India's Military Modernization

The Journal of Political Science, 2021

The Indian Armed Forces have been witnessing a major strategic shift in the recent years. The codified version of Indian doctrinal mapping has been manoeuvred to entertain offensive military posture with less emphasis on strategic restraint. The strategic shift, however, is visible not only in the Indian Defence Policy but also pragmatically enforced with the acquisition of advanced weapons and its practical demonstration. Its aggression from Balakot strikes against Pakistan to more recent incursions in Eastern Ladakh against China aims to integrate its offensive military posture with wider geostrategic ambitions in the region. India is utilizing its bilateral strategic partnerships with powers including Russia, the United States, and Israel to augment its military capacity and credibility. The enhanced synergy is consistent with the revolution in Military Affairs (RMA) philosophy which reflects India's will to adopt proactive and offensive strategy in orderto emerge as the leading power in Asia.The methodology used in the paper is qualitative in nature, based on exploratory researchmethod and used both primary and secondary resources. It unveils India's growing military modernization in the theoretical context of 'Offensive-cum-Defensive' Strategy. The paper argues that India's doctrinal shift in favour of offensive military postures combines with its regional assertiveness against Pakistan and China, is potentially threatening strategic stability in South Asia.

BTTN Journal

The past few decades have seen a structural shift in international politics, with multilateralism replacing bilateralism, as evidenced by China’s rise in security and economic domains. The turn of the 21st century has also seen the rise of another aspiring power- India. With the assumption of office by Prime Minister Modi in 2014, the Indian military has been going through fundamental changes. Under the ‘Joint Indian Armed Forces and the Land Warfare Doctrines’, India aims to achieve greater strategic outreach. Indian military modernization since 2014 witnessed a steep rise. India being a strategic ally of the US, has been emboldened to modernize its military that, by and large, will make New Delhi more belligerent, augmenting Pakistan’s security concerns. Though a lot has been written on India’s military modernization, this paper seeks to address the gap in the literature on how the modernization factor has come about, driven primarily by the Hindutva ideology underpinned by the Mo...

Shanlax international journal of arts, science and humanities, 2022

India is today confronted with tremendous obstacles as it strives to improve its international reputation. India's strategic location increases the prospect of future challenges (most notably a nuclear threat) with its neighboring country.

Http Dx Doi Org 10 1080 01402390 2015 1014473, 2015

In recent years, headline grabbing increases in the Indian defense budget have raised concerns that India's ongoing military modernization threatens to upset the delicate conventional military balance vis-à-vis Pakistan. Such an eventuality is taken as justification for Islamabad's pursuit of tacticalnuclear weapons and other actions that have worrisome implications for strategic stability on the subcontinent. This article examines the prospects for Pakistan's conventional deterrence in the near to medium term, and concludes that it is much better than the pessimists allege. A host of factors, including terrain, the favorable deployment of Pakistani forces, and a lack of strategic surprise in the most likely conflict scenarios, will mitigate whatever advantages India may be gaining through military modernization. Despite a growing technological edge in some areas, Indian policymakers cannot be confident that even a limited resort to military force would achieve a rapid result, which is an essential precondition for deterrence failure.

Military change in India has been a function of the evolving capabilities of Pakistan and China and the limited resources available for modernisation. Consequently, most changes in military goals and organisational structures have been incremental and adaptive. Limited resources have also meant that India’s military effort has principally focused upon the immediate threat from Pakistan. The more latent challenge from China has been dealt with mainly through diplomacy at the bilateral and multilateral levels. Major change has occurred only in India’s strategy and service doctrines vis-à-vis Pakistan. India’s strategy towards Pakistan has evolved from annihilation in full-scale war until the late 1980s to exhaustion in limited war since then, mainly as a result of Pakistan’s acquisition of nuclear weapons capability. And given the imperative of attaining a swift victory before international diplomatic or military intervention ensued, the Army’s doctrine has evolved from attrition to manoeuvre and now, in the Cold Start doctrine, to a creative combination of attrition, manoeuvre and surprise. The Air Force doctrine has successively evolved from attaining a favourable air situation to command of the air to in-theatre air superiority. And the Navy’s doctrine has evolved from security of the coast to limited command of the sea.

2015

How do conceptions of war drive defense and military reform? Most commentators have observed for the past decade that the paradigm of war is shifting. However, what the “new paradigm” is, and how force structure, doctrine and operations should evolve to meet this new paradigm is less clear. The Indian security community has had a lively debate about defense reforms since the 1999 Kargil War. Interventional events have been closely watched in India, including the US wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and Russia’s interventions in Georgia and Ukraine. Of critical importance to India are events closer to home, like the 2008 Mumbai Terrorist attacks, the on-going Naxal insurgency, instability in Pakistan and Afghanistan, and the rise of China. For decades the focus of the Indian military was clear: maintain a conventional advantage over Pakistan, secure India’s contested borders, and assist domestic security forces with internal conflicts and violence. 1 Recently, new issues and threats have...

The Round Table

This article gives an overview of the state of the Indian military by assessing its overall performance, current debates, and future challenges. While doing so it covers three main subjects-the role of the military in nation-building, contemporary challenges, and defence reforms. This covers a wide range of issues, from the military's historical role-in wars and domestic counter-insurgencies, current threats, and missions to preparing for the future. In the penultimate section, it describes debates on defence reforms and military transformation triggered by the creation in 2019 of the post of Chief of Defence staff. It concludes with an overview of state-military relations and identifies some areas for future research.

2017

The Handbook of Indian Defence Policy aims to provide an authoritative, compelling and comprehensive survey of India’s defence policy since it gained its independence in 1947. Raj Verma finds it an essential read for students, scholars and especially policymakers interested in the external and internal security challenges facing India, the numerous problems and limitations which might stymie India’s rise to great power status and possible solutions to overcome these.

Naval War College Review, 2004