3 Review(s)

India’s historic battles: from Alexander the Great to Kargil focuses on the decisive battles that have shaped the course of Indian history. Taking into account recent research, especially in the fields of technology, military theory and demography, this book is an attempt to analyse the twelve great battles that have had a crucial impact on the fate of the subcontinent. Moving freely across time and space, and focusing on cross-continental analysis to bring out the uniqueness of the big battles fought in India as well as their commonality, each br>Chapter dwells on the nature of the weapons used, type of leadership displayed, and the experience of the soldiers in each battle. The period between 1750 and 1850 witnessed the origin of modern warfare, with the twin elements of Infantry and artillery. Till 1947, armies not only consumed the largest chunk of the Government revenue, they were also the biggest employers. An attempt has also been made in this book to construct counterfactual scenarios for most of the battles to show how often luck and chance decide the course of history. Parallel imageries are constructed on ‘IFS’ and ‘buts’. however, they also offer a check to determinism in history. Despite the focus of the structuralists on long term factors and their caricature of chance as ‘cleopatra’s nose’, a crucial factor in war remains the role of the unforeseen.