Indian Strategic Culture: The Bramhaputra & Kautilyan Ways of War cover
Historical Non Fiction

Indian Strategic Culture

byMaj. Gen. G D Bakshi

The Mahabharata and the Kautilyan Ways of War

A combat veteran's case for recovering Kautilyan and Mahabharata war doctrine as the foundation of Indian military strategy.

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Language
English
Binding / Format
Paperback
ISBN
9798885751865
Pages
—
Published
—
Category
Historical Non Fiction

Overview

China's People's Liberation Army still studies Sun Tzu's Art of War — a text from the 3rd century BCE — because its strategists believe a multi-polar era of competing powers resembles the Warring States period that produced it. India's equivalent texts, the Mahabharata and Kautilya's Arthashastra, were written in an equally turbulent era of contending mahajanapadas, yet they remain largely absent from Indian military doctrine.

Major General G.D. Bakshi, a decorated combat veteran who commanded units in active operations in Jammu and Kashmir, makes the case that India needs to indigenise not just its weapons but its strategic thinking. He traces the Kautilyan way of war — a long covert destabilisation campaign followed by a swift, concentrated military strike, often using massed war elephants for shock effect — and argues that this exact pattern re-emerged, without anyone consciously planning it, in India's 1971 Bangladesh operation, which broke Pakistan in thirteen days. The book also includes a rigorous three-way comparison of Kautilya, Machiavelli, and Sun Tzu.

For scholars of strategic studies and serving officers alike, the argument is direct: India already has a strategic tradition equal to anything the West or China can produce. The work needed is recovery, not invention.

ABOUT THE BOOK:- Each country has its own distinctive Strategic Culture and Way of War Fighting that evolves over time and tends to outlast the era of its inception. Thus, the Chinese PLA still assiduously studies Sun Zi Bing Fa ( Sun Tzu's Art of War) that was written in the 3rd Century BCE. They are convinced that this text has valuable lessons for the current era, for it was written in a similar Multi-Polar era of the Warring States. So were the Mahabharata and Kautilya's Arthashastra written in a similar era of Multi-Polar power equations that had constantly warring maha janapadas (major states) in India. These two seminal texts represent the quintessential Indian Strategic Culture and way of War-Fighting that is deeply ingrained in our psyche. Today, we need to urgently study our Traditional Knowledge Systems, for they represent our innate genius and way of waging war. Not only do we need to indigenise the design and production of our weapon systems, equally, we need to indigenise our military doctrines and way of waging war. Hence the need to study the Mahabharata's and Kautilya's ways of waging war, because they have very significant lessons for us today. The Kautilyan way of war was premised upon waging a long covert campaign of destabilisation and psy-ops to break the balance of the enemy state. Then, a swift and sharp military campaign was launched in the wake of the extended de-stabilisation campaign. Massed war elephants were used to produce shock and awe and speed up the campaign. Amazingly, the same war-fighting design emerged unconsciously in the Bangladesh War of 1971, when, in just 13 days, India broke Pakistan into two and liberated the whole country of Sonar Bangla. The author has carried out a comparative analysis of Kautilya with Machiavelli and Sun Tzu that would be useful for scholars and soldiers alike. Major General (Dr.) G.D. Bakshi, SM, VSM (Retd.) is a decorated combat veteran who was commissioned in the 6th Battalion of the Jammu & Kashmir rifles in 1971. He commanded his Battalion, Brigade and Division in active combat environments in J&K. He became a turn-around specialist and turned defeat into victory in very tough assignments. He has authored 46 books and written over 400 papers for prestigious defence journals. A highly popular TV commentator, he lectures extensively on the subjects of leadership, motivation and national security and is a thought leader on these issues. Currently, he is the editor of Indian Military Review, the defense monthly journal that has the largest circulation in India. In 2018, he was conferred the Chandra Shekhar Rashtriya Samman award by the Govt. of Madhya Pradesh.

Author

Maj. Gen. G D Bakshi photo
Maj. Gen. G D Bakshi

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:- Major General (Dr.) G. D. Bakshi, SM, VSM (Retd.) is a combat veteran of many skirmishes on the LC and Counter-Terrorist operations in J&K and Punjab. He commanded his battalion in active operations in Kargil and was awarded the Vishisht Seva Medal. Later, he commanded a brigade in Counter-Terrorist operations in the very rugged mountains of Kishtwar and was awarded the Sena Medal for his distinguished services. He subsequently commanded the reputed Romeo Force during intensive Counter-Terrorist operations in the Rajouri-Punch Districts of J&K in the wake of Op Sarp Vinash and succeeded in pacifying the area. In these repeated combat tenures, he became something of a turn-around specialist-turning defeat into victory. He has served two tenures at the highly prestigious Directorate General of Military Operations (during Op Pawan and Op Vijay) and was the first BGS (IW) at HQ Northern Command where he dealt with Information Warfare and Psychological Operations. He is a prolific writer-on matters military and non-military-and has published 45 books and over 400 papers in many prestigious research journals. His articles have also been published in various national newspapers. He taught at the Indian Military Academy at Dehradun, and at the Prestigious Defence Services Staff College at Wellington for three years each. He taught at the National Defense College at New Delhi for two years and retired from this prestigious assignment in June 2008. He holds a Masters degree in Defence Science and an M. Phil. in Strategic Studies from the University of Madras. He later completed his Ph.D. from the same University on "Limited Wars in South Asia." Post his retirement, he was a Senior Fellow at the Centre for Strategic Studies and Simulations at the USI and later served as Deputy Director Research at the Vivekananda International Foundation. He is currently the Editor of Indian Military Review. He was Senior Security Advisor (Consultant) to Reliance Industries Limited for five years. His major books include Afghanistan-the First Fault line War, War in the 21st Century, The Indian Art Of War, The Paradox of Pakistan, The Rise of Indian Military Power: Evolution of an Indian Strategic Culture and Limited Wars in South Asia. He has also written many books on Indian Philosophy-in both Hindi and English. He appears regularly on major TV News Channels as an expert on the subjects of terrorism and national security. He lectures frequently at the Army War College, the College of Defense Management, the College of Materials Management, The National Defence Academy and the National Police Academy and also at the IAS Academy Mussorie. He has been featured in innumerable documentaries and talk shows on television on issues of National Security. He is an acknowledged thought leader in this domain. He comes from a military family and his elder brother Capt. S.R. Bakshi was killed in action in the 1965 War. The road in Jabalpur (where their ancestral house is located) is named after his brother.

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