Since the 1971 War of Liberation in Bangladesh, the Eastern Command of the Indian Army has regularly complained of receiving far fewer resources than those in the north and west of the country. The festering conflicts in Siachen and Kashmir, the threat of war with Pakistan and the relative quiet in the east since the signing of the 1993 Treaty of Peace and Tranquillity with Beijing were complemented by the Naga ceasefire and the withering away of many of the northeastern insurgencies. Collectively, this added up to a massive scaling down of military involvement in the east.
All of this is changing thick and fast. Major initiatives are afoot at the behest of an army chief who served in the east before taking over the top job, at a time when Sino-Indian sabre-rattling has resumed. General V K Singh, before and after he took charge of India's 1.1-million strong army, has already pushed several new proposals through the Cabinet Committee on Security Affairs, and several more are lined up that are likely to be cleared soon.
After the 1993 treaty with China, India scaled down to two mountain divisions (the Fifth and Second) in Arunachal Pradesh with two other mountain divisions redeployed to counter-insurgency roles in the rear (the 20th in Assam and the 57th in the Manipur), to be redeployed in the Himalaya as quickly as required. But now, New Delhi is raising two new mountain divisions, the 56th and the 71st, specifically for the state of Arunachal, bordering Tibet. Some 1260 officials and more than 35,000 soldiers have been already assigned to these two divisions, Indian military officials say. In addition, two independent brigades, trained and equipped for 'limited crossborder strikes', will also be deployed. If Gen Singh has his way, a mountain strike corps will also be created, to provide command and control to these new formations, which will be raised for the Eastern Himalaya by the end of 2011.
Since 1962, India's military doctrine against China has been focused on defence. 'These new formations will ensure there is no physical gap in our defences in Arunachal Pradesh,' said retired Major-General Gaganjit Singh, who commanded a mountain division in the Northeast. At the same time, he certainly has not missed the proposed creation of new formations for strike roles. 'If offence is the best defence, we need to have the capability to take the battle across [the border], at least in some places,' he said. Another retired lieutenant-general who has commanded a corps in the Northeast suggested on condition of anonymity, 'The Indian Army strength in the Northeast will cross the 100,000-mark by end of 2011. Much of these troops will face China straight and hard. We will also see major upgrades in equipment and communications.'