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Modi and the World Wars: India hasn’t yet understood its own role as international security provider

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History holds Asia hostage

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India needs formal war history: Arun Jaitley

NEW DELHI: The Narendra Modi-led NDA government is going full steam ahead on a major project to rewrite histories of all wars and major operations undertaken by the Indian armed forces, with the ostensible aim of making them “simple and reader-friendly”.From the huge contribution of Indian soldiers in the bloody trench-to-trench warfare of World War I to their sheer grit in dislodging Pakistani soldiers from the icy heights of Kargil in 1999, a broad plan with deadlines has been evolved for the release of various war histories, telefilms, comic books and the like by 2020-2022.“The idea is to educate students and future generations about contributions made by the Indian armed forces, in pre- and post-Independence eras as well as in counter-insurgency operations and UN peacekeeping missions,” said a senior defence ministry official. It was felt that there was a need to make the war histories “more readable” because the official ones are “too technical and full of military jargon” and meant primarily for experts. “They should find a place in school curricula,” the official said.Release of the new war histories will kick off on September 1 with an account of the 1965 war, in keeping with the government plan to celebrate its 50th anniversary from August 28 to September 26 as “a great victory” over Pakistan. As earlier reported by TOI, this has raised eyebrows since the 1965 war ended in a “stalemate”, unlike the crushing defeat of Pakistan in the 1971 war.The history of the 1971 war, which led to the liberation of Bangladesh after the famous surrender by 93,000 Pakistani troops led by General Amir A K ‘Tiger’ Niazi in Dhaka on December 16 that year, is slated for publication by December 2016.Interestingly, the Modi government may have for now ruled out release of the classified Henderson Brooks report on India’s humiliating military debacle against China in 1962, a stand at variance from the one taken by the BJP when it was in the opposition. But the war’s simplified history is also slated for release by 2020-2022.The Henderson Brooks report squarely blames the then Nehru government’s ill-conceived and ill-timed ‘Forward Policy’, without proper intelligence or adequate military preparation, for India’s abject defeat in 1962, as reported by TOI earlier.The new histories for World Wars I and II will be released in 2019-2020, while the 20th anniversary of the Kargil conflict in July 2019 will see its history published. Similarly, the 30th anniversary of the disastrous Operation Pawan, undertaken by the Indian Peace-Keeping Force in Sri Lanka when Rajiv Gandhi was PM, will be marked with the release of its history in 2017.“A soldier is a soldier, whichever the government that directs him to go to war. The idea is to make the history and valour of Indian soldiers available in readable formats,” said a senior officer. Though the Navy and IAF have for long had history cells, the Army has now set up one headed by a brigadier to execute the project.The government launched the project after taking note of the worldwide commemoration of the centenary of World War I, which saw a million Indian troops fight under the British flag from Sonne and Flanders in France to Gallipoli and Canakkale in Turkey. Around nine million troops and many more civilians were killed in the four-year “great war”, which included around 62,000 Indian soldiers with another 67,000 being wounded.