When she came to power in 1966, Indira Gandhi found India strategically boxed in. To the west and east were two wings of US-armed Pakistan, which had slapped a costly war on India a few months earlier. To the north was the Chinese dragon that had snatched away huge chunks of territory in the 1962 war. In the south, Sri Lanka was indifferent and often flirting with the western powers who were arming Pakistan. Further south in the deep ocean, the British and the Americans were talking of building a military base in Diego Garcia. In short, India saw only hostile elements on all sides—in the west, east, north and south. The Soviets were friendly, but were cold and distant.
Indira took three steps to break out of the box. The first was taken in the course of pursuing the second. The third came three years later. We will look at them one by one.
By mid-1971, it was clear that India and Pakistan were drifting towards a war over Pakistan’s handling of its eastern wing. The military regime based in the west had held an election but, advised by Zulfikar Ali Bhutto of the Pakistan People’s Party, it refused to acknowledge that the east-based Awami League of Mujibur Rahman had won the majority seats in parliament. The east revolted, the military regime sent troops to quell the unrest, and refugees poured into India in millions.
As war clouds gathered over the horizon, Indira grabbed a two-year-old offer of a loose friendship treaty from the USSR, and signed it in August 1971. As war with Pakistan broke out in December, and American warships steamed into the Bay of Bengal ostensibly to aid Pakistan, she invoked the treaty to get Moscow to tail them with nuclear submarines. Anyway, in 13 days, she won the war, and eliminated the threat from the east.
この記事は THE WEEK India の June 09, 2024 版に掲載されています。
7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、9,000 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。
すでに購読者です ? サインイン
この記事は THE WEEK India の June 09, 2024 版に掲載されています。
7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、9,000 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。
すでに購読者です? サインイン
The female act
The 19th edition of the Qadir Ali Baig Theatre Festival was of the women and by the women
A SHOT OF ARCHER
An excerpt from the prologue of An Eye for an Eye
MASTER OF MAKE-BELIEVE
50 years. after his first book, Jeffrey*Archer refuses to put down his'felt-tip Pilot pen
Smart and sassy Passi
Pop culture works according to its own unpredictable, crazy logic. An unlikely, overnight celebrity has become the talk of India. Everyone, especially on social media, is discussing, dissing, hissing and mimicking just one person—Shalini Passi.
Energy transition and AI are reshaping shipping
PORTS AND ALLIED infrastructure development are at the heart of India's ambitions to become a maritime heavyweight.
MADE FOR EACH OTHER
Trump’s preferred transactional approach to foreign policy meshes well with Modi’s bent towards strategic autonomy
DOOM AND GLOOM
Democrats’ message came across as vague, preachy and hopelessly removed from reality. And voters believed Trump’s depiction of illegal immigrants as a source of their economic woes
WOES TO WOWS
The fundamental reason behind Trump’s success was his ability to convert average Americans’ feelings of grievance into votes for him
POWER HOUSE
Trump International Hotel was the only place outside the White House where Trump ever dined during his four years as president
DON 2.0
Trump returns to presidency stronger than before, but just as unpredictable