India and China are two powerful and ambitious modern states, nuclear powers, neighbours and old civilisations with a long history. However, for over fifty years, the sole conflict between the two nations that occupied collective memories is the 1962 India-China war. It was a war which China won and India lost. However, there was another…
The Times Face-Off has two experts battle out the pros and cons of the MoD announcement, with Army veteran and author, Probal DasGupta in favour of the declassification and retired Lieutenant General of the Indian Army, Rakesh Sharma against it. Read the experts face-off in the positives and negatives of this announcement here.
A year has passed since Colonel Santhosh Babu and his band of gallant men from the 16 Bihar Regiment laid down their lives in the Galwan clash against the PLA, the Chinese army. The fateful night, a year ago, which claimed their lives will not go down in history as yet another night of betrayal…
On 15 June 2020, India lost 20 soldiers at the Galwan river valley in Ladakh. While India and China have had several border standoffs since the 1962 India-China War, this was the first time, since 1975, that a face-off had turned violent — albeit without the actual use of firearms, in line with the confidence-building measures in…
The irony is stark. Millions scramble for oxygen cylinders and hospital beds, oscillating between life and death. Around the same time, several other millions decided the political fortunes of five states/UTs. Earlier this year, Indians defied a mortal fear of the coronavirus and voted in large numbers, with a turnout of 70 per cent or…
A document written by Chinese scientists and health officials before the pandemic in 2015 states that SARS coronaviruses were a “new era of genetic weapons” that could be “artificially manipulated into an emerging human disease virus, then weaponised and unleashed, reported Weekend Australian. The paper titled ‘The Unnatural Origin of SARS and New Species of…
Probal DasGupta’s debut non-fiction book, ‘Watershed 1967: India’s Forgotten Victory over China’ is a seminal account of India’s victory over China that changed the course of history and set a new narrative between the two nations. Watershed 1967 describes a forgotten part of history that was a turning point for India. At a time when…
Probal advises global clients on business intelligence, due diligence, investigations, market entry risks and political risks. Prior to this, he spent a decade serving with the Indian army in high risk, conflict environments. He has also written for publications on business and strategic issues in South Asia. He has led projects for multinational infrastructure firms…
The current stand-off between India and China mirrors a similar incident that happened almost 54 years ago. Not much was known about the India-China war of 1967, which was relegated to a few lines in history books and almost forgotten. Probal DasGupta, through his debut non-fiction, Watershed 1967: India’s Forgotten Victory over China, sheds light…
Full of nail-biting scenes, Watershed 1967: India’s Forgotten Victory Over China delves into the lesser-known Indo-China battle, that India won. The sole India–China conflict that remains etched in our collective memory is the 1962 war, which India tragically lost. But five years later, in 1967, India and China faced off once again in the heights…
The victories in Nathu La and Cho La in 1967 were India’s comebacks against China after the setback in 1962. The border disputes that lasted over two months could not have been resolved without Lt. Sagat Singh’s leadership. The valour shown by the officers and men proved decisive as the Indian Army seized the psychological…
Image Source: The Tribune | YouTube Watershed 1967, the book, at the Chandigarh Military Litfest 2020: A forgotten event of history for fifty long years, the Watershed battles of 1967 have now been revived and remembered as India’s historic victory against China. Not many knew about India’s victory over China in 1967. Until 2020, that…
Image Source: Times of India Historically, the economic and cultural relations between China and India could be traced back to ancient times. The Silk Route, which was a network of trade routes connecting the East and West, served as a major highway between the two countries. Moreover, it also helped spread Buddhism from India to…
Image Source: The Quint | Arnica Kala In the summer of 1945, as the world war drew to a close in Berlin, Germany resembled a scramble to the finish line: Americans and their allies swept in from the western flanks while Soviet tanks rolled into the eastern half of the country. Ironically, the two victorious…
Image Source: Flickr | The Print As the India-China tussle raged in the Himalayas through this year, both sides scampered to stockpile missile systems and aircraft. But while Russia confirmed that it was on track to deliver five squadrons of S-400 Triumpf air defence systems to India, it didn’t give the same promise to China. Moscow decided to suspend the supply…
Image Source: Youtube -Doordarshan | Scroll.in In the years following the Kargil war of 1999, tensions between India and Pakistan refused to abate. Worse was to follow when in 2001, a deadly attack by terrorists on India’s parliament led to a formidable mobilisation of India’s armed forces to the Pakistan border. An edgy standoff followed.…
Probal DasGupta, Author and Army veteran, joins West Indies cricket batting coach, Monty Desai for a discussion session – ‘Combat to Cricket: Military Lessons for Sports’ on Sports Life Performance Management private Limited. The conversation draws parallels of learning across different fields. Probal talks about how lessons from armed forces are crucial for sports, including…
On October 20, 1962, China attacked India across the border on many fronts in Arunachal Pradesh and Ladakh. Once it defeated the heavily outnumbered Indian troops and achieved its objectives of “teaching India a lesson,” it declared a unilateral ceasefire. Cut to October 2020. India faces a hostile China again on the border, where the…
Probal DasGupta panelled a specially curated and designed leadership program for young and dynamic MBA Students, along with Samira Pillai, the Founder & CEO at StoneMill India and Prof. KDS Bedi, Vice President at Chitkara University. Hosted by Chitkara University, the session answered some pertinent questions related to leadership – What can we learn from…
Image Source: The Print “India should’ve anticipated the Chinese appearance in Ladakh, even the timing of it, when the status of Jammu & Kashmir was changed”, notes Shekhar Gupta in his article for the Print. “Why, when the Chinese PLA comes bullying its way along the borders in Ladakh, am I invoking an outrageous American…
In the year 2000, Ahmed Rashid wrote a book titled Taliban. A radical Islamist group that came to power in Afghanistan in early 1990s, the Taliban ran an already battered country to the ground. However, the story of a homicidal government didn’t matter much to a western world, for whom Afghanistan was nothing more than a…
Image Source: Better Photography In a webinar hosted by Better Photography in association with HP and Intel, Probals DasGupta talked about his journey as a writer and “The Secrets of Writing a Bestselling Book”. With his very first book “Watershed 1967: India’s Forgotten Victory Over China’ (published by Juggernaut) moving into its second edition of…
Image Source: Watershed 1967 | Telegraph In May, Indian and Chinese troops clashed in the Galwan Valley in the Himalayas. More than 20 soldiers may have died in the brutal hand-to-hand fighting, which was the first deadly clash between the two nations in over half a century. Considering the tense relationship between India and China…
Probal DasGupta spoke to Aditi Bhaduri about the Indo-China clashes in 1967, their impact on the future of both the countries and their impact on the Galwan Valley clashes. The two spoke in detail about the chances of a two front war from both China and Pakistan and what will the future be like for…
During the 2000 US election campaign, George Bush’s adviser Condoleezza Rice wrote that America needed to pay closer attention to India which was “ an element in China’s calculation and should be in America’s too.” There is a backstory to this thinking. After the Soviet Union disappeared as a political entity, the early signals of…
Image Source: ET In 2012, upon becoming general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party, Xi announced a new goal: ‘qiang zhongguo meng’ — strong nation’s dream. It was the Chinese dream to be at the centre of earth, or ‘tianxia’. Over the years, Xi embarked on his goal of achieving greatness for China by 2049…
Amity Institute of Liberal Arts presents a talk by former Army officer and author Mr. Probal Dasgupta. Mr. Dasgupta talks on Indo-China relation and the way we have come to learn about the dynamics between the two countries over the years. He highlights the 1967 skirmish which took place between Indo China – something that…
Image Source: GETTY Images | Huffington Post The violent face-off between Indian and Chinese troops at Galwan Valley in eastern Ladakh on 15 June, which left 20 Indian soldiers dead, has been described as the “biggest confrontation” between the two neighbours since 1967. While the 1962 war between the countries is understandably uppermost in people’s…
Image Source: Major Bishen Singh (retired) Rahul Kumar of indianarrative.com talked to Indian Army veteran and author Probal Dasgupta about his book, ”Watershed1967: India’s Forgotten Victory Over China”. They discussed Probal’s inspiration behind writing about the 1967 battle, the long-lasting impact the it had on the Chinese psyche and what it meant for India’s relationship…
DasGupta had served in the Gorkha Rifles regiment for a decade and this is his first book that was published in January 2020. The book talks about India’s victory over China at Cho La and Nathu La areas alongside the India-China border in Sikkim. Indian and Chinese troops had quarrelled over the question of a fence at…
Image Source: The Print For 45 years, India and China never exchanged fire. So, why should 16 June 2020 go down as the date when an argumentative peace of many decades finally ended as the bloodiest skirmish in a long time. There are two possible answers. Tactically, the Chinese want to assert their new positions…
Image Source: ABP News | YouTube Military-level talks between India and China have been stopped. The Defense Minister has reviewed the situation on the Line of Control. Along with this, the army has been instructed to increase surveillance on LAC. 20 Indian soldiers were killed in a violent clash between India and China on the night of 15…
Image Source: Republic World | YouTube Probal Dasgupta joined News Mobile Editor-in-Chief Saurabh Shukla and Ambassador P. Stobdan on Arnab Goswami’s show, The Debate on The Republic, where they discussed China’s strategies and what measures should India take to defeat China from a military standpoint, politically and economically. Using his research and experience, Probal DasGupta…
Image Source: Bloomberg | The Print India Tuesday accused China of “departing” from the consensus they had reached to resolve their border stand-off in Ladakh and seeking to unilaterally change the status quo along the Line of Actual Control (LAC), resulting in violence that killed at least 20 Indian soldiers. The Narendra Modi government also…
Image Source: Juggernaut The standoff between India and China on the Ladakh border is making headlines. But why is this happening and what is China thinking? Here’s the China POV: The Covid crisis has led to political tensions and dissent within China. To deflect attention from these issues, the Chinese government is drumming up nationalistic feelings…
Image Source: CNN News-18 | YouTube Tensions have been growing at the border between India and China given rise to various uncertainties. Is there are a greater threat from China that we are unaware of? Will the standoff escalate to a full blown war? What does China really want and why has it started to…
Image Source: iStock In the early days of its COVID bungle this year, as the world contemplated on mounting pressure on China, Beijing decided to move first. A familiar messaging strategy was put in place: counterattack. At a closed-door meeting of UN Security Council in January, China brought up a request to discuss the Kashmir…
With the pandemic causing mass destruction and economies struggling to stay afloat, China is not winning any favours globally. In response, China has opened with aggression to salvage matters. In an expert webinar at CT University, Probal DasGupta talked about India’s relationship with other countries and how the 1960s were crucial in determining India’s stance…
Image Source: Mojo Story | YouTube Editor of Mojo, Barkha Dutt speak to Lt. Gen D.S Hooda, Lt. General Syed Ata Hasnain, Author and former Soldier, Probal Dasgupta and veteran diplomat Ambassador G. Parthasarathy on the unprecedented India China tension at LAC, as Chinese Troops ingress into Indian Territory and open multiple fronts of tension.…
Image Source: ANI file | The Print The special representatives talks on the boundary question, or SR-level dialogue mechanism between India and China, is an important channel of communication and should continue in order to mitigate border standoffs and other issues, experts have told ThePrint. The 22nd edition, which was the last round of SR-level talks…
Firstpost’s weekly roundup of books that should be on your radar. We love stories, and even in the age of Netflix-and-chill, there’s nothing like a good book that promises a couple of hours of absorption — whether curled up in bed, in your favourite coffeehouse or that long (and tiresome) commute to work. Every Sunday,…
Image Source: Indian Bengalis in UK | Facebook Probal DasGupta took to international seas as he launched his book virtually in the UK. Hosted by the IBUK (Indian Bengalis in UK), the event had Probal discuss his debut book and the events of 1967 with Rahul Banerjee, Dalia Singh and Madhubanti Bhattacharya. Watch Probal Dasgupta…
Image Source: Shiv Aroor | YouTube Catch Probal DasGupta, author of the new book ‘Watershed 1967’ on India’s military victory over China in 1967, five years after the infamous defeat in 1962, in conversation with Shiv Aroor, Editor India Today and Noted Journalist and author. In this interview Probal talks about the current Ladakh stand-off,…
Image Source: Juggernaut Books | YouTube As part of the #ReadInstead Literature Festival helmed by Juggernaut books, Arjun Subramaniam talked to Probal Dasgupta about ‘Chinese Strategic Threat In A Post-Covid World’. Dr. Arjun Subramaniam (Retd) is a fighter pilot from the IAF, a military historian, air power analyst and strategic commentator who is currently a…
Image Source: The Quint Another clash, but without use of weapons, has been reported from the Pangong Tso lake in Ladakh, India’s northern centrally-administered province bordering China’s Tibet autonomous region. Military sources said the clash in Pangong took place “around the same time” as the one at Muguthang in Sikkim, indicating that the Chinese were trying…
Image Source: The Eastern Link Indian troops have rolled back attempts by the Chinese PLA to push their way into Sikkim’s Muguthang valley and clashes took an ugly turn on Friday. Military sources in India’s Eastern Army said that the Chinese have been trying to push their way into Muguthang valley, claiming that “whole Sikkim…
The recent scuffles between Indian and Chinese troops in north Sikkim and Ladakh comes at a curious time when Corona Virus has put attention, blame and accountability on China. The global community has put the ball in China’s court and is demanding accountability – a norm communist governments in Beijing have neither understood nor bothered.…
Image Source: Deccan Chronicle It seems like a familiar story. A bat drops a fruit, which gets picked up by a pig. The pig is slaughtered and cooked as a delicacy in a Hong Kong restaurant. An American tourist who eats it is found dead a few days later at her home in the US. Soon…
Image Source: StratNews Global Two wars fought. Two victories achieved! In 1967, China attacked India twice – first at Nathu La pass and then at Cho La pass along the Sikkim border. Although taken by surprise, the Indian army fought back and won both the battles. Yet these victories have been long forgotten in the…
Arjun Subramaniam reviews Watershed 1967: India's Forgotten Victory Over China In his review of Watershed 1967 – India’s Forgotten Victory Over China, Arjun Subramanium writes. “Subsumed by the prominent discourse that attributes the current restrained texture of the India-China deterrence model to deft politico-diplomatic maneuvering, the military dimension has often been consigned to the background.…
At a time when a country responds to the massacre of 40 soldiers in Pulwama by losing a plane, getting its pilot captured, destroying its own Air Force chopper in friendly fire that killed its own soldiers and yet having its political leadership claim victory, it is worth remembering a forgotten decisive military action that…
Image Source: Thebrowniris / CC BY 3.0 | Scroll.in Since India’s independence, the Sikkim royals had been uncomfortable about the role the Indian government played in their state. Now the war of 1965 and the arrival of Hope Cooke, the new queen of Sikkim, had thrown the relationship between India and Sikkim into a flux,…
Image Source: The Quint In 1967, India fought a battle against China to restore its self-respect and protect its land and won. The 1967 battles of Nathu La and Cho La pass changed the Indo-China political dynamics forever. But why has this resounding victory, which was achieved after India’s disappointing defeat at the hands of…
Rifleman Debi Prasad Limbu By 1967, relations between India and China had hit a low. Arguments over a border fence led to to two deadly battles in the Himalayas of Sikkim China border in September-October 1967. Gorkhas and Grenadier troops of the Indian army demolished Chinese PLA forces in these battles. Over 500 died in…
In 1967 was a turning point for India in more than one ways. India fought China to protect its land and won, an astounding dual victory after the defeat of 1962. Yet, this victory did not make it beyond a mere line in history books. Why was this crucial victory forgotten? Probal DasGupta, the author…
Image Source: Flickr | The Print 1965 was a chaotic year for India. With attacks from Pakistan on the west to and political pressure from China in the north, India was being pressured from the two sides to bow down. China used some underhanded tactics to invade the Indian boundary, from accusing the Indian army…
Image Source: Deccan Chronicle Even a sub-regional battle or skirmish today has an undeniable global character. Ukrainian tanks rolled over fields, to be intercepted by Chinese landmines, while soldiers with Russian Kalashnikovs advanced over enemy lines, carefully avoiding Swedish rocket launchers and, after tracking sentry movements using American night vision devices, swooped down on the…
Image Source: Investo Press Will 2018 be a great year for the world economy? The World Bank forecasts global economic growth to edge up to 3.1 percent in 2018 after a much stronger-than-expected 2017, as the recovery in investment, manufacturing, and trade continues. Growth in advanced economies is expected to moderate slightly to 2.2 percent…
Image Source: The Curious Citizen The article in ET by Reshmi Khurana and Probal Dasgupta gives a clear insight into key political events that could affect global as well as India’s economy in 2018. With his unconventional leadership style, Trump is redefining US relationship with the rest of the world, especially with Russia, China and…
Key political events have the power to reshape the world economy. Since India remains deeply entwined in the global economic landscape, significant international events have the potential to impact India’s economic and political position in the future. With President Donald Trump at the helm of the US, the relationship of the US with the rest…
In May, India made history in its national elections, sweeping into power the conservative Bharatiya Janata Party with an enormous majority and voting unequivocally for change and economic growth. After years of indecision that had left the economy in disarray, the country voted in the hope that a new government would revive reforms and reverse…
In March, as President Hamid Karzai sat with lawmakers over a budget session, explosions ripped through the palace area, forcing the President’s aides to evacuate him as Kabul went into a lockdown. Such incidents aren’t uncommon in Afghanistan where the pro-Taliban Haqqani network masterminds high-profile attacks and threatens to take over the country. Next door,…
The OpEd article by Probal DasGupta and Jason Jacobs was featured in Yale Journal of International Affairs, in the 2011 Issue focused on women. Over the years, a rise in ethnic conflicts and insurgencies between state armies and insurgent groups has radically altered the nature of warfare. The trend has shifted from conventional wars to…
In the movie Charlie Wilson’s War (2007), based on the US role in the Soviet-Afghan war, the protagonist fears about the consequences of abandoning a post-war role in Afghanistan. Fact pursued history, because in the years that followed, the Taliban stepped in to impose a beastly medieval society, mentored terrorist outfits and played midwife to…
Nine years ago, in January 2000, an Al Qaeda suicide boat crept up close to the US destroyer The Sullivans at the port of Aden, aiming to sink it. The boat, overloaded with bombs, sank and the attack failed. Eight months later, the attack would come again. This time, another Al Qaeda boat carrying compact…
The fear of another mass casualty in the wake of the Mumbai mayhem seems to have spurred a blind rush to purchase hi-tech gadgets with government agencies and corporates set to spend crores to enhance security measures. In Thane, the civic body is understood to have promptly sanctioned Rs. 90 lakh to purchase 60 closed…