India's Ad Hoc Arsenal

282 Pages·2005·15.71 MB·English

India's Ad Hoc Arsenal
Direction or Drift in Defence Policy?
Stockholm International Peace Research Institute
SIPRI is an independent international institute for research into
problems of peace and conflict, especially those of arms control and
disarmament. It was established in 1966 to commemorate Sweden's
150 years of unbroken peace.
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Professor Daniel Tarschys, MP, Chairman (Sweden)
Sir Brian Urquhart, Vice-chairman (United Kingdom)
Dr Oscar Arias Sanchez (Costa Rica)
Dr Gyula Horn (Hungary)
Professor Catherine Kelleher (USA)
Dr Lothar Riihl (Germany)
The Director
Director
Dr Adam Daniel Rotfeld (Poland)
Stockholm International Peace Research Institute
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India's Ad Hoc Arsenal
Direction or Drift in Defence Policy?
Chris Smith
OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
1994
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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Data available
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Smith, Chris, 1955-
India's ad hoc arsena1:direction or drift in defence policy ?/Chris Smith.
"SIPRI"
Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index.
1. India-Military policy. 2. India-History, Military-20th
century. I. Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.
11. Title.
UA840.S624 1994 355". 033554--dc20 9344216
ISBN 0-19-829168-X (alk. paper)
Typeset and originated by Stockholm International Peace Research Institute
Printed in Great Britain
on acid-free paper by
Biddies Ltd, Guildford and King's Lynn
Contents
Preface
Acknowledgements
Acronyms and abbreviations
1. Introduction
2. India: regional security from Aryan times to the present
I. From the Aryans to the British: the legacy of invasion
11. Independence, partition and the war of 1947
111. Statehood and insecurity
IV. Indian security perceptions and international politics
V. Territorial integrity and the threat from the north-west
VI. Pakistan: limitations and capabilities
VII. India's national security problems and Sri Lanka
VIII. Bangladesh and the Himalayan kingdoms
IX. The China question
X. The Indian Ocean
XI. Domestic, regional and international: India and the seamless
web of security
Figure 2.1. The north-west frontier between India and Pakistan
Figure 2.2. The Rajastan desert and the Rann of Kutch
3. Defence policy and practice, 1947-62
I. Introduction
II. Defence before independence
111. Independence and the formation of defence policy
IV. The Blackett Report
V. The Indian Army
VI. The Indian Air Force
VII. The Indian Navy
VDI. Actors and institutions: the dynamics of defence policy
DC. Conclusion
Table 3.1. Selected Indian Air Force and Royal Air Force procurement,
1946-6 1
Table 3.2. Military expenditure and procurement of sophisticated
armament in India and Pakistan, 1948-62
Figure 3.1. Comparison of the rise and fall in major weapon supplies
to India and Pakistan, 1950-69
Figure 3.2. Comparison of the rise and fall in major weapon supplies
and defence expenditure in India, 1950-69
vi INDIA'S AD HOC ARSENAL
4. From humiliation to regional hegemony: the maturing of defence
policy, 1962-80
I. The Sino-Indian War of 1962
11. Defence policy
111. The 1964 rearmament programme
IV. The strengthening of Soviet-Indian relations
V. The 1965 Indo-Pakistani War: consolidation and a new
direction
VI. The 1971 Indo-Pakistani War: the Third Round
VII. The Soviet Union and India: burgeoning dependency
VIII. The Janata period: reduced dependency and increased
procurement
IX. Indian defence policy, 1962-80: answers in search of
problems
5. Indian arms imports, 1980-88
I. The new cold war and South Asia
II. The Indian response
III. The Indian Army
IV. The Indian Navy
V. The Indian Air Force
VI. Procurement in search of a policy?
6. India's defence sector, 1988-91
I. 1988: the end of an era
11. The Indian economy and the road to debt
111. The defence sector in the late 1980s
IV. The end of the rupee-rouble trade
V. India enters the arms bazaar
7. Indigenous defence production: the failure of
policy implementation
I. Indigenous defence production in the South
11. Making the commitment
111. Indigenous production for the Army
IV. Indigenous production for the Navy
V. Indigenous production for the Air Force
VI. The light combat aircraft: forward to the past?
VII. Indigenous defence production: unfulfilled expectations
8. Nuclear weapons and delivery systems
I. India and nuclear weapons: the early years
11. India and nuclear policy before the Non-Proliferation Treaty
111. Rejecting the Non-Proliferation Treaty
IV. 'Pokhran'-India's nuclear test
V. Nuclear policy under the Janata regime
VI. Nuclear issues in the 1980s
CONTENTS vii
VII. India, nuclear proliferation and the new world order
VIII. India, nuclear weapons and the NPT in the 1990s
DC. Nuclear stability in South Asia
X. Delivery systems
9. Defence decision making in India: the policy-making process
I. The making of defence policy
11. The decision making process and the political backdrop
Figure 9.1. The decision-making process in India before l966
Figure 9.2. The decision-making process in India since 1966
10. Conclusion
Appendix A. UN Security Council resolutions and decisions on
India-Pakistan in 1948
Appendix B. Agreement on bilateral relations between the
Government of India and the Government of Pakistan
Appendix C. Trade in and licensed production of major conventional
weapons by India and Pakistan, 1950-92
Appendix D. Bibliography
Index
Preface
During recent years and especially since the end of the Persian Gulf War, international
concern over the flow of military technology from North to South has risen
dramatically. Increasingly, however, there is a growing awareness of our inability to
understand why developing countries invest scarce resources on such a scale in
ambitious and often destabilizing defence programmes. While there is now a
widespread understanding that at the East-West level defence and security policies
were influenced as much by internal, domestic considerations as by the reactions to the
actions of perceived enemies, our understanding of what motivates developing
countries was and still is much less clear.
This book on the dynamics of India's defence policy since 1947 is an attempt to
explain why India has invested considerable resources in its armed forces since
independence and markedly during the 1980s. It is the first in a series of SIPRI
publications on the domestic influences on the defence policies and postures in
developing countries.
Over the past two years, India has seen economic and political sovereignty slip
slowly but undeniably from the grasp of national decision makers, largely as a result of
increasing intervention by multilateral aid agencies. The ideals which influenced
political economy for decades are now a memory. Ironically, in its attempts to ensure
national security, regional hegemony and simultaneously make a mark on the
international stage, the inflated defence budget has contributed to the loss of precisely
what Indians have consistently voted for and worked towards preserving-security and
sovereignty. National security has been acquired at the expense of economic security.
This is a dilemma which many countries are being forced to confront. The problems
call for broad political debate on the fundamental principles which guide defence and
foreign policies. While all nation states have the right to acquire the means to national
security, there should always be close consideration of how much is enough and at
which point the means defeat the ends.
In this book, SIPRI hopes to stimulate debate on the direction which Indian defence
policy has taken over the past four decades. Many other countries will have to consider
their own in the coming years. More of the same will not bring India increased
security, in the broadest sense. Nor will it acquire for India either the security or the
international prominence the nation so obviously deserves.
Adam Daniel Rotfeld
Director of SIPRI
January 1994