The state of the Indian military: historical role and contemporary challenges

ABSTRACT

This article gives an overview of the state of the Indian military by assessing its overall performance, current debates, and future challenges. While doing so it covers three main subjects – the role of the military in nation-building, contemporary challenges, and defence reforms. This covers a wide range of issues, from the military’s historical role – in wars and domestic counter-insurgencies, current threats, and missions to preparing for the future. In the penultimate section, it describes debates on defence reforms and military transformation triggered by the creation in 2019 of the post of Chief of Defence staff. It concludes with an overview of state-military relations and identifies some areas for future research.

KEYWORDS:

• India
• state of the military
• nation-building
• military transformation
• defence reforms
• civil–military relations

Acknowledgments

The author would like to thank the editor of this Special Issue, Aparna Pande, for her engagement and guidance. In addition, I would like to thank Jenniefer Setiawan for research support and assistance.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).