The change in India’s foreign policy outlook is reflected in the introspection on its national security. The security threats are both external and internal and from states and non-state actors. The reader on national security is a comprehensive view of the need to undertake reforms in the defence sector. The India armed forces are trained to fight the threats that emanate from outside the boundaries; however, they are now increasingly facing the enemy within. The forces have realized the need to change the training apparatus to cope with this new development.
Rajesh Rajagopalan has written about the Indian Army’s counterinsurgency doctrine that developed as a rest of the Naga insurgency and was formalized during the Mizo insurgency. As the Indian Army was fighting fellow Indians, the doctrine imposed limitations on the amount of force to be used. The concept of ‘cordon and search’ was introduced to isolate the insurgents from the general population. The doctrine called on the army to assert direct control over an area by establishing large number of military posts, while emphasizing the superiority of force both in deployment and operations. The army was able to achieve success in controlling the Naga and Mizo insurgencies with the help of this doctrine that revealed a conventional war bias.
However, by the 1980s, the army realized that it could not provide the solutions to insurgencies. The role of the army was to establish ‘normalcy’, thereafter it was the political leadership which needed to provide the solutions. Examining the insurgencies in the North-East, Bethany Lucas points out that while violence has been a part of the insurgencies of the North-East, they have never been of the scale witnessed in Jammu and Kashmir. The author states that the reason for insurgency in the North-East is the lack of rule of law despite the heavy presence of the military. However, the author is unable to bring forth the reasons for this lack of rule of law while stating that violence has reduced in the region.
Terrorism in the state of Jammu and Kashmir is perhaps one of the most intense and violent that India is facing. The government has identified certain ‘moderate groups’ and has been negotiating with them.
Praveen Swami’s chapter on the issue brings out the statistics that counter the stated claims of the policies such as the ‘healing touch’ programmes. The issue has implications beyond the borders of the state as was evident from the attack on the Indian Parliament. Pakistan’s role in supporting terrorist activities and infiltration is well documented. The demolition of the Babri Masjid is viewed by the author as a major factor in Pakistan’s continued involvement.
Pakistan and India are neighbouring nuclear weapons states that are hostile to each other. A breakdown of deterrence between the two would have serious consequences for South Asia. The credibility of India’s support for the nuclear disarmament movement was questioned after the nuclear test by India in 1998. It was viewed as an antithesis to the philosophy of non-violence of Gandhi. Bharat Karnad’s article is a discourse on the Gandhian way of Satyagraha. He points out that Gandhi has never advocated his ‘doctrine of non-violence’ to guide defence policy, circumscribe national security options and imperative or otherwise be a hindrance to the furtherance of national security in anyway. The chapter presents views on the use of force and Indian statecraft as advised by ancient text to present-day national security policy.
When India tested her nuclear weapons, there was a sense of euphoria in the nation. However, economic sanctions and India’s inability to take any military action against Pakistan after the attacks on the Parliament led many to question the need for such weapons—a question answered by K. Subrahmanyam and George Perkovich. Their chapters are a detailed account of the decisions to test the nuclear weapons in both 1979 and 1998, by India and Pakistan. However, India has to understand that nuclear weapons alone will not make it the major power it strives to be.
The drawback of both these chapters is that they were written just after the nuclear tests of 1998 and 15 years hence, both India and Pakistan have developed a nuclear policy that provides the basic tenants of nuclear use by both.
India’s nuclear programme is linked to the Chinese nuclear programme. However, the international community is concerned about a possible nuclear war between India and Pakistan.
The section on nuclear weapons and strategic stability is interesting as it present both the views to the readers. Sumit Ganguly has argued that nuclear deterrence exists between the two countries. Pakistan is more secure in its knowledge that as it has nuclear weapons, India will not attack it. However, it has time and again tested India’s patience. For India, nuclear Pakistan is not the only factor that has to be calculated when responding to a threat from the country—it has to also factor in the possible responses from China.
On the other hand, S. Paul Kapur, in his article, argues that nuclear weapons are the cause of instability in the region. He contends that nuclear weapons provide Pakistan with a shield to repel an Indian attack, thus encouraging aggressive behaviour. This changes India’s convectional military posture leading to more instability in the region.
While the lack of reforms in the defence sector has been blamed largely on the Indian bureaucracy and the political class, the three services cannot be completely absolved of their share of the blame. Inter-service rivalry, though healthy in some respects, is also a roadblock to reforms. It is surprising that after the recommendations of various committees over the past few years, there is still no office akin to that of the Joint Defence Staff. There is no debate on national security or the issues that govern the civil–military relationship.
In a region where democracy and the military have a strained relationship, India should be rightly proud of her ability to be a successful democracy with the military in the barracks. The credit has to be shared with the military which has remained confined to its sphere of duty and has readily accepted the prevalence of the civil leadership. However, the lack of foresight between the two has meant that the Indian armed forces are facing major infrastructure problems, equipment obsoleteness and a shortage of officers.
A lot has been said about India’s ability to fight a war with Pakistan and the capabilities it has to fight a war with China. However, the wars India would have to fight in the future will not be limited to the land, air or sea domains alone, they would include the aerospace and the cyber domains as well. India has to prepare her forces to meet these new threats as well with enhanced training programmes.
Anit Mukherjee has analyzed the detachment that is prevailing between the military and the civil institutions. He has identified three main characteristics of this relation: the tradition of non-interference in defence issues by politicians; lack of bureaucratic expertise; and considerable autonomy enjoyed by the three services over their staff. He has gone on to identify the various committees that have initiated reforms and the reasons why these reforms have not taken place. Nuclear security cannot be limited to the role that the Indian defence forces play. Internal security of the nation is protected by the police force.
K.P. Gill and Ajai Sahni have identified the role of the police in being the first line of defence against forces opposed to the state. Gill’s chapter is a detailed account of the rise of terrorism in Punjab and constraints under which the police force worked to emerge victorious. He has identified the political decisions that helped and hindered police operations. He also discusses issues such as lack of guns and ammunitions and attacks on family members of policemen which affected the morale of the force.
Tackling the complex issue of Naxalism, Ajai Sahni points at the excessive focus that has been used by both the Naxals and the government to seize power. He cautions that this approach is incomplete if there is no social and political transformation at the grassroots. Both the writers are critical of the state and central governments and have called for reforms in the training of the police force. They talk about the need for strengthening the
force by providing them with better facilities and infrastructure, building more police stations, and providing them with better equipment.
The book is important addition to the literature on India’s foreign policy and national security policy.
— By Stuti Banerjee, Research Fellow, Indian Council of World Affairs, New Delhi.
Courtesy: Journal of Defence Studies
