Who Started the 1965 Indo Pak War? The Untold Truth .
Hey guys! Today, welcome to this fantastic, though a bit understudied, history chapter: must-read about the 1965 India-Pakistan War. And this is also an important moment; I can quite safely say that you all must’ve heard tales of bravery and heroism in defense and strategies of the military, but there are some things here that are oftentimes largely left unsaid or get viewed through a wrong lens, so today, let’s unpack them together!.
Setting the context for this discussion requires an understanding of what the mood was even before the war started. Well, straight out of the gates, back to the mid-1950s.
The Context: Pakistan and India Before 1965
For both India and Pakistan, post partition in 1947 was a time of discovery for each to become a newly independent nation. By the mid-50s, Pakistan had been a part of the Western bloc-it became an intimate ally to the United States, signing defense pacts like SEATO and CENTO. The alliance did witness the sudden pouring in of financial aids and modern military equipment and infrastructure development throughout Pakistan. In other words, Pakistan stood at the threshold of what some felt to be its “decade of development”. There was growing optimism that the country could hold its own against India in several respects, including militarily.
While India never wanted to become non-aligned as a negative political posture, she had avoided any head-on confrontation or conflict with either side, more so by keeping herself non-aligned. The loss of the Sino-Indian War in 1962 only had a multiplier effect on the pride of Pakistan. The assumption? If China can beat India, why cannot Pakistan? And this thought shaped much of the strategy leading up to 1965.
Run-Up to War
Now, jaundiced by the handouts from the US, Pakistan’s military had a drinking of war fever. The first real battle was going to be in the Rann of Kutch, disputed territory between Sindh and Gujarat. The Pakistani forces did some gain, which increased further confidence that they would easily dominate India. This little victory was eventually to be nipped by mediation by the British Prime Minister, Harold Wilson, but only after sowing seeds for something much bigger to result.
But that is where the interesting part of the story starts unfolding. Meanwhile, with Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, then Foreign Minister of Pakistan, coming to know of the trend both in the armed forces and the political hierarchy, the murmurs for a smaller footprint or point of entry were dying. So they had planned to intrude some infiltrators dressed as Kashmiri rebels with the intention of creating a revolt against the Indian rule. This operation was called Operation Gibraltar. It was brazen but fundamentally flawed.
Operation Gibraltar: A Brilliant But Failed Plan
Bhutto and many other officers, including General Akhtar Hussain Malik, believed that Kashmir had reached the rebellion stage. They thought a slight push would help popularize people against India. The strategy was for guerrilla infiltration, hidden into Kashmir, which would ignite insurgency. But here lies the piquancy — he underestimated the facts on the ground. Kashmiri masses were not as readied for rebellion as they had presupposed. In fact, many locals went ahead to report the infiltrators to Indian authorities!
So what did India do? India learned of the penetration and launched a counterattack. The grand design of the Pakistani army is being flushed down the toilet as its agents are taken in, and India gets back in a serious manner.
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The War Heats Up
Mid-August 1965, India had found the infiltrators and was slowly in command of the strategic points. The Pakistani leadership remained rudderless and continued to discuss what to do. Bhutto and others called for greater action. They prevailed upon President Ayub Khan to set in motion a situation that would take off with an attack on the critical Akhnoor Bridge, one intended to sever the Indian supply lines into Kashmir.
As negligible as it seemed, to say the least, going by the initial looks of things, the operation had come a little too late and too little. The war had now spread beyond Kashmir and entered into the plains, as fighting erupted across the international border.
India Strikes Back
India was not inactive either. September 6, 1965 Indian forces crossed over into Pakistan, hitting Lahore, Sialkot and Rajasthan. Many people in Pakistan remember this as a surprise attack at midnight although a planned war it was. The truth however is that the seeds for this war were sown much earlier when both sides took certain actions.
Who Won the War?
It gets cloudy from here because both claim to have won from the bout. The Pakistanis took up enormous defense throughout their country, thinking they will maneuver the Indians out. The Indians say that they were able to get the upper-hand by taking up more space and engulfing strategic points inside Pakistan.
In that regard, it was a tie; neither of them succeeded in their long-term goals. UN-backed ceasefire occurred on 23 September 1965 and the two nations reverted to borders prior to the start of the war.
Aftermath: Lasting Impacts Long After the War Itself
The war had tremendous implications for the two nations. On one hand, it turned out to be a harbinger of military pride in Pakistan but also sowed seeds of long-term instability. A failure of Operation Gibraltar highlighted deep-seated flaws in the Pakistan military strategy and erosion of public trust within the government was an after-effect.
It goes down into history that war seems to have invigorated the confidence of the country and recharged the military prowess of India. This issue of Kashmir was not tackled and the two continue to up the ante.
War Mentality in Pakistan: Did It Recover?
Is Pakistan really out of the mindset of war in 1965? Some would even go to the extent of saying that the military and political elite of the country, indeed, become even more obsessed with war with India, specially over Kashmir. That shadow of 1965 still breathes down those shoulders.
There is much more to learn on this subject. For those interested, there are excellent books to read on the subject. A good place to begin for those interested in viewing a deeper look into the intricacies of the 1965 war are through the study of Magnificent Delusions by Husain Haqqani, Kashmir in Conflict by Victoria Schofield, and Ayub Khan: Pakistan’s First Military Ruler by Altaf Gauhar.
And there you have it. I hope this video has helped in clearing a little bit of some of the thoughts within your head about the war of India and Pakistan in ’65 and why things went south in the way they did. History, as we all can testify, is full of lessons, and this one certainly fits the bill: understanding both sides lends itself to a far more balanced point of view. Thanks for watching in!
