Chandigarh, December 7: A three-day (December 7-9) annual military literature festival kicked off here on Friday with hundreds of schoolchildren, military historians from India and abroad, authors, and serving and retired military personnel in attendance.
The festival–this is the second edition, the first one being last year–will have movie shows, discussion of various wars and even one on spies.
Notable among the discussions is the one on Anglo-Sikh War (1846); the contribution of Indians to World War I; the attack by the Indian Navy on Karachi Harbour during the 1971 Indo-Pak war; the use of Air Force during the 1965 Indo-Pak war; the ‘over hang’ of the Sino-India war in 1962; and armoured operations of the 1965 war.
Punjab Governor VPS Badnore inaugurated it with the promise that the festival would keep growing bigger. “I am sure it will not only be limited or confined to the World Wars that we talked about but the heroism and unparalleled courage of the great Maharana Pratap, Shivaji and many other such warriors on the Indian soil.”
“The Mahabharata, the world’s longest epic, was set in this very region. We will be discussing all this and more,” the Governor said.
Punjab, he said, had been proudly known as the sword arm of India. “It has borne the brunt of ruthless invaders since times immemorial. History has it that the people of this land were subjected to untold horrors and deprivations over the ages. Repeated wars gave birth to a hardy population that brought forth some the finest warriors who walked the earth. With war came sacrifices that spurred great tales of heroism and valour.”
Western Army Commander Lt Gen Surinder Singh reminded the audience, “Wars may not be kinetic as they were. We may move onto domain of space war, cyber warfare and information warfare and newer domains of war fighting.”
He said, “In this region, many great battles had been fought; many generals had commanded men to war. Many men have made sacrifices. The sovereignty has been earned with the sweat and blood of our soldiers. It is good that these stories are told.”
He suggested that the military literature festival put in place a structure that became stronger as the years passed. “As we move forward we must expand this discourse to learn from battles and wars from across the world.”
Lt Gen TS Shergill (retd), senior adviser to the Punjab Chief Minister and Chairman of the Military Literature Festival, was frank in saying, “Soldier is not a killer; he is a warrior; he must know how to handle weapons of the future. He has to be compassionate.”
