Author: Apurba Kundu
Publisher: Viva Books
Year: 1998
Language: English
Pages: 230
ISBN/UPC (if available): 8176490237
Description
In many leading third world states, tensions between the armed forces and a civilian government have led to the extreme sanction of coup d’etat and military rule. India remains one of the exceptions: despite great ethic, religious, regional and economic challenges to the existing order, her military officers have never displayed anything but the utmost loyalty to the legitimate government of the day. This work examines the remarkable consensus of purpose between Indian officers and their civil counterparts in the construction and maintenance of civil supremacy and rule of law.
Throughout, emphasis is placed on the personal experiences and reactions of over 100 senior Indian army, navy and air force officers to a variety of professional challenges, from their admission to Sandhurst in 1918 through to the post-Operation Blue Star mutinies of the 1980s. These challenges included the role of officers in the independence movement, the rise of the Indian national armies in World War II, the effect of partition and the transfer of power, the establishment of military rule in Pakistan, the rise of the Menon-Kaul nexus, the effect of defeat in the 1962 Sino-Indian War and Indira Gandhi’s period of Emergency Rule. India’s top brass have never before spoken in such numbers or on such sensitive civil-military issues.
This work will appeal to all those interested in the history and politics of South Asia in general, and in theories of civil-military relations and military professionalism in particular.
Contents
Tables, Maps and Illustrations
Preface
Introduction
The Professional Indian Officer
The Indian Nationalist Movement
The Indian National Armies
The Transfer of Power
The First Decade of Independence
The Menon-Kaul Nexus
The Sino-Indian War
Indira Gandhi’s Emergency Rule
Operation Blue Star
Conclusion
Abbreviations
Appendix A
Bibliography
Index