Wars and Military Operations of Independent India: Notes

Few static General Knowledge topics are asked as often as the wars and military operations of independent India. The questions are rarely about strategy; they are about a year, a code name, a treaty, a battlefield or the soldier who won the Param Vir Chakra there. This note arranges the whole sequence in order so that every date sits beside its operation and its outcome.

Kashmir in 1947 and Hyderabad in 1948

The first conflict began in October 1947 when tribal raiders backed by Pakistan entered Jammu and Kashmir. Maharaja Hari Singh signed the Instrument of Accession on 26 October 1947, and Indian troops were flown into Srinagar the next day. The fighting continued until a ceasefire took effect on 1 January 1949, and the Karachi Agreement of July 1949 fixed the ceasefire line. Major Somnath Sharma, killed at Badgam on 3 November 1947, became the first recipient of the Param Vir Chakra, the highest gallantry award, which was instituted on 26 January 1950 with effect from 15 August 1947 and designed by Savitri Khanolkar. In September 1948 the police action codenamed Operation Polo brought the princely state of Hyderabad into the Indian Union.

Goa in 1961 and China in 1962

Portuguese rule in Goa, Daman and Diu ended in December 1961 through Operation Vijay, a short combined operation by the Army, Navy and Air Force. The war with China followed on 20 October 1962 and ended with a unilateral Chinese ceasefire on 21 November 1962, after fighting in Ladakh and in the North East Frontier Agency. The best remembered action of that war is the defence of Rezang La by the men of 13 Kumaon under Major Shaitan Singh, who was awarded the Param Vir Chakra posthumously. Jawaharlal Nehru was Prime Minister and the reverses led to the resignation of Defence Minister V. K. Krishna Menon.

The war of 1965

Pakistan began Operation Gibraltar by sending infiltrators into Kashmir and followed it with Operation Grand Slam towards Akhnoor. India widened the front towards Lahore, and the fiercest tank battle was fought at Asal Uttar near Khem Karan, where Company Quartermaster Havildar Abdul Hamid of 4 Grenadiers destroyed enemy tanks and won the Param Vir Chakra posthumously. The war ended with the Tashkent Declaration of 10 January 1966, signed by Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri and President Ayub Khan with Soviet mediation; Shastri died in Tashkent the next day.

1971 and the birth of Bangladesh

Sam Manekshaw was Chief of the Army Staff in 1971 and was later made the first Field Marshal of India. The Param Vir Chakra of that war went to Lance Naik Albert Ekka, Second Lieutenant Arun Khetarpal of the Battle of Basantar, Major Hoshiar Singh and Flying Officer Nirmaljit Singh Sekhon, the only member of the Indian Air Force to receive the award.

Siachen, Kargil and later operations

Operation Meghdoot, launched on 13 April 1984, placed Indian troops on the Siachen Glacier, the highest battlefield in the world; Naib Subedar Bana Singh won the Param Vir Chakra there in 1987 for capturing a post later renamed Bana Top. Operation Pawan sent the Indian Peace Keeping Force to Sri Lanka in 1987, and Operation Cactus foiled a coup in the Maldives in 1988. The Kargil conflict of 1999 was fought as Operation Vijay by the Army, with Operation Safed Sagar by the Air Force and Operation Talwar by the Navy; victory is marked every year on 26 July as Kargil Vijay Diwas, and the Param Vir Chakra went to Captain Vikram Batra, Lieutenant Manoj Kumar Pandey, Grenadier Yogendra Singh Yadav and Rifleman Sanjay Kumar. After the attack on Parliament in December 2001 the armed forces were mobilised as Operation Parakram. India carried out surgical strikes across the Line of Control in September 2016 after the Uri attack and an air strike at Balakot in February 2019 after the Pulwama attack, and in May 2025 it struck terrorist infrastructure across the border in Operation Sindoor.

Operations other than war

The armed forces are also asked about for rescue and relief missions. Operation Rahat evacuated Indians from Yemen in 2015, Operation Maitri assisted Nepal after the earthquake of 2015, Operation Devi Shakti brought people back from Afghanistan in 2021, Operation Ganga did the same from Ukraine in 2022, Operation Dost sent relief to Turkey and Syria after the earthquake of 2023 and Operation Kaveri evacuated Indians from Sudan in 2023. Army Day is observed on 15 January, the day K. M. Cariappa became the first Indian Commander-in-Chief in 1949, Navy Day on 4 December and Air Force Day on 8 October.