The (mis)management of India’s higher direction of war

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Editor's note: The Indian Air Force is authorized 42 squadrons of fighter aircraft. The Indian Navy is authorized two aircraft carriers. The Indian Army is authorized four strike corps. Have you ever wondered how all this is decided? How much ammunition and spares are stocked by the armed forces? How many days of war are our soldiers prepared to fight for? “War is not merely a political act, but also a real political instrument, a continuation of political commerce, a carrying out of the same by other means,” observed the 19th century Prussian military thinker and strategist Carl von Clausewitz. This incontestable maxim in the field of strategy means that politics decides war. In India, where the military has had no political role since Independence, the actions of the armed forces are legitimately guided solely by the directions of the top political leadership. Considering that India is surrounded by two nuclear-armed adversaries in an unstable neighbourhood, and now lies in the theatre of contestation between two global powers, the United States and China, the directions given to the military from the political …