Air Vice-Marshall Arjun Subramaniam deserves a big round of applause for this book, titled India's Wars — A Military History, 1947-71. The task taken up by him was obviously a Herculean one — to recognise and record India's military exploits and setbacks.
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To collate incidents of war, complete with insights into the strategies of the Indian armed forces, beginning from the Pakistan-orchestrated tribal attacks in Kashmir in 1947 until the one that created Bangladesh in 1971, is a feat that only a diehard soldier and patriot could have taken up.
Subramaniam acquaints the reader with his pulsating soldierly heart early on in the book, when he recalls the experience of once flying in a fighter jet over the bounds of the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir, incidentally getting to see the mesmeric peak of Skardu, now in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. "How could we give it away," he exclaims.
The book would be a treasure for those who want to make war movies and documentaries. Each big war is dissected well, with build-up incidents revealing maverick soldier characters. This is one of the rare books on Indian military history that gives the reader an opportunity to get close to such exemplary war heroes of India like Field Marshal Cariappa and Air Chief Arjan Singh, among others.
The narrative puts the reader by the side of strategising colonels, brigadiers, commodores and naval officers, and does a brilliant job of analysing each war for its positives, mistakes and correctives. The language though could have been a bit less academic, and more emotive.
That said, the accounts do succeed in giving goosebumps to the reader on more than a few occasions.
Some incidents like the one where Major Harwant Singh decides to withdraw from Baramulla and park his posse of soldiers on the plateau of Pattan to neutralise the disadvantages of being heavily outnumbered by the advancing Pakistan-backed tribals in 1947 are beautifully explained. But they only leave the reader asking for more and end a bit abruptly.
That, obviously, can be attributed to the challenges of writing a book like this one. The work is by no means lean, running into 500-odd pages and it is not a work of fiction. A stupendous task, for sure.
What helps in making this arduous journey a smooth one is the fact that most maps depicting the movements and advances of the Indian armed forces have been simplified for the ordinary civilian reader, though some of them show only an important aspect of a war and it would have helped if they were referred to in the text with proper numbering.
Though a military man himself, Subramaniam has done well on researching and exposing the political reasons behind each war. For instance, he quite unabashedly unravels the escalation to the 1962 war with China, delving into how the Nehru-Menon duo bungled and how the Mao-Enlai team conjured the battle.
The author also cringes at the missed opportunity when Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi could have forced Pakistan to accept the LoC as the de facto line in Kashmir in exchange for 93,000 prisoners of war following the 1971 Bangladesh war. But these are grudges nurtured by an obedient soldier, as elsewhere Subramaniam explains how an Indian military man is groomed and trained to obey and respect the idea of democracy.
Anecdotes from even pre-Independence days are quoted to explain this point. For instance, he says, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel said to Naval mutineers in 1946: "Protests and demonstrations are for politicians. Soldiers obey."
The book remains with the reader for quite a few reasons. Subramaniam delves into the makeshift strategies that were created by the armed forces personnel during various wars for want of relevant technology. At one point, he talks of hand-held cameras being used by fighter pilots for reconnaissance!
The reference to the concentrated joint efforts of the Air Force, Navy and the Army is another high point of the book. Though written by a serving Air Force officer, due weight and recognition is given to all the three wings of the armed forces.
However, for someone like me, who, as a defence correspondent for several years, had the privilege of visiting various training grounds of troops and the opportunity of sharing meals and laughs with them at various stations, from the swirling sands of Suratgarh in Rajasthan to the dark jungles of Warangte in Mizoram, the takeaway that lingered in me for long were the breathtaking rare photographs of soldiers in various war zones.
Each of them, from the one featuring Major Thangaraju of the Madras Sappers opening the Zojila Pass in 1948, to that, which shows a wounded but cheerful Sikh soldier shaking hands with a smiling Indira Gandhi in 1971, flushed a rush of blood in me.
The work deserves to be read by every youngster aspiring to be a military person. And every other Indian.
