Civil-military relations: A comparative study of India and Pakistan

At the time of independence, in August 1947, the armed forces of India and Pakistan inherited many common characteristics of the British Indian armed forces, including but not limited to the implicit acceptance of civilian supremacy.;This study rigorously analyzes some of the commonly accepted explanations mentioned above. It includes a survey based on a simple random sample that sought to capture officers' perceptions of, and attitudes toward, important issues in civil-military relations.;Political culture, including but not limited to political leadership, emerged as an important factor which affected the forms of civilian control over the military in India and Pakistan. Over time, while the Indian military have internalized the concept of civilian supremacy, the Pakistani military have institutionalized its role in political decision-making.;This research spoke to a central policy question: how can policy makers best ensure against unwarranted or inappropriate military interventions in domestic politics? Several policy measures suggested themselves. First, the military should be sparingly used to suppress domestic violence. When used, military activities should be strictly supervised by the civilian authorities. Second, there is an urgent need to integrate day-to-day functioning of the military and the multiple civil and police agencies, in order to enhance cooperation and reduce mutual distrust and animosity. Third, a complex polity, such as India, requires a high caliber political leadership which cares less for building "vote banks," than it does to address social, political, and economic problems. Safeguarding the interest of minorities is the essence of any political action. Last but not least, politicians and the media should sensitize the lay public to national security issues, so that security planning proceeds with the benefit of inputs from multiple sources, and from informed debate.;In subsequent years, frequent coups in Pakistan and their absence in India touched off a scholarly debate which attempted to explain this "puzzle" in terms of various social, political, economic, and religious factors. In the extant literature, some explanations attribute military interventions in Pakistan to such factors as the ethnic dominance of the Punjabi Muslims in the Pakistan army, the cultural influence of Islam, and the inadequacy of political leadership.