TY  - JOUR
PY  - 2009//
TI  - India's counter-insurgency experience: the ‘trust and nurture’ strategy
JO  - Small wars and insurgencies
A1  - Goswami, Namrata
SP  - 66
EP  - 86
VL  - 20
IS  - 1
N2  - The Indian Army, a force trained primarily for conventional warfare, has been engaged in internal counter-insurgency operations since the 1950s. Despite such a long innings on a counter-insurgency mode, little attention has been accorded within military circles to doctrinal innovation for waging sub-conventional warfare in India's democratic political context. At best, the Army continues to view counter-insurgency duty as secondary to its primary duty of defending India from external conventional threats. By conceptualizing a counter-insurgency strategy of ‘trust and nurture’, this article aims to fill this critical doctrinal gap in India's military policy. The author argues that a counter-insurgency strategy of ‘trust and nurture’ based on democratic political culture, measured military methods, special counter-insurgency forces, local social and cultural awareness and an integrative nation-building approach will result in positive handling of India's internal security problems. The author utilizes India's counter-insurgency experiences in Assam, Mizoram, Nagaland, Punjab, and Operation ‘Sadhbhavana’ in Jammu and Kashmir as illustrative empirical indicants in order to validate the ‘trust and nurture’ strategy.<p /> 
LA  - 
SN  - 0959-2318
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09592310802573475
ID  - ref1
ER  -