Defence & Security

At the time of independence, India was plagued by two security issues-- poverty and Pakistan. After becoming the fifth largest economy, the main security issues are China, Pakistan, Chinese-sponsored Maoists, and Islamist terrorism.

World

Pakistan-Turkey alliance wages information war to break India

April 14, 2021

Pakistan-Turkey formed an alliance waging information war to break India by calling India fascist, discrediting Indian-American politicians, creating internal discord, and whitewashing Pakistan's sins.

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Technology

India joins Hypersonic Missle and Solid Fuel Ducted Ramjet clubs

April 14, 2021

India successfully flight tested the Hypersonic Technology Demonstrator Vehicle and demonstrated Solid Fuel Ducted Ramjet technology based missile using indegenously developed technology.

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When India attained independence after 150 years of colonial rule, 100 years of East India company rule, and 900 years of barbarian invasions, it stood deplete of agricultural self-sufficiency, industry, and wealth. By some estimates, Britain stole equivalent of USD 45 trillion from India by systematically disenfranchising peasants, destroying industries, levying unbearable taxes, dismantling education systems, and creating artificial famines.

For millennia, stretching from Brueni to Iran and Maldives to Russia, India, that is Bhārath, owned a very large portion of the world's wealth. Islamic hordes that took only years to conquer West Asia and Europe took 900 years to set up a dynasty of any repute. Even then, the Mughal dynasty lasted only 150 years in power but not conquering all of the country. By some estimates, Islamic hordes killed, kidnapped, and enslaved 400 million non-combatant Hindus in the name of religion and a good majority of them were children.

From the start of the Common Era to 1500CE, India was the largest economy in the world. It dropped after the Mughal Empire and collapsed with the British. This is the finding of Prof. Angus Maddison

Conceptual view of ancient India

Islamist conquerors innovated on how to kill people in the most gastly manner

Millions of people migrated from India to Pakistan and vice-versa
Pakistan's army in Bangladesh surrendering to the Indian Army at Dacca

When the British left, with nothing in the country working and in a state of civil war, poverty, stability, and a hostile Pakistan were the biggest threats. Unfortunately, the country went down the road of socialism bordering on communism, industry felt suffocated and never really rose to its ancient levels. Faced with severe food shortages, India embarked on a green revolution to produce more food. While this met the requirements at that time, it destroyed food habits by driving people to rice or wheat and infused huge quantum of chemical fertilizer and pesticide. With the war with Pakistan in 1947-48, China in 1962, Pakistan in 1965, China in 1967, and with Pakistan in 1971, India remained militarily alert but economically emasculated.

Although India remained non-aligned, American duplicity in evets leading to the Bangladesh liberation war with Pakistan during the 1971 war forced India towards to the Soviet Union. India embarked on buying more and more Soviet military equipment even as it embraced Soviet-inspired processes and policies. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, India went into an economic meltdown in the early 90s forcing it into liberalisation that would dismantle 40 years of communist political frameworks.

In the late 90s, India shocked the world with its second set of nuclear explosions predictably inviting sermons and sanctions from the US. India ignored the sanctions but engaged in a security dialogue. In 1999, when Pakistan invaded India and occupied the heights of Kargil, India not only effectively ejected them from India inflicting heavy casualties but also not crossing the line of control. Pakistan's behaviour during the war threatening India with a nuclear war did not go well with the US. They demanded Pakistan withdraw from Kargil immediately. This was followed by a 2000 visit by the US President Bill Clinton spending 5 days in India visiting 5 cities and a few hours in Pakistan.

When the terrorists attacked the World Trade Centre on September 11, 2001, India was the first country that expressed unreserved support to the US. It supported the US on the war against the Taliban regime providing it with intelligence (from the Northen Alliance with whom India had good relationship) and logiistical support. While the US wanted India to join in the operations, India stayed away. From that point, Indian and US defence establishments established more and more contacts with briefings, intelligence sharing, military exercises, technology transfer, and armament procurement. All this was seen by many as India moving away from Russia and China seeing it as India's alignment with the US to contain Beijing. Truthfully, it was neither. India needed newer weapons and the American ones seemed better and Beijing was openly supporting Islamabad so New Delhi wanted some support from Washington.

Pokharan 2 nuclear tests
Indian victory at Kargil
Ahmad Shah Massoud: The leader of the Northern Alliance
September 11, 2001: Terrorists attack the World Trade Centre in New York
US War on Terror

Right after the 2004 tsunami, India mobilised 5,000 sailors, loaded up thousands of tonnes of relief material, and sent out scores of battleships to various South East Asian and South Asian countries. The US was immensely surprised and impressed with the speed of Indian action and for the first time started treating India as regional leader and a stable influence in a turbulent area. Many regular joint naval exercises started with the US, France, Australia, and Japan since then.

During the corruption-ridden decade from 2004-2014, India made very little investment in its military. The then Defence Minister Shri A.K. Anthony told the Parliament that the country does not have any money to buy arms. Hence, all wings of defence suffered immensely from shortage of equipment, accessories, armaments, and weapons. After 2014, defence expenses was increased but not enough to make up for the previous decade of neglect. It was only after the 2020 invasion of Ladakh by a large contingent of China did India start seriously testing, adopting, and buying weapons. Indigenous technologies were accelerated and weaponised, products that we kept pending was bought on an emergency basis, new products were being designed and developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) labs, and new partnerships were set up to make new weapons. Unfortunately, there does not seem to be a long-term vision that are supported with adequate budget for a period of time.

The Indo-US defence partnership has spawned a new ecosystem of defence manufacturers, assembly plants, service companies, and integration specialists. It is hoped that with the newly announced Atmannirbhar (self-reliance) programme, this supply chain will grow to include deep manufacturing infrastructure that has been missing in India.

The Maoist Red Corridor
DRDO tests indigenous developed missiles
The Doklam Crisis
Indo-US Arms Relationship

From an internal security standpoint, India suffers from fractous democracy based on divisions inherited from the British. The colonists controlled India by dividing the population by religion, caste, language, and economic status and such divisions have been carried over into democratic India. Unfortunately, unlike in the US or UK where there only a handful of recognised political parties, India hosts multiple regional parties that have very myopic ideologies and interests. While they think they are the best for the people, their divisional tactics to come to power has created deep fissures in society. Worse, during elections, these parties form a so-called rainbow coalition to garner all negative votes into their coalition. When they do win, they refuse to cooperate with the Federal government on almost any policy including terrorism and crime fighting.

Decades of pandering to such interests by some national parties have created pockets of disenfranchised populations who live in forests that are easy picking for external enemies of India. Following disastrous policies of Chinese leader Mao Zedong, these groups are armed by China and Pakistan to deepen the fissures within India. The country spends a substantial amount of money on paramilitary forces to contain these internal insurgents and ultimately eliminate the threat.

2004 tsunami impact
The political map
World Terror Statistics
India Conflict Map 2017