ABSTRACT

The Routledge Handbook of Indian Defence Policy brings together the most eminent scholarship in South Asia on India’s defence policy and contemporary military history. It maps India’s political and military profile in South Asia and the Indian Ocean region, and analyses its emergence as a global player.

This edition of the handbook:

  • Canvasses over 60 years of Indian defence policy, its relation to India’s rising global economic profile, as well as foreign policy shifts;
  • Discusses several key debates that have shaped defence strategies through the years: military doctrine and policy, internal and external security challenges, terrorism and insurgencies;
  • Explores the origins of the modern armed forces in India; evolution of the army, navy and air forces; investments in professional military education, intelligence and net-centric warfare, reforms in paramilitary forces and the Indian police;
  • Comments on India’s contemporary strategic interests, focusing on the rise of China, nuclearisation of India and Pakistan’s security establishments, and developments in space security and missile defence. 

Taking stock of India’s defence planning architecture over the past decade, this accessibly written handbook will be an indispensable resource for scholars and researchers of security and defence studies, international relations and political science, as well as for government thinktanks and policymakers.

chapter 1|14 pages

Introduction

part Section 1|51 pages

Soldier, state and society in India

chapter 2|25 pages

The Indian Army

1700s–1947

chapter 3|14 pages

Indian civil-military relations

An overview

chapter 4|10 pages

Indian society and the soldier

Will the twain ever meet?

part Section 2|53 pages

Military and foreign policy

chapter 5|16 pages

India and the changing nature of war

Gradual incrementalism?

chapter 6|13 pages

Military as an instrument of India’s foreign policy

An expanding footprint

chapter 7|9 pages

India’s erratic defence diplomacy

In need of a booster dose

chapter 8|13 pages

India’s counterterror diplomacy

Strategy and outcome

part Section 3|48 pages

The services

chapter 9|13 pages

The Indian Army

Evolution in the age of nuclear weapons and terrorism

chapter 10|13 pages

Evolution of the Indian Navy

Towards a ‘maritime awakening’?

chapter 11|10 pages

Indian Air Force

Persuasive in peace, effective in war

chapter 12|10 pages

Evolution of jointness in Indian defence forces

Stuck between the services

part Section 4|39 pages

Doctrines

chapter 13|14 pages

Indian Army’s flagship doctrines

Need for strategic guidance

chapter 14|11 pages

The Indian Navy’s doctrinal evolution

Between deterrence and denial

chapter 15|12 pages

Doctrinal evolution in the Indian Air Force

Towards a strategic future

part Section 5|29 pages

Defence versus development

chapter 16|14 pages

Changing contours of Indian defence expenditure

Past as prologue?

chapter 17|13 pages

Defence procurement in India

Challenges abound

part Section 6|41 pages

Internal security

chapter 18|12 pages

Islamist terrorism in India

A hybrid threat

chapter 19|14 pages

Bullet holes in village walls 1

India’s Naxalite challenge

chapter 20|13 pages

Insurgencies in India’s northeast

Rise, fall and the rise?

part Section 7|62 pages

Institutional infrastructure

chapter 21|11 pages

The evolution in India’s national security apparatus

Persisting structural deficiencies

chapter 22|10 pages

The Indian intelligence system

Meeting the challenges of a new world

chapter 23|12 pages

The Indian police

Need for reinvention

chapter 24|17 pages

Paramilitary forces and central armed police forces of India

Punching below their capabilities

chapter 25|10 pages

Professional military education in India

Towards a new architecture

part Section 8|35 pages

Nuclear weapons and space

chapter 26|13 pages

Nuclear weapons in India’s defence policy

Achieving conventional nuclear synergy

chapter 27|9 pages

Space security and missile defence

Towards greater pragmatism

chapter 28|11 pages

India’s cyber defence capabilities

Their role in net-centric warfare