REVIEWING INDIA’S MILITARY STRATEGY
HT’s editors offer a book recommendation every Saturday, which provides history, context, and helps understand recent news events
In the face of Chinese aggression, India has decided to step up its military deployments at the border. With Prime Minister Narendra Modi honouring Indian troops, there is a focus on sending a message to China that India is militarily capable of resisting any aggression.
This week, we recommend Arming without Aiming: India’s Military Modernization, by the late American scholar Stephen P Cohen and academic Sunil Dasgupta. Published in 2012, the book suggests that India’s military build-up, a result of its economic growth, lacked overall direction, suffered from Balkanisation of the military organisation, remained limited by narrow planning and pinned it on India’s belief in “strategic restraint”.
A lot has changed since the book was published — the creation of the office of the chief of defence staff, India’s efforts to enhance its indigenous military production, the Modi doctrine of strategic response to terror attacks, and the rise of China as a clear adversary. But the book remains a useful backgrounder about the evolution of India’s strategic thought and defence capabilities. without Aiming: India’s Military Modernization Stephen P Cohen and Sunil Dasgupta