The Line of Control

Title: The Line of Control – Travelling with the Indian and Pakistani Armies

Author: Happymon Jacob

Publisher: Viking Penguin, 2018 (First)

ISBN: 9780670091270

Pages: 201

The international border between India and Pakistan is one of the most militarized regions in the world. When the demarcation line runs through Kashmir it is called the Line of Control (LoC) since Pakistan has still not technically recognized Kashmir’s accession to India in 1947. This boundary is not clearly delineated by any prominent geographical marker such as a river or a mountain chain and sometimes pass bang through the middle of a village. Whatever may the moral justifications be for Pakistan's claims on Kashmir, it is an open secret that they recruit, train, arm and dispatch jihadi terrorists across the frontier into India to carry out acts of sedition through open terrorism such as suicide bombings on streets and crowded markets. Pakistan seems to have fallen into an ever repeating groove of tactics to bleed India through a thousand cuts, ignorant of its rapidly accumulating financial and military muscle. As a result, India maintains highly alert border posts along the LoC where heavily armed soldiers watch out for intruders. They are matched on the far side of the border by equally watchful Pakistani troops. Needless to say, such an atmosphere of heightened tension ends up in incidents of firing light personal and/or heavy artillery weapons between the two sides. These ceasefire violations make lives in the local villages hellish as many of them are straddling the LoC. In the first three months of 2018 alone, Pakistan reported 900 ceasefire violations by India and India reported 633. There is no relevance to the exact number of incidents, but it serves to indicate how volatile and dangerous a zone it is. Happymon Jacob is an associate professor of the Centre for International Politics of the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU). This book is an account of his unique and enviable experience of travelling along the LoC on both sides as a guest of the Indian and Pakistani armies as part of research for a book about ceasefire violations on the LoC.

Jacob is a prominent contributor to the Track II dialogue process between the two countries. These meetings are not organised by the government and are usually arranged in neutral countries, away from the glare of media. They bring together interlocutors from nations in an adversarial relationship to discuss contentious issues, especially when tensions run high and governments don't talk. JNU is markedly anti-establishment and allegations frequently surface in the media on the anti-India activities on its campus organised by scholars who freely avail of the university’s facilities which are heavily subsidized by taxpayers’ money. Probably this portrait of a rebel and Jacob’s outspoken anti-Narendra Modi feelings might have opened many doors for him in Pakistan.

The author’s trip to Pakistan was authorised from its highest echelons, no less a person than the army chief Qamar Javed Bajwa. It was partly prompted by his desire to let the Pakistan army be seen as open and transparent. Jacob is a regular traveller to Pakistan attending conferences and meeting friends, but in his earlier private visits, he was inevitably tailed by security agents who come out in the open to monitor his movements and take notes on the people he meets. He also used to receive blank telephone calls in the middle of the night to test whether he was indeed in the hotel room. Once they even barged into the room unannounced and intercepted an interview he was taking. Surveillance of Indians is so commonplace that the minders don't even take the trouble of being less conspicuous. As if to atone for past experience, the author was granted a personal interview with the Chief of General Staff at the army GHQ at Rawalpindi. This is a unique experience for an Indian citizen.

What makes this book especially noteworthy is the moving depiction of the miserable life on the LoC in front of two firing squads. The innocent villagers close to the boundary on both sides are often caught between the crossfire of the two armies. For these hapless people, peace is all about not getting killed. The author's visit on the Pakistan side was carefully choreographed to locations where the Pakistani civilians were most vulnerable to Indian firing. A brief history of the development of the strife is also given. Radcliffe did not divide Jammu and Kashmir. The line came about after the war of 1947-48. The 1965 war did not engage these parts. Unlike after the 1965 war, India and Pakistan did not exchange territories that were captured during the 1971 war. The low intensity warfare began with the surge in Kashmiri militancy in the 1990s and after 2003, ceasefire violations became the norm. This made life increasingly tough for the rural folk. Pakistani military took great care to let the author speak only to senior army officials and a carefully handpicked group of villagers. Even with this handicap, Jacob has been successful in faithfully conveying the sad plight of the non-combatants on the field. The position of the combatants is also nothing to envy about.

An invariable question posed to a person who made a visit of both countries is to make a comparison between the two. The author answers this with reluctance. For many Pakistanis, India is an internally divided country with no clear purpose. Jacob somewhat sides with this postulate, ostensibly in the backdrop of the Hindutva ideology that is finding more and more support by the day. On the other side, he personally comes across army officers doling out constant references to Koranic invocations on victory, success and war. Religious fanaticism is seeping through all layers of Pakistani society. Sometimes, the soldiers make religious references right in the middle of factual and logical discussions on statecraft and warfare (p.106). Alcohol is fading out from higher reaches of Pakistan’s military officialdom. However, he clarifies soon that the consumption of alcoholic drinks is not necessarily an indication of a liberal outlook, but then abstinence would potentially indicate a higher degree of religiosity. Another fundamental difference is regarding the public display of religiosity in the two countries. In India, religion is far less excruciatingly invasive of our private space and spiritual choice on account of the country’s plurality. However, faulty assumptions on the supposed lack of martial quality in Hindus are still prevalent in Pakistan in spite of its crushing military defeat in 1971. Ayub Khan, a former military ruler, once remarked that a Muslim is worth ten Hindu soldiers in the battlefield. This is just wishful thinking arising out of a false sense of superiority typically observable in jihadis. Figures indicate that of the 40 Victoria Crosses awarded for the highest level of military gallantry given to Indians of the British Indian Army, 28 were for Hindus while the Muslims received it only seven times even though they constituted nearly a third of the British Indian Army (statistics mine).

This book gives some tips for researchers of sensitive political issues. The author advises them to shed shame and ego and approach anyone who can give them an insight on the topic of research and to doggedly do the follow up. Not only that, academics who worked on national security are disadvantaged by the Official Secrets Act. Jacob has devised two ways to circumvent it. One is the use of extensive interaction with retired officials from multiple organisations on both sides of the border and the other is going on extensive field trips. True to the ethos of being a professor, the author keeps his students always in mind.

The narration cannot be designated as objective as the operational freedom granted to him in Pakistan was understandably limited. He was like a blinkered horse on the other side of the border, seeing and doing only the things his minders wanted him to see and do. On the Indian side, he was given absolute liberty to interact with villagers and rank and file soldiers and so, all his observations against the establishment are only based on local issues. He has also reproduced a rumour on Nawaz Sharif, probably at the behest of the Pakistan army. The book says that Sharif was not only aware of the Kargil incursion, but even enquired Musharraf when their troops would reach Srinagar from Kargil. This embarrassing episode is not discussed further. A string of photos would have added a definite punch to the narrative. A plus point is that the author does not venture to suggest ways in which the Kashmir issue could be resolved as is usually the case with this genre.

The book is recommended.

Rating: 3 Star