#books
1962 – The War That Wasn’t.
by Shiv Kunal Verma.
“1962 – The War That Wasn’t”, the definitive account of the military historian Shiv Kunal Verma has been largely ignored by the media, the military and the government.
” India’s China War” by Neville Maxwell, was for long considered the authentic history, since he had access to some classified reports which have been supressed from the public by the government.
The Henderson Brooks- Bhagat report on the debacle remains classified even today.
The forward policy of Gen.BN Kaul, defence minister Krishna Menon and Prime Minister Nehru was considered the root cause of the debacle till recently.
Verma reveals that Gen. SP Thorat, the Eastern Army Commander had submitted a detailed report in 1959 itself that, after the annexation of Tibet, China was building up the military capabilities for an attack on India. He had prophetically predicted that the attack would come in 1962.
The report was canned by the Army Chief Gen. Thapar . He, PM Nehru, and Gen. Kaul sincerely believed in the Hindi Chini Bhai Bhai slogan and that China would never attack India. The real villain was the IB chief Mullick, whose reports were relied on by the PM, Nehru.
The book exposes the abject surrender of the Generals, Thapar, Sen, Kaul, and Pathania, which resulted in the total disintegration of the army in the Eastern sector. It also gives accounts of hitherto unknown heroic battles led by the junior officers.
While the heroes in the Western sector were recognised with military honours, many in NEFA went unrecognised since entire battalions were destroyed with not even one eye witness remaining, to tell the story.
Even when hundreds of brave soldiers were laying down their lives due to the spinelessness of the senior officers, Nehru refused to replace them.
He forced Gen Thapar to reinduct Gen Kaul in the place of Gen Harbux Singh.
By the time Gen Manekshaw was given charge replacing Gen Kaul, China had declared a unilateral ceasefire.
Chairman Mao had succeeded in giving India a bloody nose.
The saddest story is that many of the surrendered and captured troops and officers, were shot dead in cold blood, even after the declaration of ceasefire.
I was a school boy in 1962 and used to naively believe the press reports of the imaginary victories of our Army.
Reading the book was a catharsis to me.
– Joy Kallivayalil.
