June 14, 1999

A benchmark in the writing of Indian military history.

By Manoj Joshi

LEST WE FORGET
BY AMARINDER SINGH
REGIMENT OF LUDHIANA WELFARE ASSOCIATION
PAGES: 450

In the past month or so the Indian Army has been fighting a mini-war in the Kargil region to clear Pakistani intruders from the high ridges they have occupied across the Line of Control. This is the fourth time the army is clearing the Pakistanis from the heights overlooking the strategic Leh-Srinagar road. The Pakistanis captured them first in May 1965 then returned it in July, took them again in September 1965 and returned them after the Tashkent Agreement in 1966. In 1971 the Indian forces again pushed back the Pakistani posts and they were retained under the Simla Agreement. Now the boys are at it again, pushing back Pakistani intruders. The lesson in this is compelling -- the grit of the armed forces will not be found wanting even in the face of persistent political and bureaucratic incompetence.

Captain Amarinder Singh, son of the erstwhile Maharaja of Patiala, shows why this is so in a book that details seven battles from three wars fought by India against Pakistan and China. The battles described are not necessarily the most important fought by the army and neither are they lacking other book-length studies. But what Singh has done is termed "value addition" in the realm of marketing. He has done this through meticulous group discussions and individual interviews with scores of retired servicemen who participated in these battles. He has brought out details that are not available in the dry regimental accounts that form the basis of the run-of-the-mill military histories.

Singh has broken new ground by providing panoramic photographs of the sites of the battles and annotated them for the average reader. The author has also published rare photographs from various private collections and government archives. Seven appendices provide historical information on the army and explain various military terms to the lay reader. Such formidable scholarship and effort requires time and money and, in the Indian context, "connections". Singh seems to have used all three to good effect.

Given the new ground that the author has broken, it is difficult to take issue with the analysis of any of the battles. But as he himself acknowledges, additional information could have come from Chinese and Pakistani sources had they been available. There is considerable Pakistani writing on the wars with India, but the accounts tend to be bombastic and self-serving. All in all, Singh's work has set a benchmark on the writing of military history, one that other writers will be judged against in the future.

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