The abrogation of Article 370 and reorganisation of Jammu and Kashmir state has the most unprecedented implications for getting Ladakh in the national strategic focus. India needed to untie several difficult knots on the internal front that the nation has been fixated with. The most complicated one was the J&K knot that has become unsolvable despite diplomatic, military and economic efforts. The only way out left was to unknot the distortions borne out of history. This seemed only possible if India was to take a bold political step to separate Ladakh from J&K and make it a separate administrative unit on the lines of Arunachal Pradesh. This is the only way India could finally overcome the internal contradictions as well as external challenges. In fact, separating Ladakh from J&K to make it a Union Territory (UT) is certainly a political masterstroke by New Delhi and it will unlock several key problems that had been frozen for decades.
A lost western Himalayan kingdom
Ladakh is strategically the most critical part of the country. The geo-military dimension apart, Ladakh, in the past, undoubtedly had an unambiguous politico-historical personality of its own and survived as a Western Himalayan kingdom for eleven hundred years despite all constraints.
It had loosely defined boundaries with neighbouring Tibet, Sinkiang, Nepal, Mustang and Kashmir and maintained customary or tributary relationship with them until 1834 when the Dogras subjugated the kingdom through repeated military conquests. Ladakh’s relationship with Kashmir and rest of India had its genesis only through the Dogra subjugation: a violent episode that lasted until 1948 when the Maharaja rule collapsed.
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة September 2019 من Geopolitics.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك ? تسجيل الدخول
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة September 2019 من Geopolitics.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك? تسجيل الدخول
TIME FOR A ROBUST BMD SHIELD
With nuclear-armed Pakistan and China in the neighbourhood, India must prepare ballistic missile defences at the earliest for protecting its densely populated cities
URGENT NEED FOR SMART AND LETHAL WEAPONS
India must tread the path towards the development of a whole gamut of next-generation smart and lethal weapons for countering a two-front threat scenario, writes AMARTYA SINHA
MOBILITY SOLUTIONS FOR THE INDIAN ARMY
While the Indian Army has a significantly large fleet of trucks and utility vehicles, there is a need to further augment the capabilities by adding latest platforms with better fuel-efficiency, faster speeds, larger wheelbases and enhanced axle-load bearing capacities, argues AMARTYA SINHA
C-295 CREATING A MANUFACTURING BLUEPRINT FOR INDIA
With the right momentum, a realistic roadmap and enabling policy framework, a story is being scripted to make India a hub for global aircraft manufacturing. The potential is enormous. An in-depth report.
ENHANCING NAVAL AVIATION CAPABILITIES
A robust Indian naval air arm will prove to be the biggest sea-based conventional deterrence, both for the tactical as well and strategic level battlefields.
HAS THE WORLD FORGOTTEN THE PLIGHT OF THE AFGHAN WOMEN?
With the Taliban and command in Afghanistan, serious questions are being raised about the status of women in that country. GAYATRI SINGH dissects the situation on the ground.
HOW TANKS ARE EVOLVING TO AVOID OBSOLESCENCE
Is the dominance of tanks in modern wars coming to an end? This question is increasingly attracting attention of the military experts as the ongoing war in Ukraine and the second Nagorno-Karabakh War between Armenia and Azerbaijan not long before have witnessed the staggering numbers of tanks being destroyed and outgunned, particularly by military drones.
MISSION GAGANYAAN AFTER LOK SABHA POLLS
The Indian human spaceflight programme will be Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s biggest gift to the Indian scientific community.
TIME TO GO FOR SIXTH-GENERATION AIRCRAFT
With China racing ahead in 6th-Gen Fighter Aircraft Programme, India cannot afford to be left behind. AIR MARSHAL ANIL CHOPRA (RETD) explains
Unending War In Ukraine
Is Russia's War in Ukraine following a script or it is lost in direction? RAVI SRIVASTAVA attempts to answer