‘Just another border incident’: The Rann of Kutch and the 1965 India–Pakistan War

ABSTRACT

The India–Pakistan War of September 1965 has attracted little attention in the larger body of work on South Asia. Further, almost nothing has been written on the earlier skirmish, in April 1965, between Indian and Pakistani security forces in the Rann-of-Kutch, an uninhabited salt marsh. This article argues that the limited conflict in the Rann, its immediate consequences, and its impact on Pakistani military and civilian leaders were central to Pakistan’s consideration of a military solution to the ongoing dispute in Kashmir, which then led to Indian retaliation and the outbreak of war.

KEYWORDS:

• Rann of Kutch
• India & Pakistan
• Harold Wilson
• Lyndon Johnson
• Ayub Khan

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

¹ Note: The IB divides India and Pakistan. The demarcation was completed in August 1947 and was formerly known as the Radcliffe Line. The IB is not the same as the Line of Control that divides Indian and Pakistani-administered Kashmir.

² [Austin, United States of America, Lyndon B. Johnson Presidential Library; hereafter LBJPL], National Security Files [hereafter NSF], Box 129, Vol. 12:64–6:65, Embassy in Bombay to Dean Rusk, Bombay, 10 April 1965.

³ [New Delhi, National Archives; hereafter NA] Ministry of External Affairs papers [Hereafter MEA], File Number: P V 152 (12)/1965, ‘Dispute raised by Pakistan regarding the Kutch-Sind Boundary’.

⁴ [NA] MEA, ‘T’ Branch, File Number 9/12/65-T, ‘Exchange of notes between India and Pakistan’, Pakistani High Commissioner in India to the Secretary, MEA, New Delhi, 14 July 1948.

⁵ [NA] MEA, ‘T’ Branch, File Number 9/12/65-T, ‘Exchange of notes between India and Pakistan’, Indian High Commissioner in Pakistan to the Secretary, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Commonwealth Relations (MFA), Karachi, 10 August 1949.

⁶ [LBJPL] NSF, Box 129, Vol. 12:64–6:65, Embassy in Bombay to Dean Rusk, Bombay, 10 April 1965. Also see: Paul M. McGarr, The Cold War in South Asia: Britain, the United States and the Indian Subcontinent, 1945–1965 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013), 304.

⁷ [LBJPL] NSF, Box 129, Vol. 12:64–6:65, Embassy in Bombay to Dean Rusk, Bombay, 10 April 1965.

⁸ [LBJPL] NSF, Box 129, Vol. 12:64–6:65. Chester Bowles to Dean Rusk, New Delhi, 24 April 1965.

⁹ The Times, ‘India puts its border casualties at 65’, 27 April 1965.

¹⁰ Dawn, ‘No talks under shadow of bayonets’, 17 April 1965.

¹¹ Times of India, ‘Massive attack by Pak army repulsed in Kutch’, 24 April 1965.

¹² [LBJPL] NSF, Box 129, Vol. 12:64–6:65, Rusk to Bowles, 27 April 1965.

¹³ For a background, see: Dennis Kux, The United States and Pakistan 1947–2000 (Washington: Woodrow Wilson Centre Press, 2001), 153–158, and Robert J. McMahon, The Cold War in the Periphery: The United States, India, and Pakistan (New York: Columbia University Press, 1994), 305–336.

¹⁴ [Kew, United Kingdom; hereafter TNA] DO 196/369, ‘Pakistan: The Rann of Kutch Dispute’, Acting British High Commissioner in Pakistan to the Secretary of State for Commonwealth Relations’, 3 August 1965.

¹⁵ Note: That Pakistan instigated rebellion in August 1965 is well documented, including in Pakistani sources. See: Altaf Gauhar, Ayub Khan: Pakistan’s First Military Ruler (Lahore: Sang-E-Meel Publications, 1993), 312–319.

¹⁶ Note: The fullest account of the clashes in the Rann can be found in Farooq Bajwa, From Kutch to Tashkent: The Indo-Pakistan War of 1965 (London: Hurst and Co., 2013), 65–95.

¹⁷ Shuja Nawaz, Crosses Swords: Pakistan, its Army, and the Wars Within (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008), 200–201.

¹⁸ Dawn, ‘Four Indian soldiers die, 35 captured’, 11 April 1965.

¹⁹ Bajwa, From Kutch to Tashkent, 75.

²⁰ Gauhar, Ayub Khan, 270. Also see: Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri, Neither a Hawk Nor a Dove: An Insiders Account of Pakistan’s Foreign Policy (New Delhi: Penguin, 2015), 410–411.

²¹ For a brief background, see: Ayesha Jalal, The Struggle for Pakistan: A Muslim Homeland and Global Politics (Boston: Harvard University Press, 2014), 118–121.

²² A short and engaging account can be found in: T. C. A. Raghavan, The people next door: The curious history of India’s relations with Pakistan (New Delhi: Harper Collins, 2017), 75–79.

²³ Navnita Chadha Behera, Demystifying Kashmir (Washington DC: Brooking’s Institution Press, 2006), 76–80.

²⁴ For a brief account of how Pakistan read the crisis in Indian-administered Kashmir, see: Ian Talbot, Pakistan: A Modern History (London: Hurst, 2009), 172–179.

²⁵ For an excellent note, see: Christopher Snedden, Kashmir: The Unwritten History (London: Hurst, 2012), 89–99.

²⁶ Chester Bowles, Promises to Keep: My Years in Public Life 1941–1969 (New York: Harper & Row. 1971), 501–503.

²⁷ Stephen P. Cohen, The Pakistan Army (California: Univ. Of California, 1984), 139.

²⁸ Sumit Ganguly, Conflict Unending: India-Pakistan Tensions since 1947 (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2002), 31. Also see: Husain Haqqani, Magnificent Delusions: Pakistan, the United States, and an Epic History of Misunderstanding (New York: Public Affairs, 2013), 110–111.

²⁹ Nawaz, Crossed Swords, 20–23.

³⁰ Saadet Deger and Somnath Sen, ‘Military Security and the Economy: Defence Expenditure in India and Pakistan’ in Keith Hartley and Todd Sandler (eds), The Economics of Defence Spending: An International Survey (London: Routledge, 1990), 197–8. Note: These figures are calculated according to 1980 currency exchange rates.

³¹ Deba Mohanty, Arming the Indian Arsenal: Challenges and Policy Options (New Delhi: Rupa, 2009), 84–5.

³² Note: The five-year plan initially demanded 5.9% of India’s GNP, see: Foreign Relations of the United States, Volume XXV, ‘Memorandum for Record between Robert McNamara and Chester Bowles’, 31 March, 1964, 73.

³³ Stephen Cohen, ‘US Weapons and South Asia: a Policy Analysis’, Pacific Affairs 49/1 (Spring, 1976), 49–69.

³⁴ [TNA] DO 196/360, Permanent Representative of India to the President of the UN Security Council, New York, 11 April 1965.

³⁵ [NA] MEA, File Number: P V 152 (12), 1965, ‘Dispute raised by Pakistan regarding the Kutch-Sind Boundary’.

³⁶ [TNA] DO 196/360, Permanent Representative of Pakistan to the President of the UN Security Council, New York, 18 April 1965.

³⁷ [TNA] DO 196/360, ‘Brief prepared for the Secretary of State’s meeting with the President of India, 15 April 1965.

³⁸ [TNA] DO 196/369, Acting British High Commissioner in India to the CRO, 19 July 1962.

³⁹ [NA] MEA, File No. 9/12/65-T, ‘Pakistani Note’, 1 January 1960 in ‘Notes exchanged between the Government of India and Pakistan regarding the boundary between Kutch (Bombay) and Sind (West Pakistan) Volume II’.

⁴⁰ Ibid.

⁴¹ [NA] MEA Papers, No. 62 (1) P/48–1893, Note, High Commission of Pakistan in India to the Secretary, MEA, 14 July 1948.

⁴² [TNA] DO 196/369John Freeman to the CRO, 30 July 1965.

⁴³ Ibid.

⁴⁴ [NA] MEA, File No. 9/12/65-T, ‘Indian Note’, 8 January 1960 in ‘Notes exchanged between the Government of India and Pakistan regarding the boundary between Kutch (Bombay) and Sind (West Pakistan) Volume II’.

⁴⁵ Ibid.

⁴⁶ For a detailed account, see: ‘The Indo-Pakistani-Western Boundary (The Rann of Kutch) between India and Pakistan’, 19 February 1968, Volume XVII, United Nations, available at: http://legal.un.org/riaa/cases/vol_XVII/1-576.pdf. An abridged note can be found at: ‘India and Pakistan: Award in Rann of Kutch Arbitration’, International Legal Material 7/3 (May 1968), 633–705.

⁴⁷ Farzana Khan, ‘The Rann of Kutch Award’, Pakistan Horizon 21/2 (Second Quarter 1968), 123–127.

⁴⁸ [NA] MEA, File No. 9/12/65-T, ‘Pakistani Note’, 1 January 1960 in ‘Notes exchanged between the Government of India and Pakistan regarding the boundary between Kutch (Bombay) and Sind (West Pakistan) Volume II’.

⁴⁹ [NA] Permanent Representative of Pakistan to the President of the UN Security Council, New York, 18 April 1965.

⁵⁰ [NA] MEA, PAK-I, File No. P1/108/146/65, ‘Kutch Aggression’ May to July 1965.

⁵¹ S. N. Prasad and U. P. Thapliyal (Ed.), The India-Pakistan War of 1965: A History (New Delhi: Natraj Publishers, 2011), 20.

⁵² [TNA] DO 196/369,‘Pakistan: The Rann of Kutch Dispute’, Acting British High Commissioner in Pakistan to the Secretary of State for Commonwealth Relations’, 3 August 1965.

⁵³ [LBJPL] NSF Country Files: India, Box 129, Vol. 4, 12:64–6:65, Shastri to Johnson, 11 February 1965.

⁵⁴ NSF Country Files: India, Box 129, Vol. 4, 12:64–6:65, Rusk to Karachi, 18 Dec.1965.

⁵⁵ [TNA] DO 196/360, D. A. Scott to CRO, New Delhi, 9 March 1965.

⁵⁶ [TNA] DO 196/369, ‘India: The Rann of Kutch Dispute’, British High Commissioner in India to the Secretary of State for Commonwealth Relations’, 30 July 1965.

⁵⁷ Gauhar, Ayub Khan, 265–270.

⁵⁸ [LBJPL] NSF Country Files: India, Box 129, Vol. 4, 12:64–6:65, Rusk to Karachi, 14 December 1965.

⁵⁹ For a background, see: Gauhar, Ayub Khan, 291–303 & 80–89; and Bajwa, From Kutch to Tashkent, 69–73.

⁶⁰ [TNA] DO 196/369, ‘India: The Rann of Kutch Dispute’, British High Commissioner in India to the Secretary of State for Commonwealth Relations’, 30 July 1965.

⁶¹ Times of India, ‘Indian troops re-occupy Sardar post’, 11 April 1965.

⁶² Gauhar, Ayub Khan, 307–310.

⁶³ Dawn, ‘Four Indian soldiers die’, 11 April 1965.

⁶⁴ [TNA] DO 196/360, Morris James to CRO, Karachi, 12 April 1965.

⁶⁵ For an operational level history told from both Indian and Pakistani perspectives, see: Prasad and Thapliyal (Ed.), The India-Pakistan War of 1965, 16–36 and Shaukat Riza, The Pakistan Army: War of 1965 (Dehra Dun: Natraj Publishers, 1977), 77–98.

⁶⁶ [TNA] DO 196/369, ‘India: The Rann of Kutch Dispute’, British High Commissioner in India to the Secretary of State for Commonwealth Relations’, 30 July 1965.

⁶⁷ [TNA] DO 196/360, New Delhi to CRO, 25 April 1965.

⁶⁸ Prasad and Thapliyal (Ed.), The India-Pakistan War of 1965, 34–36.

⁶⁹ [LBJPL] NSF Country Files: India, Box 129, Vol. 4, 12:64–6:65 [Telegram I], Bowles to Rusk, 24 April 1965.

⁷⁰ [LBJPL] NSF Country Files: India, Box 129, Vol. 4, 12:64–6:65 [Telegram II], Bowles to Rusk, 24 April 1965.

⁷¹ [LBJPL] NSF Country Files: India, Box 129, Vol. 4, 12:64–6:65 [Telegram III], Bowles to Rusk, 24 April 1965.

⁷² [LBJPL] NSF Country Files: India, Box 129, Vol. 4, 12:64–6:65, Philips Talbot to Bowles, 27 April 1965.

⁷³ [TNA] DO 196/360, British Embassy in Washington to FO, 27 April 1965.

⁷⁴ [TNA] DO 196/360, CRO to New Delhi and Karachi, 26 April 1965.

⁷⁵ Philip Ziegler, Wilson: The Authorised Life (London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1993), 220.

⁷⁶ [TNA] PREM 13/390, Karachi to CRO, 25 April 1965.

⁷⁷ [TNA] DO 196/300, Karachi to CRO, 25 April 1965.

⁷⁸ [LBJPL] NSF Country Files: India, Box 129, Vol. 4, 12:64–6:65, Bowles to Rusk, 27 April 1965.

⁷⁹ [LBJPL] NSF Country Files: India, Box 129, Vol. 4, 12:64–6:65, Rusk to Bowles, 3 May 1965.

⁸⁰ [TNA] DO 196/361, Wilson to Ayub, 27 April 1965, DO 196/360 and D. L. Sykes to C. S. Pickard, 30 April 1965.

⁸¹ [TNA] DO 196/361, D. L. Sykes to C. S. Pickard, 30 April 1965.

⁸² Note: On Ayub’s more general thinking about the role of the U.S. and the U.K., see: Gauhar, Ayub Khan, 312–315.

⁸³ [TNA] DO 196/361, Ayub to Wilson, 30 Apr.1965.

⁸⁴ [TNA] DO 196/369, ‘India: The Rann of Kutch Dispute’, British High Commissioner in India to the Secretary of State for Commonwealth Relations’, 30 July 1965.

⁸⁵ [TNA] DO 196/361, Ayub to Wilson, 30 April 1965.

⁸⁶ Ibid.

⁸⁷ Note: The Indian protest note to the UN made clear that India was willing to organise a meeting between two survey generals with the view to demarcate an already defined border. See: DO 196/360, Permanent Representative of India to the President of the UN Security Council, New York, 11 April 1965.

⁸⁸ The Times, ‘Britain call for ceasefire in Rann of Kutch Dispute’, 28 April 1965.

⁸⁹ [TNA] DO 196/360, New Delhi to CRO, 25 April 1965.

⁹⁰ Note: this was first made clear on 14 April. See: [TNA] DO 196/360, New Delhi to CRO, 14 April 1965. Also see: [TNA] DO 196/361, Freeman to CRO, 30 April 1965.

⁹¹ [TNA] DO 196/360, Freeman to CRO, 17 April 1965.

⁹² The Times, ‘Grave charges in border clash of India and Pakistan’, 14 April 1965.

⁹³ Dawn, ‘Kanjarkot in Pakistan Territory’, 15 April 1965; and Dawn, ‘Delhi move to gain time for ran build-up’, 21 April 1965.

⁹⁴ [TNA] DO 196/361, Freeman to CRO, 30 April 1965.

⁹⁵ [TNA] DO 196/369, ‘India: The Rann of Kutch Dispute’, British High Commissioner in India to the Secretary of State for Commonwealth Relations’, 30 July 1965.

⁹⁶ Ibid.

⁹⁷ [TNA] DO 196/367, CRO to Freeman, 26 June 1965.

⁹⁸ [TNA] DO 196/366, Note, ‘Brief discussion with President Ayub’, 14 June 1965.

⁹⁹ [TNA] DO 196/367, CRO to Freeman, 26 Jun, 1965.

¹⁰⁰ Dawn, ‘Armies get orders for pull back, says President’, 2 July 1965.

¹⁰¹ Times of India, ‘Sovereignty surrendered’, 1 July 1965.

¹⁰² ‘War will hurt Delhi beyond repairs’, says Ayub, Dawn, 20 June 1965.

¹⁰³ Dawn, ‘Demoralisation has overtaken people of India’, 7 May 1965.

¹⁰⁴ Gauhar, Ayub Khan, 311–19.

¹⁰⁵ [LBJPL] NSF Country Files: India, Box 129, Vol. 4, 12:64–6:65, Appraisal, CIA ‘Intelligence Information Cable’, 28 April 1965.

¹⁰⁶ [LBJPL] NSF Country Files: India, Box 129, Vol. 4, 12:64–6:65, Rusk to Bowles, 1 June 1965.

¹⁰⁷ [LBJPL] NSF Country Files: India, Box 129, Vol. 4, 12:64–6:65, Bowles to Rusk, 27 April 1965.

¹⁰⁸ [LBJPL] NSF Country Files: India, Box 129, Vol. 4, 12:64–6:65, Bowles to Rusk, 23 May 1965.

¹⁰⁹ [LBJPL] NSF Country Files: India, Box 129, Vol. 4, 12:64–6:65, Rawalpindi to Rusk, 11 June 1965.

¹¹⁰ Gauhar, Ayub Khan, 312–315.

¹¹¹ Khan, Glimpses into the corridors of power, 90.

¹¹² [TNA] DO 196/368, Karachi to CRO, 1 July 1965.

¹¹³ Bajwa, From Kutch to Tashkent, 95.

¹¹⁴ [NA] MEA, File Number WII/103(2)/65, Muni Lal (High Commission of India, Trinidad) to B. K. Sanyal (Director, Europe), 7 July 1965.

¹¹⁵ [TNA] DO 196/369, E. L. Sykes to C. S. Pickard, 19 July 1965.

¹¹⁶ ibid. For a background, see: Paul Gore-Booth, With great truth and respect (London: Constable, 1974), 299–313, and McGarr, The Cold War in South Asia, 312–313.

¹¹⁷ [LBJPL] NSF Country Files: India, Box 129, Vol. 5, 6:65–9:65, Bowles to Rusk, 14 August 1965.

¹¹⁸ Foreign Relations of the United States, South Asia, Volume XXV, Rusk to Bowles, 8 August 1965, Document 164, Available at: https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1964-68v25/ch1.

¹¹⁹ [NA] Information and Broadcasting Ministry (hereafter I & B), File Number 9/1/65-KP, ‘Story of the First Encounter with Raiders in Poonch.’

¹²⁰ [TNA] DEFE 44/102, ‘The India-Pakistan War, 1965.

¹²¹ [LBJPL] NSF Country Files: India, Box 129, Vol. 5, 6:65–9:65, Bowles to Rusk, 14 August 1965.

¹²² [New Delhi, Nehru Memorial Museum & Library; hereafter NMML] Subject File 45, V. L. Pandit Papers., Note to Vijayalakshmi Pandit (the senders name is left blank), 15 September 1965.

¹²³ Gauhar, Ayub Khan, 327.

¹²⁴ [TNA] DEFE 44/102, ‘The India-Pakistan War, 1965.

¹²⁵ Foreign Relations of the United States, South Asia, Volume XXV, Rusk to Karachi, 10 August 1965, Document 167, Available at: https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1964-68v25/ch1.

¹²⁶ [TNA] DO 196/369, British High Commission in Karachi to CRO, 8 August 1965.

¹²⁷ [LBJPL] NSF Country Files: India, Box 129, Vol. 5, 6:65–9:65, Bowles to Rusk, 27 August 1965.

¹²⁸ [LBJPL] NSF Country Files: India, Box 129, Vol. 5, 6:65–9:65, Horace Torbart (White House) to J. W. Fulbright, 21 September 1965, Note: Whilst the formal order in the U.S. to stop arms shipments to India and Pakistan was taken on 21 September, effectively, this had ended a fortnight earlier on 9 September: [TNA] DEFE 44/102, ‘The India-Pakistan War, 1965.

¹²⁹ Ben Pimlott, Harold Wilson (London: Harper Collins, 1992), 388–395.

¹³⁰ [NMML] Subject File 44, V. L. Pandit Papers, ‘Note on Sino-Pak and China attitude towards Kashmir’, 22 October 1965.

¹³¹ [TNA] DEFE 44/102, ‘The India-Pakistan War, 1965. Also see: Gauhar, Ayub Khan, 347.

¹³² [NMML] Subject File 44, V. L. Pandit Papers, ‘Note on Sino-Pak and China attitude towards Kashmir’, 22 October 1965.

¹³³ Gauhar, Ayub Khan, 352–353.

¹³⁴ Ibid, 347–355.

¹³⁵ [TNA] DEFE 44/102, ‘The India-Pakistan War, 1965.

¹³⁶ Khan, Glimpses into the corridors of power, 98–102.

¹³⁷ Lawrence Ziring, The Ayub Khan era: Politics in Pakistan, 1958–1969 (New York: Syracuse University Press, 1971), 63–65.

¹³⁸ [NMML] Subject file No. 18, T. N. Kaul papers, ‘Note: Investigation into Shastri’s death’, undated.

¹³⁹ Note: this is according to Gauhar. See: Gauhar, Ayub Khan, 366–378.

¹⁴⁰ McGarr, The Cold War in South Asia, 270–271.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Rudra Chaudhuri

Rudra Chaudhuri is the Director of Carnegie India and a Senior Lecturer at the Department of War Studies, King’s College London. He works primarily on South Asian diplomatic and military history. Rudra is the author of Forged in Crisis: India and the United States since 1947 (New York: Oxford University Press, 2014). He is currently writing a book on the Global History of the Indian Emergency, 1975–1977.