ON OUR JOURNEY IN SEARCH OF THE UNPARALLELED – THE 1965 WAR

 

Ferocity, in battles on the land and duels in the air, was the hallmark of the second Indo-Pakistan war of 1965. Many books have been written, on both sides of the border, about the war and its battles, both in the air and on the land. Carefully researched facts, figures, and diagrams outlining the progress of operations lend an essence of authority to the work. Each story, replete with grit and valour, with all the attendant ghastly details finely woven in, makes compelling narratives that deify domestic military heroes and demonise the adversary. Straying from the truth while writing about battles is an honourable compulsion, soaked in nationalism. After all, war has never been about absolute truth, and history, the narrative of the victor. 

But what happens when both parties declare themselves victors? Deja Vu?

This article, like the previous three on India’s unparalleled wars, will not take us through individual battles. We will navigate mostly through the causes to understand what happened, briefly touching upon the war, in search of unparalleled aspects. The war is said to have begun on 6 September 1965 when India launched a full-scale counterattack across the international border and headed towards Lahore. It ended in a Soviet brokered ceasefire declared on 22 September 1965. Ironically, both countries declared themselves the winners in the war. Sensing parallels and the unparalleled?

The term “counterattack” clearly indicates that there was an attack by Pakistan on India, to which India responded. Why would Pakistan attack India in 1965, out of the blue? The obvious answer that everybody can easily peddle is that the unfinished Kashmir business had to be completed. After all, the previous war, fought in 1947, was about Kashmir.  The United Nations Security Council Resolution 47 of 21 April 1948 had brought the first war to a ceasefire operative on 1 January 1949. Resolution 47 was only an expansion of Resolution 39, adopted on 20 January 1948. Resolution 39, the second on the Kashmir dispute, was to investigate the issue, bring out the facts and recommend ways to settle the differences between the two parties. Resolution 47 now mandated the three-step process of ceasefire, withdrawal of troops and plebiscite. Both parties were to withdraw all their military forces from the area. Claims and counterclaims aside, demilitarisation never happened. The first step was never taken. There were 12 resolutions on Kashmir before the war, mostly on issues brought up by Pakistan. All these resolutions either set conditions for the process to move forward or reaffirmed what had already been said. Interestingly, the last resolution on Kashmir before the 1965 was Resolution 209, adopted on 4 September 1965 was passed after the Pakistani Troops had crossed into the Rann of Kutch. 

Was the 1965 war, therefore, the result of Pakistan’s frustration with 16 years of waiting? 

Well, let us explore a little more before we form an opinion.

On 28 September 1965, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, in his speech in the United Nations General Assembly, complained that Pakistan had repeatedly approached the Security Council since 1948 for a solution and that it had exhausted peaceful diplomatic means. That speech certainly said nothing about their efforts to demilitarise the area. Delivered after the war, it was more of a justification of the misadventure. Only the gullible would fall for this explanation. If military action was the way out, it could have happened just after 1962. India was at its weakest militarily and economically. If Pakistan had launched an attack simultaneously with the China war, it would have had a major impact on India. Politically, India was also weak at that time.

War is the military implementation of a political decision. Wars do not originate out of nothing. It commences when one country feels that either the conditions of the adversary are conducive or favourable enough to launch an offensive, or when domestic conditions warrant a move against the adversary.  When the military leader is himself the political head, the distance between decision and execution diminishes. Waging war then becomes the first and easiest option. While the conditions within India would have been favourable for Pakistan to launch an attack then, it did not happen. Certainly, something else would have been the reason.

Let us look for it.

The post-independence march of the country with Mohammad Ali Jinnah as its first Governor General ceased in 1948 with his death. Said to have been diagnosed with tuberculosis in 1930, he developed lung cancer and died on 11 September 1948, barely a year after Pakistan had won independence. Pakistan plunged into a very turbulent period of power transfer. Khawaja Nazimuddin became the second Governor General of Pakistan, and Mr Liaquat Ali Khan, already the prime minister, with Mohammed Ali Jinnah, continued in office. On 17 January 1951, Mr Liaquat Ali Khan made Mohammad Ayub Khan a general and the first commander-in-chief of the Pakistan army, replacing General Sir Douglas Gracy. Liaquat Ali Khan was assassinated on 16 October 1951.

The assassin, Saad Akbar Babrak, an Afghan National, was shot dead immediately, and the reasons for the assassination, undiscovered or undisclosed, were buried with him. Incidentally, Liaquat Ali Khan had survived an attempted coup in March 1951. Khwaja Nazimuddin, the Governor General of Pakistan, became the Prime Minister. Gulam Mohammed, the finance minister, was appointed as the Governor General. On 23 March 1956, Pakistan became an Islamic Republic, and the office of the Governor General was replaced with that of the President. Major General Iskander Mirza (retd) became the first President of Pakistan. Meanwhile, governance had deteriorated, and the common man had started feeling the impact. The divide between various regions of the country aggravated, leading to political instability.

Meanwhile, Pakistan exploited the Cold War conditions to beef up its military hardware. On 19 May 1954, it signed the Mutual Defence Assistance Agreement (MDAA) with the USA in Karachi. The USA, in pursuit of the Truman Doctrine to contain communism, found the geographical proximity of Pakistan suited to its plans against the Soviet Union and China. India was not willing to play second fiddle to the US in their Cold War efforts. MDAA fetched Pakistan tanks, fighter planes, transport planes, radar systems and naval ships. Pakistani military officers went to the US for training. 

Pakistan received more than $900 million worth of military equipment, effectively bridging the military hardware disparity it faced after partition. Interestingly, all this military hardware, according to the agreement, was to be used exclusively for internal security, legitimate self-defence or participation in the United Nations’ duties. (Rings a familiar bell? The USA did that again later. Starting January 1983, Peace Gate 1 Program delivered 28 F-16 A, 12 F-16 B, besides other military hardware to Pakistan, all for counter terrorist and counterinsurgency operations. In February 2025, the Trump administration released $ 300 out of the $ 450 million funds sanctioned by the Biden Administration in September 2022.) 

On 7 October 1958, the President of Pakistan abrogated the constitution, dismissed the central and provincial governments, declared martial law and appointed General Mohammed Ayub Khan, then the army commander-in-chief, as the Chief Martial Law Administrator. On 27 October 1958, hardly a fortnight later, Ayub Khan removed Mirza, in a bloodless coup, exiled him to London and became President himself. He also retired from the army that day! Since the public was already dissatisfied with how the country was run, the coup seems to have been welcomed. President Ayub Khan introduced many land reforms and strengthened the relationship with the United States.

On 27 October 1959, Ayub Khan’s presidential government declared him a Field Marshal. On that same day, the government also introduced a system called “Basic Democracy”. The country was divided into 80,000 “Basic Democratic” units, and each such unit was to elect one representative called the “Basic Democrat.” Pakistan now had 80,000 local representatives to ensure grassroots governance. In 1962, through the newly promulgated constitution that advocated a presidential system, Ayub Khan consolidated power in his hands. Despite curbs on political freedom, Pakistan under Field Marshal Ayub Khan achieved significant economic growth. The benefits of the modernisation and industrial growth seemed to favour West Pakistan. East Pakistan felt politically and economically marginalised, and the divide between the two became glaring. 

On 13 October 1962, one week before China attacked India, Pakistan commenced negotiations with China over disputed territories. The talks culminated in Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and Chen Yi, the two foreign ministers, signing the Sino-Pakistan boundary agreement on 2 March 1963. China ceded about 750 square miles while Pakistan gave away more than 2,050 square miles, mostly in the Gilgit-Baltistan area that India claimed ownership. China also gave $60 million interest-free loan to support Pakistan’s economy and strengthen military cooperation.

On 2 January 1965, Pakistan went in for a presidential election. The electoral college of 80,000 Basic Democrats voted. The public had nothing to do with the election. The main contestants were Mohammad Ayub Khan and Fatima Jinnah, the sister of the founder of Pakistan, backed by a coalition of all the opposition parties. Ayub Khan is said to have polled 49,951 votes. Fatima Jinnah, who contested as the mother of the nation, gathered only 28,691 votes. The other two contestants, both independents, Mahmud Ali Kasuri, polled 2,847, and Ghulam Muhammad Sadiq got 1,106.  The total number of votes polled exceeded the official electoral college by 2,595. Naturally, there were complaints of vote manipulation in favour of the sitting president. This led to widespread agitation alleging rampant vote rigging. The urban areas of West Pakistan and most areas of East Pakistan (Now Bangladesh) saw protests. The public turned against the ruler, and Ayub Khan's legitimacy as the President took a severe blow. Something was required to quell the rising discontentment and opposition and redeem the trust of the public in the presidency. Uniting the country against an existential threat was the best way forward.

Meanwhile, India had already lost a war with China. Conditions were perfect now.

Would Kashmir be the objective? We will find out in the next part.

 (NOTE: Picture GROK generated)

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(To be continued…)