lack of strategic culture

[Guest guest]

India's strategic cultureNeed for consensus, will power and being pro-activeV.P.

Malikhttp://www.tribuneindia.com/2002/20021104/edit.htmTHE editorial of a

weekly, published soon after the terrorists' attack on Gandhinagar's Akshardham

Temple stated, "As a nation of forgetting and forgiving, ever ready to bleed and

wail, India is unique." Why are we unique in this manner? Why are we not

pro-active in our security and economic policies and their implementation?

Should we blame our strategic culture for such a "passive" outlook? What is our

problem that often leads us to strategic indecisions or in-actions and

compromises? Strategic culture is defined as the "ability of the people and

society to generate power; and to have the social will and ability for a full

and effective use of that power". Let us look at India's strategic culture

through our history. India was a powerful and rich nation during the Maurya

dynasty (305 BC), the Gupta dynasty (400-600 AD), Moghuls rule (1526-1761 AD),

and then the British. The last two came from outside although the Moghuls chose

to be absorbed within India. The outsiders were able to conquer and rule because

the Indian society had lost the ability to generate power, and the will and the

ability to make use of that power. We did not think strategically or consider

ourselves as a nation. We were a house divided, fighting among ourselves. By

the 20th century we had acquired, and accepted, an image of being an

accommodative and forgiving Hindu, Jain, Buddhist society, full of piety and

ahimsa: one, which believes more in God-given destiny than making our own

destiny. Out of spirituality, pacifism and non-violence, many of our 20th

century political leaders conjured up the idea of a morally superior India,

professing peace and harmony, in a world where nations indulge in cut-throat

competition for their own interests. They professed "Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam"

(when India itself could not live like a family) and other value-based

politics, which is morally superior but does not reflect the international

realism. One cannot blame them altogether because during centuries of slavery

and colonialism, the Indian leadership forgot all about Chanakya's

"Arthashastra" and its lessons! The British never permitted Indian political

leaders or civil servants to deal with strategic matters. Strategic planning

and organisational affairs of the defence forces were kept away from the public

view.We gained Independence after a long struggle, but without fighting the

rulers. We tackled them non-violently although Hindus and Muslims of the

subcontinent killed each other in lakhs. Many people blame Gandhiji's strategy

of non-violence for our "passive" and "inactive" strategic culture. That is not

correct. Gandhi functioned at two levels. He was a hard realist. He adopted a

proactive non-violence strategy against the British, because at that time we

did not, and could not, possess the force of arms to fight the British. In

September, 1947, he said, "If there was no other way of securing justice from

Pakistan, if Pakistan persistently refused to see its proven error and

continued to minimise it, war would be the only alternative left to the

government." He maintained that violence was better than cowardice. He gave his

blessings to Brigadier L. P. Sen and his troops when they were flown to Kashmir

to fight Pakistani raiders and soldiers in October, 1947. In matters of

national security, Gandhi relied more on the doctrine of sword than the

doctrine of non-violence. He was conscious of the compulsions and complexities

of international power play. And for that reason he was against India taking

the issue of Kashmir, even as a complainant, to the United Nations: a strategic

error for which we continue to bleed till date. Despite Gandhi's realism, our

strategic thinking, with one exception of the integration of over 600 states

within the Indian Union and which included the use of military in Hyderabad and

Junagadh, was missing. Several successive and tragic events come to our mind:

approaching the United Nations Security Council on the J & K issue when we were

winning that war, granting of "suzerainty" to China over Tibet without any quid

pro quo, provocative forward deployment policy on the Sino-Indian border

without adequate military preparedness in 1962, return of the strategically

important Haji Pir Pass to Pakistan after the 1965 war, return of 91,000

prisoners without making Pakistan agree to a permanent solution of J & K at the

time of signing the Shimla Agreement in 1971, dithering for 24 years between the

testing of a nuclear device in 1974 and of the nuclear weapons in 1998. Today,

all these events reflect on our inexperience and neglect of a strategic

mindset. In 1999, we prepared a draft nuclear doctrine but introduced a clause

of No First Use: we shall not use our weapons till the enemy bombs us ! We keep

warning Pakistan of dire consequences and indulging in political rhetoric

everyday, but never mustering the will to take action! We keep the armed forces

deployed on the border for 10 months but are not clear as to what we wish to

achieve from it. We have a terrorist assault on Akshardham Temple and all we

can think of is to have a nationwide bandh! Our political parties keep

criticising each other daily over important national security policies on

Pakistan, J & K, terrorism, Gujarat, Cauvery river water and so on, but they

will not sit together to work out long-term national security and national

interest policies. Long- term strategic thinking and the social will and

determination to set things right, pro-actively or otherwise, continues to

delude us. Ever since the Bofors controversy there have been more acrimonious

debates in Parliament, not on defence policies but about defence purchases. The

Opposition (whichever) blames the government for the lack of defence

preparedness but also raises controversies over every defence purchase. The

media, the CAG, the PAC and the CVC; all keep talking of scams and procedural

lapses. And due to "suspected" scams and prolonged acrimonious debates in

Parliament and the media, no leader or official is willing to give a decision

and expedite the procurement of new weapons and equipment. But how do we

explain this to the troops which remained deployed on the front for a long

time? Who is accountable to them?What about our economic culture and policies?

We call and accept our low GDP growth rate of 2 to 3 per cent as a Hindu growth

rate. A Hindu growth rate! A country becomes rich when its people are rich. But

how do we in India look at the rich people? With suspicion, as if they all are

sinners! If making money is a sin, then how can the country become rich? Why do

some people use the word "Bania" disparagingly? Why should society not look at

people making money with respect, so long as they are using legitimate means

and paying their taxes? We think of the "pro-active" economic policies for

investments and disinvestments, and then quickly make them "inactive" for the

sake of people who demand that they remain on the payrolls without working!

There is neither political consensus nor the will to set things right. The

result is weak governance.Our weakness in the strategic culture stems from our

inability to learn from our history. There is too much of political infighting

and too less political consensus. We are a politically divided house in

essential policies of security and economic development. Age-old weaknesses in

the attitude and approach to national security and interests are finding their

echo in the lack of decision-making, or wrong decision-making. Our governance

is weak. We remain internalised, fixing each other rather than fixing the

outsiders.In today's world, neither security nor economy can be

compartmentalised. They have to remain complementary, not at the cost of each

other. Security is a basic prerequisite, and the faster and broader-based the

economic development of the nation; the greater is its security. If we want to

encourage foreign investment into the country, we have to create an image of

security and stability. This is where China beats us hollow. We are the world's

largest democracy and liberalised economy, but we get less than one-twentieth of

the foreign direct investment (FDI) that China gets. The same USA that praises

our democracy and transparency and protests about the Chinese human rights

violations and dictatorship, sends maximum FDI to China. So how should we

overcome the weaknesses that have crept in today and improve our strategic

culture? Here are a few basic suggestions.* First and foremost, even in the

globalised world, we have to remind ourselves about nationalism and patriotism.

These are forgotten today except in the Army where every officer is required to

practice "the safety, honour and welfare of your country come first, always and

every time. The honour, welfare and comfort of the men you command come next.

Your own ease, comfort and safety come last, always and every time."* We must

keep reminding ourselves that we are Indians first, and only then Punjabis,

Gujaratis or Madrasis: Hindus, Muslims or Christians; or Pandits, Thakurs or

Dalits. Ernest Rennan said, "What constitutes a nation is not speaking the same

tongue, or belonging to the same religion or ethnic group, but having

accomplished great things in common in the past, and the wish to accomplish

them again in future." In the interest of Indian nationalism, such regional,

communal and casteist identities and diversities have to be underplayed and not

emphasised.* We must create and maintain political consensus on the formulation

and implementation of national security and major economic policies. We must

not politicise routine governance, and demand actions from the government

services like the civil, the police, the armed forces and the judiciary in

political interests instead of national interest.* Strategy and diplomacy in

international relations are based on the art of the possible, and the

advancement of national interests. The Western world believes that "morality in

this ethical system is the handmaiden of state policy. It is a virtue dictated

by the situation in which we are placed". The Vedic thinking has been that

"Chakravarty Raja is free to have his policies limited by strictures and

tampered by ethical considerations and sentiments, but not if his intention is

to best serve the national interests". A righteous cause is important, but the

method need not be sentimental, or even ethical! According to Kautilya, "when

the interests of the country are involved, ethics are a burdensome

irrelevance". Today, Pakistan has one short and long-term policy towards India:

to make it weak and make it break. We need a security doctrine, a long-term

policy on Pakistan, even on J & K. There is need to "act" and not always

"react".* Let us teach patriotism to our children in schools, colleges and at

home. Soldiering, it is said, is an honourable profession. And yet no political

leader, bureaucrat, or industrialist wants to send his children to the armed

forces. Greater social respect and not greater pay is needed to make this

profession more popular. Let us not forget our war heroes, as we did on Vijay

Divas this year, within three years of the Kargil war. If the leadership

neither knows about the military nor has any stake, and also keeps the military

leadership on the sidelines, how can they take correct strategic

politico-military decisions? * We need to make national wealth, individually

and collectively, along with progress in science and technology, art and

culture. Let us, therefore, stop the culture of social and political pampering

of non-working people and correct our labour laws. All of us should make money,

but by right means, through intelligence and cleverness and not by deceit and

crookedness.India has to carve out strategic space for itself in the world.

This is achievable but can happen only when we begin to pursue our national

interests collectively and passionately, in a sustained manner, whatever the

cost. We should consider these issues as a nation, not on a political party or

regional basis. We need to be realists; neither moralists nor pessimists. That

should be India's strategic culture of powering the nation.The writer, a

retired General, was the Chief of Army Staff during the Indo-Pak Kargil war.

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