Militarism in India: The Army and Civil Society

History written a decade ago

A "very important study that attempts to explain why India, unlike many Third World countries, has never experienced a military coup... This book will be of great interest to students of comparative politics, military affairs, and Third World politics, and to South Asianists."

--See full review by S.A. Kochanek in Choice: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries, Vol. 36, No. 6, February 1999

Militarism in India: The Army and Civil Society in Consensus by Apuba Kundu

ABSTRACT, CONTENTS & INTRODUCTION
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 ethnic, 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.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Dr Apurba Kundu is a lecturer in the Department of Cybernetics at the University of Bradford, UK. He has published numerous articles on Indian civil-military relations, British South Asians, and information technology in various journals including Asian Affairs, Defence Today, Electronic Journal of Communication, Immigrants and Minorities, Indian Defence Review, and Pacific Affairs. He currently is the editor of Contemporary South Asia, chair of the South Asian Social Researchers' Forum and serves on the steering committee of the British Association for South Asian Studies.

Born in Jamaica, raised in the USA, and educated at the University of Leeds, Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) and the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), Dr Kundu now lives in Bradford with his partner and their two children.

Sample Review
Apurba Kundu examines the absence of a military coup (“the non-event”) in Indian politics since 1947 by undertaking an in-depth interview and questionnaire survey of existing and former commissioned officers... the journey is enlivened with interesting recollections as well as a careful reassessment of existing controversies. Kundu writes crisply and clearly. The volume will certainly be of great interest to students of civil military relations... this is an impressive effort that brings together interesting insights from those who have held important positions in India’s armed forces. The volume provides an invaluable point of departure for undertaking more systematic research into the contemporary nature of civil-military relations in India. The main thesis that the author develops has profound implications for the study of civil-military relations, especially in an age of democratisation where there has been an apparent retreat to the barracks. The book is a timely reminder – if one was needed – that we cannot be complacent about the role of the military in developing societies.

Militarism in India: The Army and Civil Society

Comments: Politicians and Bureaucrats who adorn the mantle of Governance of the Nation should not take undue advantage of the patriotism and loyalty of our Defence Forces and pay them peanuts for defending the nation with their sweat blood and tears! The SCPC has done it in repetition, replete with anomalies in consonance with the earlier Pay Panels. The Ex- Servicemen have been dumped, slighted and cheated with empty promises!