Histories and Memories of the Liberation War: Saranarthis in Tripura

In the twentieth century, South Asia experienced mass migrations of millions of insecure homeless people twice: it witnessed the Partition-refugees from 1947 and saranarthis during the liberation war of 1971. The Indian State treated the first category as ‘citizen-refugees’, whereas the saranarthis were like temporary shelter-seekers. Among the Northeastern states, Tripura played the most crucial role in providing them with all essential supports.

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The Saga of Sylhet

The attack by the Pakistan Air Force on Indian airfields at Srinagar, Avantipur, Pathankot, Uttarlai, Jodhpur, Ambala and Agra at 1745 hours on 3 December 1971, was an act of war that set the stage for the Indo–Pakistan War of 1971. Unlike the earlier two wars of 1947–48 and 1965, Pakistan found to its detriment that this time the Indian armed forces were well prepared and ready.

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Historicising the Birangona: Interrogating the Politics of Commemorating the Wartime Rape of 1971 in the Context of the 50th Anniversary of Bangladesh

Two decades ago, ‘1971’ was deemed to not have a market within Indian publishing houses and media outlets. Yet, one is struck by the contemporary Indian focus on the iconic figure of the Birangona – brave women, a title given by the State of Bangladesh to women raped by the Pakistani army and their Bengali and non-Bengali collaborators during the Bangladesh war of 1971.

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Operation Kilo Flight: Night Attack By Otter Aircraft – A First-Hand Account

Operation Kilo Flight was inaugurated on 28 September 1971 by Air Chief Marshal P. C. Lal in the presence of Group Captain A. K. Khondker, who was our second-in-command with the Armed Forces/Mukti Bahini during the liberation war of 1971, Sqn. Ldr. Sultan Mahmood, Flt. Lt. Shamsul Alam, Flt. Lt. Badrul Alam, Capt. Khaleque (Ex-PIA), Capt. Sattar (Ex-PIA), Capt. Muqueet (Ex-PIA), Capt. Shahab (Ex-PIA), Capt. Akram (Ex-Plant Protection Pilot), Capt. Sharfuddin (Ex-Plant Protection Pilot) plus 58 airmen of various technical trades of the PAF.

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India–Australia: Defining New Horizons of Engagement

The landmark virtual summit between Prime Ministers Narendra Modi and Scott Morrison in June 2020 led to ties being upgraded to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership. Australia’s High Commissioner to India alluded to the four D’s—Democracy, Defence, Diaspora, Dosti (friendship), with increased focus on Defence. In the India–Australia partnership, the emphasis is on maritime security cooperation, Quad 2.0, the Malabar exercises as well as cyber security and intelligence cooperation.

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India’s Defence Expenditure: A Trend Analysis

This article examines India’s defence expenditure over the past ten years. In so doing, it provides a public finance perspective to explain the recurring resource crunch being faced by the Ministry of Defence (MoD). The article reasons that a substantial augmentation of resources for the MoD in the past has faced stiff barriers due to lack of tax buoyancy and also the political, economic and other exigencies that have led to greater public spending outside the traditional areas of expenses, including defence.

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Reducing Nuclear Dangers after the A.Q. Khanspiracy

This article defines Pakistan’s brazen retailing of sensitive nuclear technologies as Bomb Process Outsourcing (BPO) and places it in a larger perspective. It offers a short retrospective of the development and manufacture of nuclear weapons by the P-5 in which significant manpower and materials were ‘foreign’. This is true of the programmes of Israel, Iraq, South Africa, Argentina and Brazil as well. Pakistan, has now, contributed to North Korea, Libya and Iran.

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