A forgotten war

The book is about the twin skirmishes between India and China at Nathu La and Cho La in September 1967, battles that have been relegated to the back alleys of India's military history.

Watershed 1967: India’s Forgotten Victory Over China

Author: Probal Dasgupta

Publisher: Juggernaut

Price: Rs 599
 

At a time when a country responds to the massacre of 40 soldiers in Pulwama by losing a plane, getting its pilot captured, destroying its own Air Force chopper in friendly fire that killed its own soldiers and yet having its political leadership claim victory, it is worth remembering a forgotten decisive military action that India actually won. Probal Dasgupta’s book Watershed 1967: India’s Forgotten Victory Over China  does exactly that. The book is about the twin skirmishes between India and China at Nathu La and Cho La in Sikkim in September 1967, battles that have been relegated to the back alleys of India’s military history for various reasons.
 

Mr Dasgupta’s book is a gripping chronicle of the war, its consequences on China’s perception of India’s military capabilities and the events that preceded it. What sets the book apart is the statesmanlike narrative; a rare exception in times of shrill nationalism, jingoistic cacophony and opportunistic chest thumping over all matters military. The book also provides insights into many unknown aspects of the life of Lieutenant General Sagat Singh; the man largely credited for the liberation of Bangladesh after India’s victory over Pakistan in the 1971 war. In 1967, when the war broke out, Singh was the commander of the 17 Division based in Sikkim.

Mr Dasgupta  meticulously puts together the sequence of events that led to the battles at the two passes. Of particular interest to readers would be the diplomatic crisis in June 1967, when two Indian diplomats were violently deported from China after being accused of spying at military establishments. India, with Indira Gandhi as prime minister, retaliated with similar deportations of Chinese diplomats. The crisis proved to be a tipping point in flaring tensions between the two neighbours who had gone to war five years earlier in 1962. The war had been a military disaster for India and one of the reasons for playing down its victory in the 1967 clashes. With its established military superiority over India, China had been aggressively furthering its border domination tactics in Sikkim, especially at Nathu La. The book details China’s psychological tactics, such as deploying loud speakers bombarding Indian soldiers posted at Nathu La with intimidating and demotivating messages to gain the upper hand. The author explains that Nathu La was a strategic domination point for China because it could virtually cut off India’s north-east by invading and controlling the 25 km-wide Siliguri corridor that separated India from East Pakistan and Sikkim, then still a protectorate kingdom of India. Mr Dasgupta also sheds light on how Sikkim’s monarch Palden Thondup Namgyal and his American wife Hope Cooke were publically crticising India’s Sikkim policy, further playing into China’s hands and making Sikkim an easy walkover for a potential Chinese march to the Siliguri corridor. 

When the Chinese finally pulled the trigger on Indian forces at Nathu La, the Indian side bore the brunt of the casualties in the initial few hours in what the author describes as a “pitiful massacre with the horrifying sight of fellow soldiers dropping next to each other… striking terror among the Indians.” To Mr Dasgupta’s credit, he doesn’t self-censor, what to many nationalistic governments and military officials, would strike as inconvenient truths about the horrors of war. He writes, “The suddenness of the Chinese actions had forced a bunch of soldiers, over thirty of them, to instinctively make a run for their lives; some even escaping the scene. Months later, court martials would be held to prosecute deserters on charges of cowardice. To those who had had enough of the tough battle and decided to retreat to a safer shelter, a rude surprise awaited. Sagat had decided to move closer to the scene of the battle. He stood on the road coming down from Nathu La trying to stem the rout. He threatened to shoot anyone he found moving to the rear. When he saw a few men struggling, he screamed at them, lambasting them who had gone astray, finally collecting them like a schoolteacher at a picnic and steering them back into the battle.”

It is in the chapter covering the battle of Cho La that the richest tributes are paid to some of the bravest men who fought in the conflict. Especially moving are the stories of the Gorkhas who ended up fighting Chinese guns with their kukris.  While the Indian media and its film industry have ensured brilliant army commanders such as Kuldip Singh Chandpuri, Jagjit Sigh Aurora and Sagat Singh remain etched in public memory, does anyone know of Debi Prasad Limbu’s role in the battle of Cho La? Why did the Chinese officer who handed over his body after the war ask his Indian —counterpart, “Who the hell was he?” Mr Dasgupta’s book tells the reader that and a lot more.