Fighting Like a Guerrilla: The Indian Army and Counterinsurgency (War and International Politics in South Asia)

231 Pages·2008·3 MB·English

by  Rajesh Rajagopalan

FIGHTING LIKE A GUERRILLA
Studies in War and International Politics
Series Editor: Srinath Raghavan
Lecturer,
King’s College London,
University of London.
is Series seeks to foster original and rigorous solarship on the dynamics
of war and international politics in South Asia. Following Clausewitz, war is
understood as both a political and a social phenomenon whi manifests
itself in a variety of forms ranging from total wars to armed insurrections.
International politics is closely intertwined with it, for war not only plays an
important role in the formation of an international order but is also a threat
to its continued existence. e Series will therefore focus on the
international as well as domestic dimensions of war and security in South
Asia. Comparative studies with other geographical areas are also of interest.
A fundamental premise of this Series is that we cannot do justice to the
complexities of war by studying it from any single, privileged academic
standpoint; the phenomenon is best explained in a multidisciplinary and
interdisciplinary framework. e Series welcomes a wide array of
approaes, paradigms and methodologies, and is interested in historical,
theoretical and policy oriented solarship. In addition to monographs, the
Series will from time to time publish collections of essays.
Fighting Like a Guerrilla
e Indian Army and Counterinsurgency
Rajesh Rajagopalan
First published 2008
by Routledge
912-915 Tolstoy House, 15-17 Tolstoy Marg, New Delhi 110 001
Simultaneously published in the UK
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
Transferred to Digital Printing 2009
© 2008 Rajesh Rajagopalan
Typeset by
Star Compugraphics Private Limited
5-CSC, 1st Floor
Vasundhara Enclave
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All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilised in
any form or by any electronic, meanical or other means, now known or
hereaer invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any
information storage and retrieval system without permission in writing from
the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record of this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN 0-415-45684-5
To My Wife Raji
‘Fight the Guerrilla Like a Guerrilla’
—Motto of the Counterinsurgency and Jungle Warfare School (CIJWS), Vairengte, India
Contents
Anowledgements
1. e Puzzle: Conventional Armies and Guerrilla Wars
2. Guerrilla Wars and International Political eory
3. Taming the Tigers: e IPKF in Sri Lanka
4. Evolution of the Indian Army's Counterinsurgency Doctrine
5. Assessing the Explanations
Bibliography
Index
Anowledgements
I accumulated many debts in writing this book. Unfortunately, I can only
anowledge some of them here. Professors Howard H. Lentner and Donald
Zagoria supervised the Ph.D. dissertation on whi this book is based. But
for their gentle prodding, I may still have been at it. Many other members of
the faculty at the Department of Political Science of the City University of
New York-Graduate Center helped in different ways, particularly Professors
Ofuatey-Kodjoe, Andrew J. Polsky, Bernard Brown and Asher Arian.
Professor Sumit Ganguly guided me during the early phase of this work.
e departments of political science at Hunter College, City College,
eens College and Brooklyn College, and the Ralph Bune Institute on
the United Nations (now the Ralph Bune Institute for International
Studies), all of the City University of New York, provided me employment
and helped finance my resear. Additional funding was provided by the
Department of Political Science of the City University of New York-
Graduate Center. I was allowed the use of many excellent libraries in India
including those of the Institute for Defense Studies and Analyses (IDSA),
New Delhi, the United Services Institution of India, New Delhi, and the
Defence Services Staff College (DSSC), Wellington. I would like to thank the
library staff of these institutions for their assistance. Lieutenant-Colonel
Anil Bha arranged for my trip to the DSSC, and C. Arasakumaran, the
senior civilian staff officer at DSSC, helped make my visit a fruitful one.
Interviews and discussions with a large number of army officers helped me
understand the Indian Army a lile beer. I must particularly thank Lt-Gen.
V. R. Raghavan.
I had the benefit of excellent feedba on various parts of this manuscript
from many officers of the Indian Army and other Indian security forces.
Many were friends and colleagues at IDSA, including Brigadier Gurmeet
Kanwal, Mr Kulbir Kishan, Brigadier Devinder Singh, Colonel D. K. Jamwal,
Commandant N. S. Jamwal and Major Sudhir Nair. At Routledge, Srinath
Raghavan, Nilanjan Sarkar and Jaya Dalal guided the manuscript to its
completion with great patience. Detailed comments from Routledge’s
anonymous referee helped remove many inaccuracies and clarify some key
points.
In one way or another, most of my friends lent a hand. I should
particularly mention Allison L. C. de Cerrano, Himadeep Muppidi,
Vakulabharanam Rajagopal, Vamsi Vakulabharanam, Vijay Burgula, Biju
Mathews, Varun Sahni, Siddharth Mallavarapu, V. Muralidharan, S.
Saravanan, Sunil Adam, Punita Ghosh, P. R. Kumaraswamy, Sunil Dasgupta,
Bhashyam Kasturi and Udita and Kashyap. I have had the honour to work
with Air Commodore Jasjit Singh and General V. P. Malik, and have
benefited from their assistance in many ways. Dr C. Raja Mohan has been a
constant source of inspiration, encouragement and support.
Being a graduate student in New York City was not easy. My aunt, Dr
Sheela Sharma, was my banker of last resort, and her frequent financial
contributions allowed me to complete the first iteration of this manuscript.
Dr Koji Nakayama read parts of this work with a historian’s eye. e
confidence that my parents, Easwari Rajagopalan and Narayanan
Rajagopalan, and my sister, Rajitha Kartha, had in me never wavered, and it
provided immeasurable comfort.