Content area
Full Text
Leadership in the Indian Army: Biographies of Twelve Soldiers. By V. K. Singh. Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Sage Publications, 2005. ISBN 0-7619-3322-0. Photographs. Select bibliography. Pp. 417. $39.95.
South Asia's prominence, especially the troubled India-Pakistan relationship, has increased dramatically over the past decade. Highlighted by nuclear tests in 1998, a miniwar in 1999, the "war on terrorism," and a near-war crisis during 2001-2002, military developments in the India-Pakistan security dynamic have been in sharp focus. Yet the military history of these countries since independence has often been neglected or treated superficially, especially outside the subcontinent. Even within India and Pakistan, archival material is almost totally off limits, so historians have to rely heavily on interviews, memoirs, and other personal accounts.
Works such as Maj. Gen. (retired) V. K. Singh's collection of short biographies are thus welcome as they provide some glimpses into the histories of these two large military establishments. Working with interviews and a few...