ABSTRACT
This chapter deals with doctrines of the Indian Army, in the main, its conventional operations doctrine and sub-conventional doctrine. Army doctrines are of relatively recent vintage, and the Indian Army, though over two centuries old, did not have any official doctrine, relying instead on its training pamphlets to place its officer cadre on the same page. While the Doctrine acknowledges that doctrine is usually in the form of a written document, it explains away the army’s lack of a written document over most of its existence in stating that doctrine ‘could also be a widely accepted understanding without being specifically enunciated’. In other words, lack of a document cannot be taken as the army lacking a doctrine.
