Army and Nation: The Military and Indian Democracy since Independence, by Steven I. Wilkinson

Steven I. Wilkinson’s work on the Indian Army and its relationship to Indian democracy is mandatory reading for scholars interested in civil-military relations. Ironically, despite the voluminous literature on civil-military relations in the Subcontinent, it is still an understudied subject. Wilkinson’s book breaks new ground by giving the reader a distinct assessment of the evolution of civil-military relations in India vis-à-vis those in Pakistan. His core claim is that, contrary to a widespread misconception that the Indian Army is representative of Indian society, recruitment into the service continues to be based on martial class factors, despite a promise dating back to 1949 to diversify recruitment. It must be noted here that when Wilkinson uses the term ‘class’, he does not define it in terms of socio-economic strata but in terms of caste and ethnic homogeneity. Therefore, despite claims that the Indian Army is a heterogeneous fighting force that mirrors the diversity of Indian society, it continues to draw a bulk of its recruits from the same regions and ethnic groups as prevailed under the British.

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