A homage to the Indian Army

The Indian Army observes January 15 as Army Day every year to commemorate that day in 1949 when Lt. Gen. (later Field Marshal) K.M. Cariappa assumed office as the first Indian Commander in Chief (C-in-C) of the Army of Independent India, succeeding Gen. Sir Roy Bucher, the last British officer to hold that position.

The designation of the Chief of Army Staff was not in vogue at the time it would come later, on April 1, 1955, after passage of the Commanders-in-Chiefs (Change in Designation) Act, 1955, by the Parliament of India.

Gen. Cariappa was called upon to assume charge at a traumatic time, when the country was still recovering from the frenzied savagery of the Partition which had hit the Indian Army particularly hard. Indian soldiers, under Indian commanders, had just faced and successfully overcome their first challenge Pakistan-sponsored tribal invasion of Kashmir in October 1947, even as many were still searching desperately for loved ones missing in the great migration of the Partition.

Troops steadfastly escorted unending columns and trainloads of refugees crossing over in both directions to sanctuary in their new homelands even as their own futures were totally uncertain. The Indian Army had just been carved up between India and Pakistan, which was rapidly proving to be a hostile neighbour. Old loyalties, national and regimental, had to be transformed overnight, and capital assets and finances divided as equitably as possible between yesterday’s friends who had become today’s implacable foes. Any other Army in the world would have broken under the strain. However, the Indian Army shouldered its burden and soldiered stoically on.

It saw the country safely through the First Kashmir War that suddenly burst upon it in September 1947, while almost simultaneously dealing with fairly sizeable military operations to ensure Hyderabad and Junagarh remain within the geographical dimensions of the country’s borders. A “hot peace” Line of Control had sprung up after the hostilities in Jammu and Kashmir (including the Ladakh region bordering Tibet) that had to be garrisoned and guarded permanently.

The Sino-India war of 1962 added a third factor to an already tense equation. The Indian Army tackled this as well, but in a manner less than satisfactory, which did not lend creditably to the highest political and military leadership of the time, leaving the entire nation agonising over the outcome.

1965 brought with it the Second Indo-Pak war, which commenced with sporadic skirmishes in the watery moonscape of the Rann of Kutch and ended on the fortified embankments of the Icchogil Canal on the outskirts of Lahore. In 1971, the war in Bangladesh ended in undiluted triumph in Dhaka and saw the birth of a new nation. In 1999 came Kargil with its single-point assaults on mountain peaks in super-high altitudes, led by young lieutenants followed by their equally young jawans, with attendant heavy casualties amongst the country’s youngest, bravest and best.

Army Day 2015 comes amidst high tensions all around, with gunrunners and explosive traffickers in the Arabian Sea off the coast of Gujarat, frequent high intensity shootouts with heavy calibre weapons between Pakistan Rangers and India’s Border Security Force along the Jammu-West Pakistan border, infiltration in the high altitude regions of Tithwal and terrorist attacks in Bengaluru.

The border conflict with the People’s Republic of China in 1962 set the stage for the strategic realignment of the Indian Army. It would have to be present on two fronts facing outwards — a high-altitude Himalayan front against China, and a desert and plains front against Pakistan. Together with this, it has developed an additional “half front” of internal security and counterinsurgency, primarily in Jammu and Kashmir and in the Northeast, which has also solidified into a permanent commitment for the Army. It can be safely assumed that this “two and a half front” deployment will continue as a permanent commitment for the Indian Army into the foreseeable future as well.

Army Day 2015 is, thus, an occasion for the Indian Army and its political leadership to reflect on the shape of things to come.

The 21st century has brought new challenges for the Indian Army even as the old ones continue. New forms of warfare have appeared, ranging from the ever-present threat of nuclear adventurism by Pakistan to electronised information warfare, ultra high-technology cyber warfare to sponsored insurgency and terrorism. There is a crisis of human resources as well. Women officers are now entering the Army in increasing numbers in the officer ranks and their management requires attitudinal adjustments in an organisation traditionally visualised as male dominated. Budget resources have been a perennial problem and will continue to be so. Defence equipment are always high-cost acquisitions so “Make in India” in defence equipment is an option which will have to be exercised and enforced sooner rather than later.

It would be trite to say that the Indian Army has been carrying the nation on its shoulders ever since Independence, but that indeed is a simple statement of fact. The Indian Army has much to be thankful for in its soldiers and officers, a God-given asset the nation and the Army are blessed with.

The writer is a former Chief of Army Staff and a former member of Parliament