To assess threats to India’s security or the problems of India’s defence, one must consider the many imponderables — the developments during the period in many nations, the attitudes of many peoples, not to mention the changes which may take place within our own country. Preparations for defence in modern times is a highly complicated and time-consuming business, because of the progress in science and technology. The achievements in applying the latest scientific knowledge to the techniques of warfare since the beginning of the century are really terrifying.
The whole process has been accelerated due to the needs of war, and there are no signs of any slackening in tempo. One consequence is that defence preparations, which must take into account the changes and improvements in techniques of warfare, take time. Even highly industrialized countries require considerable time for their plans and building up and equipping their forces. Countries like ours, which are barely industrialized whose industrial infra-structure is of limited capacity, have even more difficult problems to face in planning their defence. A projection into the future for a period of about ten years is, therefore, not at all too long.
India is a member of the United Nations which was organized to settle disputes between sovereign nations peacefully without resort to force. Oar political leaders are consistently proclaiming that they have no aggressive intentions, and desire to have in peace with one and all. Yet, within the last decade, our armed forces had to go into action in defence on more than half a dozen occasions, not to mention the operations which have been going on in Nagaland and the Mizo hills; and two of these occasions involved major operations. Clearly, a desire of our part to have in peace with our neighbors is in itself cot sufficient to ensure that the country will not threatened.
Broadly speaking, threat to the country’s security may develop because of what may be called global factors, or the activities of our immediate neighbors because of primarily internal factors, though none of these may work in airtight compartments, and, in fact, react on one-another.