Six decades on, 1962 war history remains classified

The 63rd anniversary of the India-China conflict, that began on October 20 and ended on November 21, 1962 — has just been crossed, but an authentic account of the war continues to evade the reading public. Conflicting versions on who started the conflict and why, persist — depending on who you speak to and what ideological persuasion they belong to.

Despite a June 2021 policy-mandate by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on archiving, declassification, and publication of war histories, no change is in sight.

Moreover, despite recommendations by senior officials, including a special committee headed by former Defence secretary N N Vohra in 2001, to release the histories of all three wars that India has fought — in 1962, 1965 and 1971 — so as to promote an understanding of the complexities of each conflict, the government remains tight-lipped. Questions about “why” the Ministry of Defence doesnt put out an authentic history is met with cold silence.

Small wonder that the month-long India-China conflict, the subject of many emotional Hindi movies and stirring melodies, is described in diametrically opposite ways – some blame India for triggering the war, others hold China responsible for it.

The vital publication ‘History of the Conflict with China. 1962’, produced in March 1993 by the Ministry of Defence (MoD’s) continues to be restricted to a select-few libraries of the armed forces. Though not available publicly, the MoD’s publication is considered the closest to accurate account of events as it is derived from war diaries and Army’s own records.

Tragically, it is not owned up as official history. The director of the MoD’s History Division, SN Prasad, who authored the publication had put a caveat along with the publication : “I accept responsibility for the facts and stated opinions expressed, which do not necessarily reflect the views of the Government of India and do not commit it ( Govt) in any way.”

A report on the 1962 war by Lt Gen Henderson Brooks as well as Brig (later Lt Gen) Prem Bhagat, remains under lock and key in the South Block, the headquarters the MoD. In 2014, Australia-based author Neville Maxwell put out 127 pages of the report on a website.

Conflicting versions of events

The absence of any official de-classified record, means that the Neville Maxwell 1971-dated book ‘India’s China War’ blames Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru for having unleashed a ‘forward policy’ that ‘provoked’ China into a war. Maxwell’s theory is that China was only defending its territory.

The restricted MoD publication rebuts Maxwell’s claim on an aggressive ‘forward policy’ — a decision taken by India in November 1961 — saying it was to restrict the Chinese to their claim-line of 1956 and stop claims over new territory. When Beijing, in 1960, expanded its claim on another 5,100 sq km of territory in eastern Ladakh, the MoD publication says India moved only to “prevent further infiltration into unoccupied areas of Ladakh”. Swedish Journalist Bertil Lintner puts the onus on Beijing and says it was China, and not India, that ‘provoked’ the war. In his book ‘China’s India War— Collision Course on the Roof of the World’, Lintner says China took a decision to go to war with India in 1959 — the year the 14th Dalai Lama arrived in India.

An official history can correct the ‘popular belief’ that India was "totally disgraced: in the 1962 War. “The Indian soldier was defeated but not disgraced in Ladakh,” says the MoD publication, dispelling the notion of ‘disgrace’. Notably, the Chinese officially admitted to 2,419 casualties (722 dead and 1,697 wounded).

Books by officials have added to ‘conflicting versions’

Key players of those times wrote their own accounts. BN Mullick the director Intelligence Bureau wrote ‘Chinese Betrayal: My Years with Nehru’; Lt Gen BM Kaul the then commander of the Tezpur-based IV Corps wrote ‘The untold story’; Brig DK Palit the then Director Military Operations penned the ‘War in High Himalaya: The Indian Army in Crisis, 1962’; Brig JP Dalvi, the then Commander of the Army’s 7th Brigade have his version of events ‘Himalayan Blunder: The Curtain-Raiser to the Sino-Indian War of 1962’.

All the Army officers have looked at their own specific roles and are autobiographical accounts, and each blames the other for shortcomings.

Why have official histories?

Besides the NN Vohra committee recommendation, the need for having war histories written with clear cut policy on de-classification was also recommended by the Kargil Review Committee headed by K Subrahmanyam. The Vohra committee in 2001 had comprised Lt Gen Satish Nambiar (retd), a former Deputy Chief of the Army and Dr SN Prasad, recommended the release of the three wars ( 1962, 1965 and 1971) histories in their original form.Post-Kargil, a Group of Ministers’ recommendations on national security also mentioned the desirability of authoritative war history to accurate account of the events for academic research and to counter the unfounded rumours.The Public Record Act 1993 does not entail automatic declassification of military records and national security exemptions under the Right to Information Act 2005 are a closed door for researchers.

So far, only the account of India-Pakistan war in 1948 has been made public. Accounts of other full-blown wars and operations remain hidden in files of the MoD.