Indian Military Doctrinal Transformation and its impact on Pakistan

Abstract

The Indian military doctrinal transformation is credible threat to security of Pakistan. The transformational trajectory of Indian military doctrines shows how India is pursuing its offensive ambitions against Pakistan. In early phases, during Nehru era the Indian strategic setting was not much focused on offensive manoeuvres but with the passage of time India brought offensive doctrines in their military strategic setting which were pointed toward Pakistan. Indira Gandhi’s tenure is marked with pursuit of such offensive ambitions. Later Sunderji brought new doctrine, comprised on mechanised infantry and strike corps . The objective of this doctrine was to carry out a deep thrust inside Pakistan to cut Pakistan into two parts but Pakistan successfully tackled the emerging threats . The advent of nuclear weapons in region brought new changes in Indian military strategic setting . After the nuclear weapons testing , the idea of full scale war was diminished . India pursued new idea of “limited war under nuclear overhang” in shape of Cold start doctrine . After the failures of previous doctrines India introduced new modes of warfares such as Hybrid warfare, creation of IBGs and surgical strikes . For this purpose India introduced new doctrines such as Hybrid warfare doctrine , Maritime doctrine and land warfare doctrine . The main impact of this Indian offensive doctrinal transformation and military modernisation is on Pakistan as Later’s economy cannot bear the burden of growing military expenditure . Pakistan on other hand also gave a hard hitting response to any Indian alleged aggressions . Pakistan developed the counter measures with help of friendly states. This study illustrates how Indian doctrines evolved in pre and post 2000 era ? What are implications of this doctrinal transformation on Pakistan ? The study is carried out under the scope of offensive realism with help of descriptive and exploratory methodologies . This qualitative study fills the literature gap by providing a comparative analysis on Indian military doctrinal transformation .