Chinese soldiering traditions date back to the Shang dynasty (1600 BC), with seminal strategists like Wu Qi and Sun Tzu propounding classic military treaties and instincts for the modern day ‘Terracotta’ warriors of the PLA (People’s Liberation Army). Across the Tibetan Plateau and the natural barriers of the Himalayan ranges, lies an even more ancient civilisation with its own profundities on war and martial traditions that the British Raj amalgamated and chiselled into a fine institution, Indian Defence Forces, the most combat-exposed outfit in the world today. Genealogically, as the two nations emerged from the bondages of foreign invasions – a certain heterogeneity of masses, absolutist power and ideology, along with expansionist tendencies ensured that the independent People’s Republic of China became a much larger entity as compared to the vivisected nations of British India, including India.
The two geographically-contiguous but historically-distanced civilisations morphed into modern states with competing ambitions and opposite systems – a totalitarian construct of efficiency got pitted against the surety of democracy. Unsettled borders and geostrategic impulses led to a war in 1962, and frequent border ‘skirmishes’ and standoffs, like the one in Doklam. In 1962, India was to pay a price for the institutionalised ‘secondment’ of its Armed forces and its security imperatives, especially when the PLA sensibilities were the centrifugal forces of Chinese governance. Professional forewarnings by India’s serving DGMO and the-then, recently retired Chief, General KS Timmayya, “I cannot, even as a soldier, envisage India taking on China in an open conflict on its own,” were rubbished and replaced by a puerile ‘forward posture’. The expected consequences followed in 1962, but the invaluable lessons learnt for posterity and the security dimensions have since never been the same. Quick confirmation of the change was indirectly showcased in the 1965 war, but very directly confirmed in the ‘limited’ war against the Chinese in 1967 (Nathu La and Cho La).
Read more at: http://www.millenniumpost.in/opinion/prudent-conflicts-254644