THE key to making the Indian Army “Future-Ready” is in the country’s glorious history and tradition of statecraft and the science of warfare. This is the inference the Indian Army arrived at as it delved deeper into battles of Mahabharata, epics heroic exploits of great military figures. The idea was not just to understand the details of past warfare -- since such exercise is traditionally conducted by most Armed Forces around the world. In what it described as ‘Project Udbhav’, the Indian Army got itself engaged in serious and deep research of various intangible aspects of the art and science of warfare as practised by ancient India -- led by Chief of Army Staff General Manoj Pande. This development needs to be appreciated wholeheartedly because of its core idea. The purpose is obviously to keep the Indian Army “Future-Ready”, as the Army chief stated at a conference. Over the time, India’s strategic perception has evolved around the possibility that it may have to play a key role in geopolitical developments in the coming decades. Strategic brilliance of Indian military leaders of the past has been well known and well documented -- whose spirit the Indian Army wishes to understand for its future-readiness. There is no doubt that this scholarly approach will strengthen the Indian Army’s strategic capabilities.

 

What needs to be noted that even as Army chief General Manoj Pande talked of Project Udbhav, Chief of Defence Services (CDS) General Anil Chauhan asked all wings of the Indian Defence Forces to evolve a joint culture so that the concept of ‘Theatre Command’ could be implemented more efficiently. The idea has been fully incubated, and the leaders of the Indian Defence Forces are waiting for the green signal to start putting the idea into practical operation. The basic condition is a joint cultural ecosystem that will facilitate smoother, more efficient operations -- in peace or war. Hence the appeal by General Anil Chauhan to the Forces to make special efforts to evolve a joint culture that would provide a foundation for action in future conflicts or geopolitical stress points. It must be admitted that the Indian Armed Forces did not take such an approach at any time in the past since Independence. With national leadership only marginally interested in developments on the strategic front, the Indian Armed Forces were traditional in their approach and rather sectarian in the handling of their own issues and operations. Rarely were there combined operations that tested the collaborative capabilities of the various wings.

 

In the past 8-10 years, however, India’s national leadership evolved the philosophy of using military diplomacy as as a strategic tool from the point of strength. This evolution became the source-point of the concept of theatre commands (which otherwise lay dormant in files in some godforsaken places in the Ministry of Defence). Now, India’s national and military leaderships are working in tandem to make the concept of theatre commands successful in every which the way. The sharing of information about Project Udbhav by General Manoj Pande and of the assertion of eagerness on the idea of theatre commands by General Anil Chauhan simultaneously was not just an accidental happening. There are reasons to believe that both the ideas are integral parts of the keen desire of the national leadership to make the Indian Armed Forces ‘Future-Ready’. The parallel insistence of the national leadership on indigenisation of defence production in full strength also needs to be considered with a sense of appreciation by the nation. Possibly for the first time, such a thought and action are being undertaken.