NEW DELHI: The 1971 war against Pakistan remains one of the swiftest successful military operations by India. It was a 13-day war in December that humbled the Pakistani army in what was then East Pakistan and eventually led to the creation of a separate nation—Bangladesh. But the groundwork for it began months ahead and the decision to go in for an armed confrontation was taken as early as June. Why did India decide so? And how did it prepare for the war? In this episode of ‘Simply Nitin’, StratNews Global Editor-in-Chief Nitin A. Gokhale chronicles the run-up to the war and the strategy that India adopted.
