indian history - the freedom movement

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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

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THE INDIAN HISTORY - HER FREEDOM FIGHT

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Page 1: 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

Page 2: Indian History - The Freedom Movement

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

Page 3: Indian History - The Freedom Movement

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

Page 4: Indian History - The Freedom Movement

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

Page 5: Indian History - The Freedom Movement

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

Page 6: Indian History - The Freedom Movement

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

Page 7: Indian History - The Freedom Movement

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

Page 8: Indian History - The Freedom Movement

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

Page 9: Indian History - The Freedom Movement

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

Page 10: Indian History - The Freedom Movement

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

Page 11: Indian History - The Freedom Movement

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

Page 12: Indian History - The Freedom Movement

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

Page 13: Indian History - The Freedom Movement

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

Page 14: Indian History - The Freedom Movement

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

Page 15: Indian History - The Freedom Movement

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

Page 16: Indian History - The Freedom Movement

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

Page 17: Indian History - The Freedom Movement

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

Page 18: Indian History - The Freedom Movement

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

Page 19: Indian History - The Freedom Movement

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

Page 20: Indian History - The Freedom Movement

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

Page 21: Indian History - The Freedom Movement

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

Page 22: Indian History - The Freedom Movement

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-

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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

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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

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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

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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-

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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

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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,

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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

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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

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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]

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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

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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

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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

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Page 35: Indian History - The Freedom Movement

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

Page 36: Indian History - The Freedom Movement

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.

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Page 37: Indian History - The Freedom Movement

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

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Page 38: Indian History - The Freedom Movement

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

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Page 39: Indian History - The Freedom Movement

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

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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

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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

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"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

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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