Part 1 of a myth-busting.
There is a widespread illusion of super prowess in the Indian nation, primarily among the India middle class which can be attributed to the economic growth they have seen in the past decade or so. I believe this illusion began appearing somewhere during the reign of the Vajpayee lead BJP coalition at the center during the latter half of last decade of 20th century. The trigger should be considered as the Pokhran blasts and the associated nationalist rhetoric put up by the BJP (which apparently failed them in the next elections). Apart from this, the middle class saw their standard of living rise and the nation witnessed the IT boom and the rise of India as a software powerhouse (the illusion of Indian Software power will come later). This Pokhran lead nuclear "surge" and the associated economic burgeoning lead the news media to put out the superpower rhetoric; which the Indian middle class readily believed just as anyone would believe that there are a billion galaxies each with a billion stars in it. With the spread of computers and emails and social networking; mails spread around the web educating the children of the great Indian middle class that they are living in a Utopian super power society. We are taught to be proud of our scientific history, our nuclear capabilities, our great military and many other factors like number of Indians heading multinationals, Indians forming a considerable force at NASA, Microsoft filled with Indians and so forth. I believe there is a generation of Indians who think that its just our self restraint that keeps other countries from bowing down to us.
But are we really so? Who is a superpower in the current world context? I think there are three main categories according to which super powers can be called so - military, economic, political.
First and foremost military super power - the best example being the USA. They are the most powerful military in the whole world in terms of combat expert, effectiveness and technology. They take risks like no one else so as to attain whatever ends that their masters at the White house and the Pentagon want them to. In any conventional or non-conventional form of war fare (lets rule out nuclear weapons); there is no contention as to who will emerge the winner. After the second world war we have seen a lot of their military greatness in action all over the world - from covert ops in the Latin Americas to conventional warfare in Vietnam, Korea, Afghanistan, Iraq to tactical warfare in the Balkans and the Russian union; apart from a few failures they were mostly success (as far as the myopic eye goes). That stature has not changed or even shows any sign of change as far as the immediate future is considered. So as far as the military might goes, USA is the sole superpower with no parallel. And where does India figure in all this? We are still the second largest army (fueled and filled in by the large population and poverty), who has seen no major victories apart from some costly endeavors against an ill equipped Pakistan. We were no match for the Chinese or the small terrorist outfit LTTE. An army that has hardly seen any combat duty after 1971 Bangladesh endeavor and the nuisance (it was made out into a war, because it sounds great) that was Kargil (that was costly for the army with almost 1 soldier killed for every 2 infiltrator; but not that costly considering the gargantuan size of the army and the money made by the politicos buying coffins for the bravest of Indians). We still marvel at the sight of refurbished aircraft carriers purchased from Russian scrap dealers (figure of speech). Our Navy has seen hardly any combat duty apart from foiling some piracy attempts and capturing Somali pirates/. Air force is no better with a large fleet of aging and rusting aircraft peeling off mid-air and the infamous flying coffins (Mig 21). During the Kargil conflict politicians strictly wanted no crossing of the LOC, not because of the moral superiority but because they were fully aware that if some insurgents can bring down a few Indian aircraft, the better equipped Pakistani military can bring down the whole of it, if it crosses the border. To suffice, India is hardly in any position to flex its military muscle to coerce any nation to follow its will and therefore it is hardly any superpower in this context. Let us be content with keeping peace in African and eastern European countries and after all that’s what we all want.
(to be continued...)
There is a widespread illusion of super prowess in the Indian nation, primarily among the India middle class which can be attributed to the economic growth they have seen in the past decade or so. I believe this illusion began appearing somewhere during the reign of the Vajpayee lead BJP coalition at the center during the latter half of last decade of 20th century. The trigger should be considered as the Pokhran blasts and the associated nationalist rhetoric put up by the BJP (which apparently failed them in the next elections). Apart from this, the middle class saw their standard of living rise and the nation witnessed the IT boom and the rise of India as a software powerhouse (the illusion of Indian Software power will come later). This Pokhran lead nuclear "surge" and the associated economic burgeoning lead the news media to put out the superpower rhetoric; which the Indian middle class readily believed just as anyone would believe that there are a billion galaxies each with a billion stars in it. With the spread of computers and emails and social networking; mails spread around the web educating the children of the great Indian middle class that they are living in a Utopian super power society. We are taught to be proud of our scientific history, our nuclear capabilities, our great military and many other factors like number of Indians heading multinationals, Indians forming a considerable force at NASA, Microsoft filled with Indians and so forth. I believe there is a generation of Indians who think that its just our self restraint that keeps other countries from bowing down to us.
But are we really so? Who is a superpower in the current world context? I think there are three main categories according to which super powers can be called so - military, economic, political.
First and foremost military super power - the best example being the USA. They are the most powerful military in the whole world in terms of combat expert, effectiveness and technology. They take risks like no one else so as to attain whatever ends that their masters at the White house and the Pentagon want them to. In any conventional or non-conventional form of war fare (lets rule out nuclear weapons); there is no contention as to who will emerge the winner. After the second world war we have seen a lot of their military greatness in action all over the world - from covert ops in the Latin Americas to conventional warfare in Vietnam, Korea, Afghanistan, Iraq to tactical warfare in the Balkans and the Russian union; apart from a few failures they were mostly success (as far as the myopic eye goes). That stature has not changed or even shows any sign of change as far as the immediate future is considered. So as far as the military might goes, USA is the sole superpower with no parallel. And where does India figure in all this? We are still the second largest army (fueled and filled in by the large population and poverty), who has seen no major victories apart from some costly endeavors against an ill equipped Pakistan. We were no match for the Chinese or the small terrorist outfit LTTE. An army that has hardly seen any combat duty after 1971 Bangladesh endeavor and the nuisance (it was made out into a war, because it sounds great) that was Kargil (that was costly for the army with almost 1 soldier killed for every 2 infiltrator; but not that costly considering the gargantuan size of the army and the money made by the politicos buying coffins for the bravest of Indians). We still marvel at the sight of refurbished aircraft carriers purchased from Russian scrap dealers (figure of speech). Our Navy has seen hardly any combat duty apart from foiling some piracy attempts and capturing Somali pirates/. Air force is no better with a large fleet of aging and rusting aircraft peeling off mid-air and the infamous flying coffins (Mig 21). During the Kargil conflict politicians strictly wanted no crossing of the LOC, not because of the moral superiority but because they were fully aware that if some insurgents can bring down a few Indian aircraft, the better equipped Pakistani military can bring down the whole of it, if it crosses the border. To suffice, India is hardly in any position to flex its military muscle to coerce any nation to follow its will and therefore it is hardly any superpower in this context. Let us be content with keeping peace in African and eastern European countries and after all that’s what we all want.
(to be continued...)
