Watershed 1962 & 1965: From Defeat to Victory - Shiv Kunal Verma -  

Glad we are researching and talking about history. Thank you ! You are right that it is easy to look back and be critical. Circumstances and how an individual responds - both matter. - we were poor; British victimized us; we suffered a civil war; integration of princely states was a priority and all that are legitimate. - but the individual - Nehru in our case, does matter. - India had millions of battle hardened soldiers and fully functional arms factories right after WW2. - Nehru made conscious and deliberate choices - mostly on his own. Key decisions: - scaled back Indian armed strength - personnel and production. - chose to prioritize China’s concerns over India’s. He declined the permanent membership of UN Security Council. He chose to remain quiet over Chinese annexations. - chose not to prepare. He refused to seek diplomatic and armed help. At that time, the Soviets and Americans alike were concerned about expansionist China. - adopted socialism / jugaad mindset over free markets and ingenuity of the Indian people. In other words, he chose to remain poor and helpless. Socialism could not create the resources to manage the challenges. - centralized all foreign policy. He is on record telling the foreign ministry that he knew the world better than anyone else. That was one place he could impress others. - appointed Menon and Kaul on the basis of being Kashmiri - not competence. - refused to use the Air Force! Read his request for airplanes to President Kennedy. He wants the aid but then he wants to control perceptions of him! Leader - look at their background and values and you know their direction. - Nehru himself had an easy ride to the top. He was nominated by the “father of the nation”. --- our luck! We had two emotional, acutely self absorbed men at the helm of affairs dealing with a tough world. - We had cutthroat neighbors and the likes of Mao - men who were street smart, fought with axes and guns. Mao was a poor peasant and natural leader. He united the peasantry - first to take on the Japanese then the KMT and then the Americans. - Nehru - the softie and privileged, had no chance when he came up against hardened men like Mao and Zhou. Circumstances were hard and complex. Every situation was trying. Agreed. But the leader - Nehru, was bad. He failed the test. For those interested read Zhou’s assessment of Nehru.

Enlightening. Inspiring. Millions of Bharatiya should listen. Most importantly, leaders & policy makers must listen to this, to secure 'fortress India.' Thank you Shiv Kunal Verma (I've read all your books), thank you Centre for Indic Studies

What a profound lecture that is. Salute to Mr Verma. He is absolutely correct. And it's pathetic to find that we have been taught so much screwed history in our schools and colleges. Our history books needs overhaul and the next generation should know the facts. In a sense we are still colonised. Jai Hind

This is an eye-opener.. love it.

Salute sir

Super lecture Sir. I salute you.

NDA and IMA also teach Military Geography too. Happy that Welhems Dehradun teaches Military history .Kudos to the School

Holy fuck! I’ve never heard anyone say these things with such clarity & as a matter of fact. Also the importance of geography in history & war is something i’d like to explore further

Wonderful explanation. Thank sir..❤

Kunal- Dicky Mountbatten was Nit Churchill's nephew. Prince Philip Queen Elizabeth's husband was Mountbatten's nephew

Very interesting talj

Kunal The NDA and the IMA do teach Military History as subjects

👌👌 ❤❤ 🙏🙏

Kunal jee

The talk is very well researched and very informative. However, it had one serious lacuna and that's that it was not supported by maps and other necessary pictures. .

29:03 the biggest blunder of Nehru ji of making such an incapacitant officer BM Kaul to command level….

In IMA , military history is being taught.

Nehru did his bit. He did launch the Forward Policy, now criticised. But had he not launched it, we could have lost even more territory and the same critics would have said, "Nehru did nothing ". War with China was and is not a joke. China has been a stronger power than India for millennia. In the Korean war, when the Allied forces, flush with WW2 victory and atom bombs, crossed the Yalu river, Chinese began to fight in support of communist Koreans. Chinese, at that time when they were in a chaotic situation and technologically backward than the Allied, threw the Allied forces back across the Yalu. So, it would not have been easy for India in any way to fight the Chinese.

Fall of Maharaja Ranjit Singh gave them power

1962 and 1965 cannot be compare as china and pakistan cannot be compared, nowdays such speakers who are hiper pseudo nationalistic are arising out of nowhere, what they get by such false narration