When the Conflict Began
There was excitement of varying degrees among political opponents within the Congress Party and outside when the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) launched attacks on the Indian Army in October 1962. They finally found someone who could bring the ‘mighty lion’ (then prime minister) Jawaharlal Nehru to his knees! Instead of closing ranks behind the government for which they pledged support in reclaiming the land supposedly occupied by China, they turned against the Prime Minister and the Defense Minister (VK Krishna Menon). The fact that they betrayed the government at the very first opportunity, which was the Namka Chu incident, tells a tale.
In his book, India’s China War British Australian journalist Neville Maxwell wrote of representations made to the then President Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan to dismiss Nehru (Natraj Publishers, Dehra Dun, 2015, Page 469). I would say that if Nehru was indeed removed at that point, India could never have recovered North-East Frontier Agency (NEFA).
Maxwell (Page 469) also wrote of a supposedly widely quoted statement by President Radhakrishnan which patronizes Nehru with a suggestion that Nehru was stung by his own incompetence. In later years many have made triumphant claims that Nehru’s health deteriorated and that he died because of China’s betrayal. This is a gross misrepresentation of the truth, context as well as Nehru’s character. Such claims are cheap taste at best.
Nehru’s Resilience Was Legendary
If anybody betrayed Nehru, I feel it was not the Chinese, despite Nehru’s own outward rhetoric and statements in the Parliament. From the time Nehru became the de-facto Prime Minister in September 1946, he steered the country through a long civil war and partition that killed at least 2 million people and caused the largest mass migration in the history of the human race. That generation had also seen 2.5 million starvation deaths due to Bengal Famine, not to mention Nehru’s own personal sorrows during his 30-year freedom struggle including 9-years in prison. I would say the 1,400 deaths in 1962 were tip of an iceberg while Nehru had seen far worse. As Winston Churchill once described, Nehru “conquered two great human infirmities: fear and hate.”
When things were at their worst, I feel Nehru was at his best! Nehru took the Chinese threat by its horns, called their bluff of invading Assam, pushed them back to prewar position and recovered every inch lost by the army. He then faced the no-confidence motion, carefully listened, took notes and responded responsibly to all the questions his critics could ask. In his interview with Michael Brecher (India and World Politics: Krishna Menon’s View of the World by Michael Brecher, Oxford University Press, 1968, Page 162), Krishna Menon dismissed the claim that India was defeated by China.
India Supposedly Became Very Strong
In October 1962 with Chinese still in Arunachal Pradesh, it is said that the Indian Parliament was more interested in ousting Krishna Menon than ousting the Chinese. Maxwell (Page 469) claims that President Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan himself lobbied the (mostly Congress) Chief Ministers to rally against Krishna Menon. It was not enough that Krishna Menon was removed from Defense Ministry and confined to defense production but had to be expelled from cabinet all together before Nehru could focus on expelling Chinese PLA. There was much criticism against Menon and it has been claimed that India became very strong after ousting Krishna Menon. The proof they offer is that we won wars in 1965 and 1971.
Was India not strong when we deployed all three services of the armed forces to liberate Goa and defeated the NATO Member Portugal in 1961, under the leadership of Krishna Menon? Let us set aside the argument that we “won” 1965. Let us also set aside the fact that all the Gnats, MIGs, INS Vikrant that won those wars (1965 and 1971) were procured by Krishna Menon. Was either of the wars fought against China? Obviously, our experts don’t even understand the difference between fighting China and fighting Pakistan. If India really became so strong under Defense Ministers like YB Chavan and Jagjivan Ram, why didn’t they invade Aksai Chin or even liberate Tibet to complete the tasks which Krishna Menon could not do?
Non-Aligned Movement
In a bizarre argument, conflict with China is frequently tied to the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM). Many seem to confuse non-alignment with pacifism! Nehru who founded NAM along with Naser and Tito is mocked with meaningless terms like “grandiose politico-diplomacy”.
These people who ironically include diplomats and external affairs ministers either don’t understand the concept of non-alignment or are just clever enough to exploit this confusion to declare non-alignment and hence Nehru a failure. A section of these people laughs at Nehru for China supposedly betraying non-alignment by attacking India while Nehru supposedly childishly believed that non-alignment was salvation. The others laugh at Nehru for other non-aligned countries dumping him by not coming forward to fight China alongside India in 1962.
Here, I’d like to point out that China was never a part of the NAM, so the issue of their ‘betrayal’ should never arise. Also, unlike NATO or Warsaw Pact, the Non-Alignment Movement is not a defence agreement, so the expectation that the non-aligned countries will ‘unite’ against China on India’s behalf is not a valid proposition. The claim that non-alignment failed because of the 1962 conflict is not valid, in my belief.
Interestingly, Pakistan which has been a non-aligned country apparently offered to form a federation with India and jointly fight China, under the condition that India hands over Kashmir Valley to Pakistan. According to Maxwell, such a proposal was brought to Nehru by Averell Harriman (USA) and Duncan Sandys (UK). Needless to say, Nehru rejected it. It was Nehru’s non-alignment policy that rallied countries from both east and west blocks like the USA, Canada, UK, Taiwan along with USSR which forced China to retreat in November 1962!
I would like to point out how today’s BJP government goes around the world taking credit for that supposedly flawed and disastrous non-alignment without even giving credit to Nehru nor the ideologue VK Krishna Menon!
Nehru “Abandoning” Assam and The Northeast 
Chinese path through Arunachal was uninhabited but if they carried through on their threat and invaded Assam, they would encounter civilians for the first time. Nehru’s statement during an All India Radio address at this point that his “heart went out to the people of Assam“ I feel was assiduously misinterpreted as washing his hands, by likes of union minister Kiren Rijiju. We should note that Nehru sent his own daughter Indira Gandhi to Tezpur by 25 October 1962 to be with the people and prepare for relief in case of invasion of Assam.
I strongly feel that Nehru never abandoned any of his people during his days as a Satyagrahi or the prime minister. A democratic leader like Nehru should be expected to care about the lives and dignity of the people that are in the path of the enemy forces. I will say that unlike dictators who don’t hesitate to risk any number of lives for a cause, Nehru did not believe the lives of innocent civilians should be disturbed due to ideological warfare.
By-election In Bengal
I feel that the 1962 conflict, without dismissing its geopolitical impact, was used by detractors of the erstwhile PM and the party to create a lot of hype, to get political gains. Neville Maxwell, in his widely quoted (but rarely read) book describes the unnecessary uproar in the country regarding ‘Chinese threat‘ that led to the conflict. But the hype in the aftermath has been even more dramatic and detrimental. The impact of that conflict in the mountains was so insignificant in rest of the country even at that time that the by-election in nearby West Bengal was held as scheduled. Jyoti Basu even doubted the authenticity of the story and wondered if the war was a hoax by Congress to show his own party CPI in a bad light and thus win the election.
Difference Between China And Pakistan
China lost 23 million to the Japanese War, 2.5 million to their own civil war, not to mention the Cultural Revolution and Great Leap. From Korea to Vietnam they fought the mighty United States and suffered a million casualties. Mao then dared the west to nuke his country.
India, as well as Pakistan, operate on a different scale compared to China. Hence the difference between 1962 and 1965/71 wars – not because Krishna Menon did something wrong. It is unfair to blame Krishna Menon on the basis of difference in the military strength between India and China around 1962. That difference never narrowed (but widened) in 57 years since Krishna Menon was removed as Defense Minister.
Indian Army’s Unpreparedness
Army’s so-called unpreparedness is I feel weirdly blamed on Prime Minister and Defense Minister. Claims of Indian Army being asked to fight with outdated weapons are false. Krishna Menon not just modernized but revolutionized the armed forces. It could be true that the soldiers redeployed in a hurry from Punjab to Tawang in aftermath of Namka Chu incident were in cotton pants and socks. But Defense Minister should not be blamed for operational failures.
Under Krishna Menon, India built Avadi Tanks, Shaktiman Trucks, AVRO and HF-24 Supersonic fighters. Krishna Menon bought aircraft carriers, submarines, and helicopters. He built housing for nearly 1/3 of families in the armed forces during his tenure, as well as the Armed Forces Medical College and Sainik Schools. He revitalized NCC and founded great institutions like DRDO.
Krishna Menon accomplished all this despite the opposition leaders accusing him of spending too much while then Finance Minister sadistically sabotaging his projects. If 1962 war improved anything at all, it was the attitude of the opposition who stopped complaining about defense spending and attitude of the Finance Minister who quickly approved the pending defense projects. Our historians need to rethink their branding of Krishna Menon as a terrible if not the worst defense minister.
President R. Venkataraman who was a defense minister himself had a different opinion. He considered Krishna Menon the best defense minister India ever had. Claims that Krishna Menon did not give money for winter clothing for a few thousand soldiers are far-fetched and false! In Krishna Menon’s own words, when he wanted to buy quilted coats (Brecher, Page 162), one general protested “we would look like monkeys”. The Chinese came in those quilted coats!
Claims Of The Indian Air Force
Nehru is often blamed for not deploying Air Force. Indian Air Force made repeated claims of being better equipped than the Chinese Air Force at that time, which by itself should vindicate Krishna Menon’s fine job as a Defense Minister and debunk the myth that he did not equip the military! But the question is, why was Indian Army not ready when the Indian Air Force was? This is for Army as well as Air Force to answer before they can blame any politician!
The claims of Indian Air Force that they could defeat China only if Nehru allowed them reminds me of Uttar Kumar in Mahabharat! Uttar Kumar bragged to his harem that he could defeat Kaurav armies single-handed if his father allowed him. As discussed in an earlier blog, even the Army bragged of their eagerness and readiness to teach Chinese a lesson. Yet when Nehru deployed the army, they not only got destroyed but accused Nehru of unnecessarily deploying them.
I am of the opinion that if Nehru really deployed Air Force, they too would be decimated like the Army and they too would now be claiming that they were not ready! And if we lost all the aircraft in 1962, could we win 1965 and 1971 wars? Would NAK Brown or AY Tipnis take responsibility if we lost Jammu Kashmir and maybe even more? I wonder why such false claims in the name of the great institutions they represent are made? It is for those institutions to answer!