INDIA: ITS MORE THEN CURRY AND GHANDI A SOCIO-CULTURAL ANALYSIS

BY CPT. ERICH E. ESHELMAN 07 FIELD ARTILLERY CAPTAINS CAREER COURSE CLASS 3-11 SECTION 3

India has long been known as an exotic land. It is the home of four of the worlds prominent religions, the origin of the karma sutra, and has a population of over 1.2 billion people. In recent times India has been burdened with territorial disputes over the Kashmir region with neighboring Pakistan and even China in the Himalayas. India also faces attacks from nonstate actors which have resulted in deadly active shooter and suicide bomb attacks in Mumbai. Despite these hardships and hiccups India continues to be an interesting country with a growing population, an increasing economy, and a people who are hungry for prosperity. India is located in the southern portion of the Asian continent. The country is bordered in the east by Pakistan and the Arabian Sea, in the North is bordered by China and Nepal, in the east by Myanmar (formally Burma) and the Bay of Bengal, and finally in the south by the Indian Ocean. The total land area of India according to the United Nations is 3,287,263 square kilometers. This makes India the seventh largest country in terms of territory on earth. In terms of the United States, India is about a third of the size, making Texas subservient to it in terms of land mass. The topography of India is quite extreme. Ranging from the heights of the Himalayan Mountain tops to fertile river valleys and everything in between. There are seven major geographical regions in India. As stated already some of Indias most complex terrain is located in the north along the Himalayas. While MT Everest is a part of this chain it is not located in India. The largest Mountain in India is MT Kanchenjunga. At 8,598 meters tall it is the third highest mountain in the world. The mountains of the north then give way into the Great Plains region. This area contains the most fertile land in India and as a result has the highest population density. Next is the Central Highlands, this area is made up of hills and small mountain ranges that generally run from east to west. The Peninsular Plateaus is an area that consists of Deccan Plateau and some hills that form a boundary between the coast. The East Coast is located east of the hills that border the Plateaus. This region has several river deltas and is another large population area. The West Coast is to the West of the Plateaus and also has river deltas. It is also the location of Indias largest city, Mumbai. Finally, the last geographical region is the Island Chains. There are three coral limestone island chains. They are located in the Arabian Sea and the two are in the Bay of Bengal. These are the most desolate and least populated regions in India. Due to the vast differences in geography the climate of India is also vast. While regions up north in the Himalayas can be quite cold the desert in the south west can reach temperatures of over 122 degrees Fahrenheit. Along the coast it is normally quite tropical, humid, and rainy. India has four distinct seasons: Winter, Summer, Southwest Monsoon, and the Southwest Monsoon. Winter in India is normally dry and cool and lasts from December to February. March and May is the summer time which is hot and dry. The next two seasons are the southeast monsoon from June to September, and the southeast monsoon from October to November. The monsoon season is an important part of Indian life because it is what dictates how successful the farming season will be. During this time is when Indian receives over 80% of its annual rain. The average rainfall for India at this time is about 48 inches. These monsoons also create flooding along the coast which adversely affect day to day life in coastal cities.

While measures are emplace to degrade the effects of flooding, excessive rain in recent years has taken its toll on both the people and the defensive measures. This means that any sort of military action that takes place in the monsoon season is going to be hampered by the foul weather and relentless rain. One thing that all first world nations rely upon for military operations is air support. If the weather in the region is so bad that aircraft are unable to operate then the ground fight is going to be much more protracted and difficult to fight. Furthermore the vast difference in geography between the different regions of India means that soldiers that fight there will need to be masters of improvisation and field craft. This is especially true of the desert regions in the southwest and the treacherous mountains of the north. The environment of India is not an easy place for a modern mechanized force to fight in, it also provides a variety of safe havens for insurgent forces to hide, operate, and train in. Since India is one of the most populous countries in the world it has some very large cities. The capital is located in New Delhi and commonly referred to as the National Capital Territory of Delhi. This area has been home to the rulers of India for over a millennium. In the last 20 years of the 20th Century the population has more than doubled. The current population of Delhi is approximately 11.7million people. As a result of the increased population many of the cities inhabitants live in slums. This has created problems with pollution and an overextended infrastructure. Much as New York is the larger city and commercial base of the United States instead of Washington DC so is Mumbai when compared to Delhi. Mumbai is located on the coast and has a large and very successful port. In fact, today more that 65% of all Indian cargo is shipped through Mumbai. As the commercial center for India Mumbai also houses the National Stock Exchange, the Mumbai Stock Exchange, and the Reserve Bank of India, these are the economic cornerstones for the country. Mumbai was originally founded as an industrial center for textiles. Over time the importance of textiles has diminished but Mumbai has since shifted gears and become a hub for electronics and entertainment industries. The famed Bollywood, Indias version of Hollywood is located there. This multibillion dollar industry produces more than 1,000 films a year. The population of Mumbai is over 18 million people. Another important city in India is Kolkata. Kolkata or as it was known under British rule Calcutta is another port city. Though, through the years of 1940-1980 the city has been in a state of industrial decline, it has recently begun to reform and modernize. This reform is due to the efforts of the local communist party and its economic relationship with China. The population of Kolkata is over 12.9million people. Infrastructure in India has been growing but not nearly as fast as its population. The road network in India is the second largest in the world, and stretches over 3.3 million kilometers. Of this road system less than half is paved and only a third is covered with gravel or crushed earth (Library Congress 13). While travel on these roads is dominated by trucks and buses, there is also a large amount of two and three wheeled vehicular traffic. This combined with the large amount of animal transport and the stops for cows in the roads make India a very precarious system to navigate. The rails system is also an import network for travel and commerce in India.

The rail system is government operated and owned. Indian Railways, the government company, controls 7,566 locomotives, 37,840 coaches, and 222,147 freight wagons. In addition they maintain and operate 6,853 train stations and over 116,000 bridges (library of congress 14). In addition many of the cities in India to include New Delhi, Mumbai, and Kolkata all have metro systems. This massive rails system is the most used in the world. In 2004, India Railways moved over 557 million tons of freight and 5 billion people (library of congress 14). As far as water travel India has 12 major and 186 minor ports along its coasts. Annually these ports move over 390 million tons of freight. The state also controls 639 ships which include tankers, container ships, and bulk cargo vessels. While ocean travel is used effectively, India has yet to exploit its inland waterways. India also has over 208 airports of which 11 are international. With so many vehicles India needs lots of fuel. To bring this fuel and move it around the country India has over 5,700kms of pipelines. India and Iran have been in talks about building a pipeline to bring Iranian petroleum straight to India. These plans are currently on hold as the proposed pipeline would run through parts of conflict prone Pakistan. The most import part of infrastructure in India is its telecommunications. In 2006 there were 140million cell phone users and the ratio of personal computers to people was 14 to 1,000. These numbers have increased dramatically over the years. However the radio remains the device from which most Indians get their news. Education continues to grow in India but the literacy rate is still only 61% of the population. The ability to provide these services for so many people is an extremely taxing burden on the infrastructure as well as the government. Overcrowding is a substantial problem in all of Indias cities. The overcrowding is a huge drain on the infrastructure of the city. This results in unsanitary and extremely polluted living areas. The drain is not only on infrastructure but also upon the economy. Many people who live in the slums just on the outskirts of the city are out of work and improvised. The lack of employment and infrastructure are issues insurgent groups use to help build support for their cause. Anything insurgents can use to help delegitimize the government will help bring more members into their group. By examining the infrastructure and showing its shortcomings insurgent forces would be able to create dissatisfaction with the government because of their inability to properly provide for the population. Insurgents could also use the example of groups such as Hamas. Hamas developed programs to help the poor and provide low coast housing or jobs to the people. This built legitimacy for the insurgent group while showing the inability of the government. With this following the insurgent groups could then become something more, such as the ruling group or another political party within the country. In order to prevent this from happening in India counterinsurgent groups will need to target the problems of the people that live in these urban areas. The people need to be assured that the Indian government cares and can provide for them. Without this belief in the people, there can be no effective counterinsurgency. India is no stranger to conflict especially with some of it neighbors. Pakistan is Indias number one enemy. The Kashmir region located in the northwestern part of India has been a

conflict area for many years. When the British allowed their colonies to become independent in 1947 the region of Kashmir was placed into an interesting position. While the majority of the populous is Muslim their long time leader had been Hindu. This meant that India believed it controlled Kashmir because it had ruled the area for so long. Pakistan believed that it ruled the area because the majority of the population was Muslim. It is this misunderstanding that has resulted in conflict for so long. There have been three different wars between Pakistan and India over Kashmir in 1947, 1965, and 1999. The most interesting part of the conflict began in 1989 with a Mujahedeen Insurgency movement. This movement started with a disputed legislative election assembly and has turned into a classic he said she said conflict. After the disputed election militants began to take up arms and a popular insurgency soon took root. India believes that Jihadists who were fresh from fighting the Soviets in Afghanistan moved into the region and began to set up insurgent groups and attacks to continue the Jihad against another force. Pakistan states that no such thing has occurred. They also state it is widely known most Jihadists did not leave Afghanistan until 1992; a full three years after the insurgency began. India counters by stating Pakistan has long been supporting the Mujahedeen insurgency with weapons, equipment and training. To which Pakistan says the only support it gives to the insurgency is moral and diplomatic support. This insurgency continues today and Kashmir is similar the the DMZ in Korea with both sides poised and ready to strike. One last interesting not about this conflict is that in his 2002 Letter to the American People Osama Bin Laden (now dead thanks to a 5.56mm hole to the head courtesy of the United States Military) wrote that one of the reasons he attacked America was because of our support of India in the Kashmir conflict. Another territorial dispute that India has faced has been with China. The territory is question was also in Kashmir but in a smaller northern region of the territory. While the pretext behind the month long conflict was over this northern Himalayan region there were other problems that added to the fight. The main one being Indias asylum of the Dalai Lama from the 1959 Tibetan Uprising. The fighting began with a Chinese attack 20 October 1962 which successfully overtook Indian positions and allowed the Chinese to occupy all the territory in question. Fighting continued until the Chinese issued a cease a fire on November 20 1962 and then withdrew all of it forces. This battle was characterized by the rough conditions in which it was fought was the majority of the fighting occurring at an altitude of over 14,000 ft. The altitude at which humans can normally begin to feel altitude sickness is 3,500ft. It was also worth noting that only ground forces were used in the battle and that no naval or air elements were used. The recent problem that India has faced has been terrorism. On the night of November 26, 2008 ten men who were members of Lashkar-e-Taiba, or the Army of the Righteous, a Pakistani based Islamic terrorist group launched a coordinated explosive and small arms attack on the city of Mumbai. The men arrived via boat into a port in Mumbai which allowed them to bypass security check points. They attacked large population areas such as train station, hotels, and restaurants. Armed with AK-47s, grenades and IEDs the men killed 164 people and injured

308 others. The attackers split up in to two man teams under the control of the Pakistani InterService Intelligence and then spread out across the city. This was a classic active shooter situation which is not only extremely cheap but very effective. While the Indian police force is rather large they were woefully underequipped to deal with this sort of situation. This allowed the terrorists to attack for a longer period of time with little consequence. The attacks continued for over sixty hours until November 29 when the National Security Guard sent its counterterrorist team to eliminate the final terrorists that had taken refuge in the famous Taj Hotel. The attacks showed the weaknesses of the security forces that India uses to respond to terrorist attacks. As a result the teams have since received new training and equipment. The populous was also quite outraged at the lack of effective response from the government. As a result some right wing groups were created to increase the effectiveness of the Indian government. The Indian government also agreed that it now how the ability to launch attacks into Pakistan in order to attack terrorists. When analyzing the civilian considerations of India one of the most effective ways is to look at ASCOPE or the Areas, Structures, Capabilities, Organizations, People, and Events. The People portion of this analysis will be discussed later. For the analysis of