Assessing India's Emerging Land Warfare Doctrines and Capabilities: Prospects and Concerns

Abstract

This article attempts to locate and assess the sources of India's land warfare doctrines and capabilities. It begins by briefly examining the Indian army's significant combat experience in dealing with the external and internal security threats during the past six decades. The first section analyzes the security challenges and threats that presently drive the evolution of India's land war–fighting doctrines and capabilities. The next section explains the military imperatives that are driving this doctrinal change. In the next section, the current status of India's land war–fighting capabilities is discussed. The subsequent section examines the institutional limitations that inhibit organizational change, and the final section highlights how these doctrinal and capability gaps might be addressed in the future.     

Developing Bureaucracies for Environmental Governance: State Authority and World Bank Conditionality in Laos

This paper considers the on-going production of bureaucracies for environmental governance in developing countries and the ways in which donor engagement is reshaped through localised bureaucratic dynamics. In Laos, World Bank conditions associated with the Nam Theun 2 hydropower project saw the establishment of the Watershed Management and Protection Authority (WMPA). I examine internal dynamics at the WMPA headquarters in Nakai District, including formal institutions for forest management, informal institutions for recognising local authority and wealth redistribution and the personal aspirations of WMPA officials. In doing so, this piece contributes to current discussions about donor-driven institutional change, practices of state-making and the local “technocrats” who are personally confronted by the complex intersections of donor conditionality and state authority.     

Identification of Tool Marks of a Sickle on a Telephone Cable

Linkage of a cutting tool (a sickle) with a telephone cable of 100 pairs of copper wires is reported in a case of theft of a telephone cable. Telephone cables contain numerous insulated copper wires of small diameter inside an outer covering and are stolen for the relatively precious copper. The cutting pattern of the cable can only point to the type of the tool but because of the large number of copper wires, it is practically difficult to make a definite linkage with the tool used to cut the cable by comparing the tool marks. The present work reports the successful attempt of the authors in establishing a definite linkage of a stolen telephone cable with a sickle recovered from the suspects. Spot microchemical test was performed for detection of copper on the blade of the sickle, and then tool mark comparison was performed to link the tool marks on the metal strip inside the outer covering of the cable to the blade of the sickle.     

The political economy of the cycles of violence and non-violence in the Sikh struggle for identity and political power: implications for Indian federalism

This paper presents a critique of the essentialist notions of any community as a pacifist or militant community by examining the long history of the cycles of violence and non-violence in the evolution of the Sikh community in the Indian subcontinent. The theoretical premise of the paper is that communities' resort to violence and non-violence is determined by their strategic perspectives to achieve their politico-economic goals and not from any doctrinal adherence to violence or non-violence. The paper attempts a panoramic view of over 500 years of Sikh history (1469 – 2006) and offers a reinterpretation of that history by locating cycles of violence and non-violence in their historical context. It then provides a politico-economic perspective on violence and non-violence in their struggle for identity and political power. It focuses more on an analysis of the recent political conflict between Sikh militants and the Indian state, and concludes by drawing out the policy implications of that analysis for the politics of the modern Indian state regarding the Sikhs of Punjab. It identifies federal arrangements and human rights as issues of key importance in the political economy of this relationship.     

The Decline of the Indian Parliament

Indian Parliament had a very promising start and worked well during the1950s-1960s. During the 1970s Parliament was squeezed by a great extra-parliamentary mass movement against authoritarianism and corruption and partial but crippling subversion of parliamentary-federal Constitution during the national emergency. Democracy was restored following the 1977 general elections. But the general decline of Parliament that set in the post-Nehru era has not yet been reversed. Major indicators of this decline are shortening sessions, time lost due to disruptions in proceedings by the opposition and violation of norms and precedents by the government, rampant absenteeism, actual hours of sitting as a percentage of available hours, phenomenon of weak legislative federalism via Rajya Sabha in the overall setting of parliamentary-federalism, challenges of new extra-parliamentary mass movements, and judicial activism. The new committee system introduced since 1993 is a welcome development. However, the parliamentary reforms recommended by the constitutional review commission (2002) remain unimplemented.     

India’s role during the 1956 Suez Crisis: Between peacemaking and postcolonial solidarity

ABSTRACT

The 1956 Suez conflict was not inevitable. The involvement of an impartial third party had offered an exit ramp for the main protagonists. Largely forgotten today, India strove to reconcile the interests of the Westerns powers with Arab nationalism. Displaying creativity and perseverance in attempting to arrest the sudden deterioration in security in its extended neighborhood, India’s unceasing but responsible support for a weaker Arab state in the backdrop of determined Western coercion is a useful illustration for contemporary policymakers who are attempting to craft a sustainable approach towards a tumultuous West Asia. Using previously unused archival documents, this paper adds to the small literature on India’s involvement in this crisis by offering the first detailed account of India’s attempt to prevent the outbreak of hostilities in those fateful months of 1956. By doing so, this article also reveals interesting facets of India’s approach to conflict management and regional stability in the 1950s, a role that was predicated on not just promoting strategic restraint between antagonistic states but also enabling conflict resolution options that preserved the vital interests of competing actors.     

Not all election winners are equal: Satisfaction with democracy and the nature of the vote

It is well known that individuals who voted for the winning party in an election tend to be more satisfied with democracy than those who did not. However, many winners deviate from their first choice when voting. It is argued in this article that the mechanisms that engender satisfaction operate less forcefully among such winners, thereby lessening the impact of victory on satisfaction. Results show that the gap in satisfaction over electoral losers among these ‘non‐optimal winners’ is, in fact, much smaller than that of ‘optimal winners’, who voted in line with their expressed preferences. A win matters more for those who have a bigger stake in victory. The article further explores how the effect of optimal victory on satisfaction varies across electoral systems.     

Indian homemade firearm--a technical review

A wide variety of homemade (country made) firearms are involved in crime cases in India. These firearms are made up of very cheap material and are not safe for firing. Moreover, the country made firearms are different in their design, loading and locking mechanism, cocking and firing arrangements. In this paper we have studied the characteristic features of 300 country made firearms received for examination in the Central Forensic Science Laboratory (CFSL), Chandigarh during last two decades. The characteristic features of these firearms are so unique that the fired crime bullets or cartridges can easily be matched with the test. It is hoped that such information will be useful for firearm experts in case of interpretation.