at a
cost of more than US$1 million per day.[1]
Pakistan on the other hand spends just
under US$1 million per day, though as %
of GDP Pakistan spends 5 times as the
Indian Military does to maintain its share
of the glacier.[2] Pakistan tried in 1987
and in 1989 to re-take the Glacier but
was unsuccessful. A stalemate has arose
where India controls the top part of the
Glacier and Pakistan is placed at the
bottom of the Glacier.
In the 1970s and early 1980s several
mountaineering expeditions applied to
Pakistan to climb high peaks in the
Siachen area as U.S army maps
deliberately showed it on Pakistani side
of the Line of Control, and Pakistan
granted them. This in turn reinforced the
Pakistani claim on the area, as these
expeditions arrived on the glacier with a
permit obtained from the Government of
Pakistan. Teram Kangri I
(7,465 m/24,490 ft) and Teram Kangri II
(7,406 m/24,300 ft) were climbed in
1975 by a Japanese expedition led by H.
Katayama, which approached through
Pakistan via the Bilafond La.[6] Once
having become aware of this and the
errant US military maps, Colonel N.
Kumar of the Indian Army, then
commanding the Army's High-Altitude
Warfare School, mounted an Army
expedition to the Siachen area as a
counter-exercise. In 1978 this expedition
climbed Teram Kangri II, claiming it as a
first ascent in a typical 'oropolitical'
riposte. Unusually for the normally
secretive Indian Army, the news and
photographs of this expedition were
published in 'The Illustrated Weekly of
India', a widely-circulated popular
magazine.[7]
The first public mention of a possible
conflict situation in the Siachen was an
abbreviated article titled "High Politics in
the Karakoram" by Joydeep Sircar in The
Telegraph newspaper of Calcutta in
1982[8]. The full text was printed as
"Oropolitics" in the Alpine Journal,
London, in 1984.[9]
India launched Operation Meghdoot
(named after the divine cloud messenger
33
in a Sanskrit play by Kalidasa) on 13
April 1984 when the Kumaon Regiment
of the Indian Army and the Indian Air
Force went into the glacier region.
Pakistan quickly responded with troop
deployments and what followed was
literally a race to the top. Within a few
days, the Indians were in control over
most of the area, as Pakistan was beaten
to most of the Saltoro Ridge high ground
by about a week. The two northern
passes - Sia La and Bilafond La - were
quickly secured by India. In his memoirs,
current Pakistani president, General
Pervez Musharraf states that Pakistan
lost almost 900 square miles (2,300 km2)
of territory.[10] TIME states that the Indian
advance captured nearly 1,000 square
miles (2,600 km2) of territory claimed by
Pakistan.[11] Since then Pakistan has
launched several attempts to displace
the Indian forces, but with little success.
The most well known was in 1987, when
an attempt was made by Pakistan to
dislodge India from the area. The attack
was masterminded by Pervez Musharraf
(later President of Pakistan) heading a
newly raised elite SSG commando unit
raised with United States Special
Operations Forces help in the area.[12] A
special garrison with eight thousand
troops was built at Khapalu. The
immediate aim was to capture Bilafond
La but after bitter fighting that included
hand to hand combat, the Pakistanis
were thrown back and the positions
remained the same. The only Param Vir
Chakra - India's highest gallantry award -
(retired as Subedar Major/Honorary
Captain), who in a daring daylight raid
assaulted and captured a Pakistani post
atop a 22,000 foot (6,700 m) peak, now
named Bana Post.[13] Further attempts to
reclaim positions were launched by
Pakistan in 1990, 1995, 1996 and even
in early 1999, just prior to the Lahore
Summit. The 1995 attack by Pakistan
SSG was significant as it resulted in 40
casualties for Pakistan troops without
any changes in the positions. An Indian
IAF MI-17 helicopter was shot down in
1996.
[edit] Current situation
The Indian army controls all of the
70 kilometres (43 mi) long Siachen
Glacier as well as all of its tributary
glaciers as well as the three main passes
of the Saltoro Ridge immediately west of
the glacier, Sia La, Bilafond La, and
Gyong La, thus holding onto the tactical
advantage of high ground.[14]. [15] Gyong
La (Pass) itself is at 35-10-29N, 77-04-15
E; that high point is controlled by India.
The Pakistanis control the glacial valley
just five kilometers southwest of Gyong
La. The line where Indian and Pakistani
troops are presently holding onto their
respective posts is being increasingly
referred to as the Actual Ground Position
Line (AGPL).[16][17]
The Pakistanis have been unable get up
to the crest of the Saltoro Ridge, while
the Indians cannot come down and
abandon their strategic high posts. A
cease fire went into effect in 2003. Even
34
before then, every year more soldiers
were killed because of severe weather
than enemy firing. The two sides have
lost an estimated 2,000 personnel
primarily due to frostbite, avalanches
and other complications. Both nations
have 150 manned outposts along the
glacier, with some 3,000 troops each.
Official figures for maintaining these
outposts are put at ~$300 and ~$200
million for India and Pakistan
respectively. India has built the world's
highest helipad on this glacier at a place
called Sonam, which is at 21,000 feet
(6,400 m) above the sea level, to serve
the area. India also installed the world's
highest telephone booth on the glacier.[18] One of the factors behind the Kargil
War in 1999 when Pakistan sent
infiltrators to occupy vacated Indian
posts across the Line of Control was their
belief that India would be forced to
withdraw from Siachen in return for
Pakistan pulling back from Kargil. Both
sides have been wishing to disengage
from the costly military outposts but
after the Kargil War India has backed off
from withdrawing in Siachen, wary that
the Kargil scenario could play out again
if they vacate their Siachen Glacier posts
without any official confirmation of their
positions.
During her tenure as Prime Minister of
Pakistan, Ms Benazir Bhutto, visited the
area west of Gyong La, making her the
first premier from either side to get to
the Siachen region. On June 12, 2005,
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh became
the first Indian Prime Minister to visit the
area, calling for a peaceful resolution of
the problem. In the previous year, the
President of India, Abdul Kalam became
the first head of state to visit the area.
India based Jet Airways plans to open a
chartered service to the glacier's nearest
airlink, the Thoise airbase, mainly for
military purposes. Pakistan's PIA flies
tourists and trekkers daily to Skardu,
which is the jumping off point for K2, the
world's second highest point just 33
kilometers (20.5 miles) northwest of the
Siachen area, although bad weather
frequently grounds these scheduled
flights.
Since September 2007, India has opened
up mountaineering and trekking
expeditions to the forbidding glacial
heights. The expeditions are also meant
to show to the international audience
that Indian troops hold "almost all
dominating heights" on the important
Saltoro Ridge and, to show that Pakistani
troops are not within 15 miles (24 km) of
the 43.5-mile (70 km) Siachen Glacier.[19]
Despite protests from Pakistan, India
maintains that it doesn't need Pakistan's
approval to send trekkers to Siachen, in
what it says is essentially an Indian
territory.[20]
Coordinates: 35.5° N 77.0° E
[] Kargil war, 1999
India fought a brief border skirmish with
Pakistan in the Indian state of Kashmir in
1999. Dubbed the Kargil War, after the 35
infiltration of Pakistani soldiers and
paramilitary in the Kargil area, India
reclaimed the territory through military
and diplomatic channels. Pakistan lost
4000 soldiers, while India lost little over
500.
By 21 May, the Indian army had isolated
Tiger Hill from three directions, east,
north and south. In order to inflict
casualties the enemy positions on Tiger
Hill were subjected to artillery and
mortar fire. A fresh battalion, 18
Grenadiers was brought in to capture the
peak with regiments holding the firm
base. On the night of July 3, 18
Grenadiers captured the eastern slope
but further advance was held up due to
effective enemy fire from Helmet Top,
India Gate features on the western
slope. By morning July 4th Tiger Hill was
captured by the 18th Grenadiers,
effectively ending Pakistan's Kargil War.
The Kargil War, also known as the
Kargil conflict,(I) was an armed conflict
between India and Pakistan that took
place between May and July 1999 in the
Kargil district of Kashmir. The cause of
the war was the infiltration of Pakistani
soldiers and Kashmiri militants into
positions on the Indian side of the Line of
Control, which serves as the de facto
border between the two states. During
and directly after the war, Pakistan
blamed the fighting entirely on
independent Kashmiri insurgents, but
documents left behind by casualties and
later statements by Pakistan's Prime
Minister and Chief of Army Staff showed
involvement of Pakistani paramilitary
forces. The Indian Army, supported by
the Indian Air Force, attacked the
Pakistani positions and, with
international diplomatic support,
eventually forced a Pakistani withdrawal
across the Line of Control (LoC).
The war is one of the most recent
examples of high altitude warfare in
mountainous terrain, and posed
significant logistical problems for the
combating sides. This was the first direct
ground war between any two countries
after they had developed nuclear
weapons. (India and Pakistan both test-
detonated fission devices in May 1998,
though the first Indian nuclear test was
conducted in 1974.) The conflict led to
heightened tension between the two
nations and increased defence spending
on the part of India. In Pakistan, the
aftermath caused instability to the
government and the economy, and, on
October 12, 1999, a coup d'etat by the
military placed army chief Pervez
Musharraf in power.
One of the main concerns in the
international community during the
Kargil crisis was that both neighbours
had access to weapons of mass
destruction, and if the war intensified, it
could have led to nuclear war. Both
countries had tested their nuclear
capability a year before in 1998; India
conducted its first test in 1974 while it
was Pakistan's first-ever nuclear test.
36
Many pundits believed the tests to be an
indication of the escalating stakes in the
scenario in South Asia. With the
outbreak of clashes in Kashmir just a
year after the nuclear tests, many
nations took notice of the conflict and
desired to end it.
The first hint of the possible use of a
nuclear bomb was on May 31 when
Pakistani foreign secretary Shamshad
Ahmad made a statement warning that
an escalation of the limited conflict could
lead Pakistan to use "any weapon" in its
arsenal.[47] This was immediately
interpreted as an obvious threat of a
nuclear retaliation by Pakistan in the
event of an extended war, and the
leader of Pakistan's senate noted, "The
purpose of developing weapons
becomes meaningless if they are not
used when they are needed."[48] Many
such ambiguous statements from
officials of both countries were viewed as
an impending nuclear crisis. The limited
nuclear arsenals of both sides,
paradoxically could have led to 'tactical'
nuclear warfare in the belief that a
nuclear strike would not have ended in
total nuclear warfare with mutual
assured destruction, as could have
occurred between the United States and
the USSR. Some experts believe that
following nuclear tests in 1998, Pakistani
military was emboldened by its nuclear
deterrent cover to markedly increase
coercion against India.[49]
The nature of the India-Pakistan conflict
took a more sinister proportion when the
U.S. received intelligence that Pakistani
nuclear warheads were being moved
towards the border. Bill Clinton tried to
dissuade Pakistan prime minister Nawaz
Sharif from nuclear brinkmanship, even
threatening Pakistan of dire
consequences. According to a White
House official, Sharif seemed to be
genuinely surprised by this supposed
missile movement and responded that
India was probably planning the same.
This was later confirmed in an article in
May 2000, which stated that India too
had readied at least five nuclear-tipped
ballistic missiles.[50] Sensing a
deteriorating military scenario,
diplomatic isolation, and the risks of a
larger conventional and nuclear war,
Sharif ordered the Pakistani army to
vacate the Kargil heights. He later
claimed in his official biography that
General Pervez Musharraf had moved
nuclear warheads without informing him.[51] Recently however, Pervez Musharraf
revealed in his memoirs that Pakistan’s
nuclear delivery system was not
operational during the Kargil war;[19]
something that would have put Pakistan
under serious disadvantage if the
conflict went nuclear.
Additionally, the threat of WMD included
a suspected use of chemical and even
biological weapons. Pakistan accused
India of using chemical weapons and
incendiary weapons such as napalm
37
against the Kashmiri fighters. India, on
the other hand, showcased a cache of
gas masks, among other firearms, as
proof that Pakistan may have been
prepared to use non-conventional
weapons. One militant group even
claimed to possess chemical weapons;
this was later found to be a hoax, and
even the gas masks were most likely
intended by the Pakistanis as protection
from an Indian attack. The Pakistani
allegations of India using banned
chemicals in its bombs were proven to
be unfounded by the U.S. administration
at the time and the OPCW.[
Aftermath[] India
Indian PM A.B.Vajpayee flashes the V sign after the Parliamentary elections in which his coalition emerged the victors. His handling of the Kargil crisis is believed to have played a big part in garnering the votes.
The aftermath of the war saw the rise of
the Indian stock market by over 30%.
The next Indian national budget included
major increases in military spending.
From the end of the war until February
2000, the economy of India was bullish.
There was a surge in patriotism, with
many celebrities pitching in towards the
Kargil cause.[53] Indians were also
angered by the death of pilot Ajay Ahuja
under controversial circumstances, and
especially after Indian authorities
reported that Ahuja had been murdered
and his body mutilated by Pakistani
troops. The war had also produced
higher than expected fatalities for the
Indian military, with a sizeable
percentage of them including newly
commissioned officers. One month later,
the Atlantique Incident - where a
Pakistan Navy plane was shot down by
India - briefly reignited fears of a conflict
between the two countries.
After the war, the Indian government
severed ties with Pakistan and increased
defence preparedness. Since the Kargil
conflict, India raised its defence budget
as it sought to acquire more state of the
art equipment; however, a few
irregularities came to light during this
period of heightened military
expenditure.[54] There was also severe
criticism of the intelligence agencies like
RAW, which failed to predict either the
intrusions or the identity/number of
infiltrators during the war. An internal
assessment report by the armed forces,
published in an Indian magazine, showed
several other failings, including "a sense
of complacency" and being "unprepared
for a conventional war" on the
presumption that nuclearism would
sustain peace. It also highlighted the
lapses in command and control, the
38
insufficient troop levels and the dearth of
large-calibre guns like the Bofors.[55] In
2006, retired Air Chief Marshal, A.Y.
Tipnis, alleged that the Indian Army did
not fully inform the government about
the intrusions, adding that the army
chief Ved Prakash Malik, was initially
reluctant to use the full strike capability
of the Indian Air Force, instead
requesting only helicopter gunship
support.[56] Soon after the conflict, India
also decided to complete the project -
previously stalled by Pakistan - to fence
the entire LOC.[57]
The Kargil victory was followed by the
13th Indian General Elections to the Lok
Sabha, which gave a decisive mandate
to the NDA government. It was re-
elected to power in September–October
1999 with a majority of 303 seats out of
545 in the Lok Sabha. On the diplomatic
front, the conflict was a major boost to
Indo-U.S. relations, as the United States
appreciated Indian attempts to restrict
the conflict to a limited geographic area.
These ties were further strengthened
following the 9/11 attacks and a general
shift in foreign policy of the two nations.
Relations with Israel – which had
discreetly aided India with ordnance
supply and matériel such as unmanned
aerial vehicles and laser-guided bombs,
as well as satellite imagery – also were
bolstered following the end of the
conflict.[58]
[] Pakistan
In 1999 TIME reported from the front line[59] of the combat and provided one of the few images of a Pakistani soldier at his post.
Faced with the possibility of international
isolation, the already fragile Pakistani
economy was weakened further.[60][61]
The morale of its forces after the
withdrawal was affected[62] as many units
of the Northern Light Infantry were
destroyed,[63] and the government
refused to even recognise the dead
bodies of its soldiers,[64][65] an issue that
provoked outrage and protests in the
Northern Areas.[66][67] Pakistan initially did
not acknowledge many of its casualties,
but Sharif later said that over 4,000
Pakistani troops were killed in the
operation and that Pakistan had lost the
conflict. Responding to this, Pakistan
President Pervez Musharraf said, "It
hurts me when an ex-premier
undermines his own forces," and claimed
that Indian casualties were more than
that of Pakistan.[68]
Many in Pakistan had expected a victory
over the Indian military based on
Pakistani official reports on the war,[60]
but were dismayed by the turn of events
and questioned the eventual retreat.[13]
[69] The military leadership is believed to
39
have felt let down by the prime
minister's decision to withdraw the
remaining fighters. However, some
authors, including ex-CENTCOM
Commander Anthony Zinni, and ex-PM
Nawaz Sharif, state that it was the
General who requested Sharif to
withdraw the Pakistani troops.[70][71] With
Sharif placing the onus of the Kargil
attacks squarely on the army chief
Pervez Musharraf, there was an
atmosphere of uneasiness between the
two. On October 12, 1999, General
Musharraf staged a bloodless coup
d'état, ousting Nawaz Sharif.
Benazir Bhutto, an opposition leader and
former prime minister, called the Kargil
War "Pakistan's greatest blunder". Many
ex-officials of the military and the ISI
(Pakistan's principal intelligence agency)
also were of the view that "Kargil was a
waste of time" and "could not have
resulted in any advantage" on the larger
issue of Kashmir.[72] A retired Pakistani
Army General, Lt Gen Ali Kuli Khan,
lambasted the war as "a disaster bigger
than the East Pakistan tragedy",[73]
adding that the plan was "flawed in
terms of its conception, tactical planning
and execution" that ended in "sacrificing
so many soldiers.".[74][73] The Pakistani
media too was vocal in its criticism of
the whole plan and the eventual
climbdown from the Kargil heights since
there were no gains to show for the loss
of lives and only resulted in international
condemnation for its actions.[75]
Despite calls by many for a probe, no
public commission of inquiry was set up
to investigate the people responsible for
initiating the conflict. However, the
Pakistani political party, PML(N) unveiled
a white paper in 2006, which states that
Nawaz Sharif constituted an inquiry
committee that recommended a court
martial for General Pervez Musharraf.[76]
The party alleges that Musharraf "stole
the report" after toppling the
government, to save himself. The report
also claims that India knew about the
plan 11 months before its launch,
enabling a complete victory for India on
military, diplomatic and economic fronts.[77] A statement in June, 2008 by a former
army corps commander of Pakistan that
Sharif "was never briefed by the army"
on the Kargil attack,[78] had reignited the
demand for a proble on the episode by
legal & political groups.[79][80] Though the
Kargil conflict had brought the Kashmir
dispute into international focus – which
was one of the aims of Pakistan – it had
done so in negative circumstances that
eroded its credibility, since the
infiltration came just after a peace
process between the two countries was
underway. The sanctity of the LoC too
received international recognition.
After the war, a few changes were made
to the army. In recognition of the
Northern Light Infantry's performance in
the war - which even drew praise from a
retired Indian Lt. General[25] - the
regiment was incorporated into the
40
regular army. The war showed that
despite a tactically sound plan that had
the element of surprise, little
groundwork had been done to gauge the
politico-diplomatic ramifications.[81] And
like previous unsuccessful infiltrations
attempts like Operation Gibraltar that
sparked the 1965 war, there was little
coordination or information sharing
among the branches of the Pakistan
military. One U.S. Intelligence study is
reported to have stated that Kargil was
yet another example of Pakistan’s (lack
of) grand strategy, repeating the follies
of the previous wars.[82] All these factors
contributed to a strategic failure for
Pakistan in Kargil.
[] Other Operations[] Sri Lanka mission, 1987-1990
The Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF)
carried out a mission in northern and
eastern Sri Lanka, in 1987–1990 to
disarm the LTTE as per the Indo-Sri
Lanka accord. In what was labeled as
Operation Pawan, the Indian Air Force
flew about 70,000 sorties to and within
Sri Lanka, without a single aircraft lost or
mission aborted.
[] Operation Cactus, 1988
In November 1988, the Maldives
Government appealed India for military
help against a mercenary invasion. On
the night of November 3, 1988, the
Indian Air Force airlifted a parachute
battalion group from Agra and flew them
non-stop over 2000 km to Maldives. The
Indian paratroopers landed at Hulule,
secured the airfield and restored the
Government rule at Malé within hours.
The brief, bloodless operation showed
the capability of the Indian Air Force in
what was labeled as Operation Cactus.
[] Missile program
India has a well developed missile
capabilities, which traces its roots to the
Indian Space Program.
[] Integrated Guided Missile Development Program (IGMDP)
The Integrated Guided Missile
Development Program (IGMDP) was
formed in 1983 with the aim of achieving
self-sufficiency in missile development &
production.
Presently it comprises five core missile
programs
Agni ballistic missile Prithvi ballistic missile
Akash surface-to-air missile
Trishul surface-to-air missile
Nag anti-tank guided missile
This program has given India self
reliance in Missile development. So,
attempts like Missile Technology Control
Regime (MTCR) to control access to and
availability of advanced weapon systems
for developing nations are not a major
concern for India now.
[] Nuclear program[] Smiling Buddha, 1974
In 1966, India had declared that it can
produce nuclear weapons within 18
months. In 1974, India tested a device of
up to 15 kilotons. The test was a
41
"peaceful nuclear explosion" and was
codenamed "Operation Smiling Buddha".
[] Operation Shakti (nuclear tests, 1998)
On May 11 and May 13, 1998, India
conducted five underground nuclear
tests (3 on May 11 and 2 on May 13) and
declared itself a nuclear state.
[] Overview and recent developments
The Indian military today ranks as the
world's third largest after the USA and
China in terms of troops. Over a million
strong, the paramilitary unit of the
Republic of India is the world's largest
and most elite paramilitary force. Eager
to portray itself as a potential
superpower, India began an intense
phase of modernization and upgradation
of its armed forces in the late 1990s.
India is focusing more on developing
indigenous military equipments rather
than relying on other countries for
military supplies. This change in policy
has paid off well for the Indian Armed
Forces. Most of the Indian naval ships
and submarines, military armoured
vehicles, missiles and ammunition are
indigenously designed and
manufactured.
[] Military collaborations with other nations
Apart from diverting resources towards
indigenously manufacturing military
equipment, the Indian Government is
also focusing on collaborating with other
countries to develop cutting-edge
military technology and weapons. Jointly
developed by Russia and India, the
world's only supersonic cruise missile,
known as the BrahMos, was successfully
test-fired in 2001. In 1997, India agreed
to participate in the development of
Russia's Prospective Air Complex for
Tactical Air Forces program. One of the
primary objectives of the program is to
develop a 5th generation fighter aircraft,
a prototype of which, known as the Su-
47, flew its first successful test-flight in
1997. India is also collaborating with
Israel to develop Unmanned Aerial
Vehicles and anti-missile defense
systems.
India is now focusing on purchasing the
technology behind the military
equipment rather than the military
equipment. Recent examples of the
successful implementation of this Indian
policy include the purchase of Sukhoi Su-
30 MKI multi-role fighter aircraft and T-
90 main battle tanks from Russia and
diesel-powered Scorpene submarines
from France. In 2004, India purchased
US$ 5.7 billion worth of military
equipment from other countries, making
it the developing world's leading arms-
purchaser.
[] Disasters
On April 28, 2000, ammunition worth Rs.
393 crore was destroyed due to a fire at
the Bharatpur ammunition depot.
Another fire at Pathankot sub-depot
resulted in loss of ammo worth Rs. 27.39
crore. On May 24, 2001, another blaze at
42
the Birdhwal sub-depot destroyed
ammunition worth Rs. 378 crore.
[] Awards
In Independent India, the gallantry
awards for exemplary display of bravery
in war time are the Param Vir Chakra,
Maha Vir Chakra and Vir Chakra in the
decreasing order of importance. Their
peace time equivalents are the Ashoka
Chakra, Kirti Chakra and Shaurya
Chakra. The latter two awards were
formerly known as Ashoka Chakra, Class
II and Ashoka Chakra, Class III
respectively. Sometimes, the peace time
awards are bestowed on civilians as well.
For meritorious service, the awards are
Param Vishisht Seva Medal, Athi Vishisht
Seva Medal and Vishisht Seva Medal in
decreasing order of importance.
43