It is noteworthy that invaders over centuries managed to defeat Indian forces both on land and at sea and thus establish foreign rule over different parts of India. Why did this happen? The answers are many and varied, and include factors that are social, military, technology-related and economic as well as related to the differing mindsets of the opposed forces. This book draws on Indian history, and is intended to help readers form a well informed opinion of militarily significant events of the past that could well recur in some form in the future. It fills the gap between the ‘instant history’ popularized by journalists, and the dry scholarized by journalists, and the dry scholarly works of military historians. Battles and campaigns from 326 B.C. up to 2004 have been analysed, to find definite discernible recurring patterns in historical Indian military setbacks. Cultural factors influencing Indian military thought, and those trends which appear to recur throughout history, have been identified as the real reasons behind Indian strategic and battlefield mishaps. The Sino-Indian border dispute from 1950-1962, still continuing as ‘border negotiations’, and the Sri Lanka failure of 1987-90, both of which exemplify many of the recurring tendencies, are used as detailed case-studies.
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