ABSTRACT
Contrary to conventional wisdom, India started on a sound foundation to achieve self- reliance in defence soon after independence. There was no doubt a certain amount of rhetoric about ‘self-sufficiency’ but this was neither achievable nor practiced anywhere, except by the two superpowers, the United States and the Soviet Union, for a decade or two after the Second World War. No other country could create enough capability to become self-sufficient in weapons and equipment that its military forces would need in future. For India, even the concept was unthinkable among those who understood the realities. It is in this context that the goal of ‘self-reliance’ which would provide maximum autonomy was both pragmatic as well as far-sighted, in the sense that the country had been under British colonial rule for two centuries during which not only did the Industrial Revolution become the instrument of colonial domination, it also bypassed us and actually de-industrialised us.
