India’s economic growth is accelerating at a steady pace with a glimpse of its true potential to become the world’s fastest-growing economy soon. In 2019, India ranked as the second-largest online market, after China. According to data by Statista, in 2020, India had 700 million internet subscribers across the nation; as a projection, these numbers will grow to over 974 million internet users by 2025.

Over the last seventy years, Jammu & Kashmir has seen political machinations, violence, cross-border terrorism, instability and economic stagnation. On August 5, 2019, the Indian Government decided to amend Article 370 of the Indian Constitution and usher the state into a new era of peace and development, paving the way for complete integration with the national mainstream. Following the momentous decision, there has understandably been a great deal of interest in Jammu & Kashmir due to its reorganization as a Union Territory.

India’s security dilemmas are complex, with two hostile powers on its frontiers and a large number of internal fault lines which are vulnerable and have been exploited by the adversaries in the past. The Indian Army Doctrine of 2018 defines ‘the collusive external threat from adversaries as well as the internal instability due to state/non-state sponsored proxy war’ as the primary security challenge to India.

This is an article exploring some of our wars in the Indian Himalayas to derive correct lessons for future conflict management. In light of the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) and future theatre commands, restructuring and reorientation for the future is already on, but with Covid-19 and its aftermath, there is an urgency and imperative to accelerate changes. While the Indian armed forces are much better prepared to fight the integrated battle, it is still important to revisit doctrines and debacles as a reiteration of important lessons of mountain warfare.