Section

Wars & Valour

The battles, the operations and the gallantry awards, told from the documents.

DRDO Flight-Tested Ballistic Missile Defence Interceptors, a Long-Range Cruise Missile and the Kusha Air Defence Missile in the Six Weeks from 10 June to 23 July 2026

Four weapons in six weeks, each described in a Press Information Bureau release. What each test was, what the ministry claims for it, which numbers were never published, and where Kusha goes next.

Nine Indian-Built Ships Entered Navy Service Between 27 February and 12 October 2026, From the Stealth Frigate Dunagiri to the Submarine Hunter Mangrol

Three frigates, four coastal anti-submarine craft, a survey ship and a diving vessel, each with a date, a yard and a figure from the Defence Ministry. Plus the count that does not quite add up, and what is due next.

Twenty-One Men of the 36th Sikhs Held the Saragarhi Signal Post on 12 September 1897 and Died There. The Number of Tribesmen Who Attacked It Is Still Disputed

The post was a mirror on a hillside, not a fort. Its garrison flashed word of the attack to Fort Lockhart until a wall gave way, and the size of the force outside has been argued over for more than a century.

India Hit Nine Targets in 25 Minutes on 7 May 2025, Then Spent Three Nights Defending Its Airbases Against Pakistani Drones and Missiles

Twenty-one camps on one list, nine chosen, and four layers of air defence between Pakistani drones and Indian runways. The briefings, the chiefs' later statements and the claims still in dispute, each given to the side that makes it.

Abhinandan Varthaman Flew a MiG-21 at a Pakistani Strike Package on 27 February 2019, Ejected Over Pakistan and Walked Back Into India 60 Hours Later

He was on standby at Srinagar when a large Pakistani formation was detected near the Line of Control. Two days later he crossed Wagah on foot, and the medal citation explains much of what lay between.

Ratings at HMIS Talwar Went on Hunger Strike on 18 February 1946, the Revolt Spread to Naval Bases Across India, and the Bombay Ratings Surrendered on 23 February on Sardar Patel's Advice

Sardar Patel told a Bombay crowd that more than 300 had died, the Governor counted 228, and a recent review gives 400. The sailors who started it were dismissed in their hundreds, and the papers disagree on what it changed.

Five Gunmen Attacked India's Parliament in Thirty Minutes. It Took Eleven Years to Hang One of Them

Five gunmen never made it past the forecourt of India's Parliament. Nine people died stopping them. The trial that followed took almost four years to reach the Supreme Court, and the execution took eight more.

Lachit Borphukan Took Guwahati Back in 1667, Held It for Two Years Against the Mughal Army Aurangzeb Sent Under Raja Ram Singh and Won the River Battle of Saraighat in 1671

From superintendent of the royal horses to supreme commander in 1667: how the sources on both sides describe the man who beat a Rajput-led Mughal army on the Brahmaputra.

India Detonated a Plutonium Device at Pokhran on 18 May 1974, Tested Five More Devices on 11 and 13 May 1998, and Adopted a No-First-Use Nuclear Doctrine in 2003

Two test dates 24 years apart, a phone call to an American diplomat, a statement to Parliament, and a doctrine published in 2003. Every number here carries the name of whoever states it.

Six Sabres Attacked Srinagar Airfield on 14 December 1971. One Gnat Took Off Into Them, and Its Pilot Is Still the Only Airman Awarded the Param Vir Chakra

The airfield had no fighters until the war began, and its runway was bombed again and again. On the 14th six Sabres came over at 0730, and a young pilot from a village near Ludhiana was left to fight them alone.

Charlie Company of the 13th Kumaon Fought on a Ladakh Ridge on 18 November 1962, and India's Official History Counts 14 Survivors Out of 112 Men

A forward post spotted about 400 Chinese soldiers at 4 a.m. By 10 p.m. the last machine gun had stopped. The numbers that followed are disputed, and each one here carries the name of whoever states it.

India Answered the Pahalgam Attack in Fifteen Days, After Two Decades in Which Its Responses Moved From Mobilisation in 2001 to the Balakot Air Strike in 2019

Between the 2001 Parliament attack and Pahalgam in 2025, India built a graduated set of responses, from mobilisation to air power. In 2025 it placed the Indus Waters Treaty in abeyance within days and struck targets fifteen days after the attack.

189 People Died on Mumbai's Trains in 2006. In 2025 the High Court Acquitted Everyone

Mumbai has been bombed in 1993, 2003, 2006 and 2011. The explosions are the half everyone knows. The other half happens in courtrooms over the following decades.

Ten Men Came by Sea. Sixty Hours Later, India Rebuilt How It Defends Itself

A ten-man team held Mumbai for sixty hours. One gunman survived the police response, and it took a constable who ran out of bullets to take him alive.

The Army That Lost Every Battle and Still Broke the Raj

The INA never took an Indian city. It didn't have to. Britain's decision to try its officers for treason in public, in the Red Fort, cost the empire something no battlefield could.

India Retook Tololing on 13 June and Tiger Hill on 4 July 1999, With Infantry Attacking Uphill Above 16,000 Feet and Mirage 2000s Bombing the Bunkers Above Them

Between 3 May and 26 July 1999 Indian soldiers and airmen took back the ridges above the Kargil road, fighting uphill at 16,000 feet, a year after both countries tested nuclear weapons.

The War Lasted 13 Days. The Argument Over the Dead Has Lasted 55 Years

An election was won and set aside. An army turned on its own citizens. Ten million people ran for the border. Then thirteen days of war made a new country, and left a number nobody has been able to settle since.

Both India and Pakistan Won the 1965 War. Both Still Teach It That Way.

Pakistan marks 6 September as Defence Day. India remembers 1965 as the year captured Patton tanks were parked in a field for people to come and look at. Both stories are still taught. Neither one survives the records intact.

On 27 October 1947 Indian Troops Flew Into Srinagar, and by the Ceasefire of 1 January 1949 India Held the Valley, Most of Jammu and Ladakh

Indian troops flew into Srinagar on 27 October 1947. Fourteen months later a ceasefire left India holding the Valley, most of Jammu and Ladakh, along a line that became the Line of Control.

Britain's Oldest Warship Still Afloat Was Built in Bombay. The Industry Behind It Was Left to Die

When Britain ran short of oak for its navy, Indian shipwrights built it warships from teak that outlasted anything made at home. One still floats today. So why did the empire's finest shipbuilding tradition vanish?

Indian Helicopters Dropped 29 Men Onto the Saltoro Ridge on 13 April 1984, and the Army Has Held the Passes for 42 Years

A sack of flour thrown from a hovering helicopter told the first officer on the glacier that the snow would hold. What followed took Cheetahs, Mi-8s, six years of mountaineering reconnaissance and one post at 21,000 feet.

An Infantry Company of the Punjab Regiment Held the Longewala Post Through the Night of 4 December 1971. Hunter Jets From Jaisalmer Reached the Pakistani Tanks at First Light

A patrol on foot heard the tanks first. A general pleaded with an airbase on an open radio channel. By seven the next morning the post and the airfield were fighting the same battle, and the people on both sides of it still disagree about the tally.

Pakistani Jets Wrecked the Bhuj Runway on the Night of 8 December 1971. About 300 Village Women Had the Air Force Flying Again in 72 Hours

A contractor quoted six months. The air base commander asked the village five kilometres away instead. The women who answered still give different counts of the bombs, the workers and the days.

Chinese Machine Guns Opened on the Indian Army at Nathu La on 11 September 1967. Three Days of Indian Artillery Later, the Ridges Were Still Indian

Two years earlier one division on the Sikkim border gave up a pass to a Chinese ultimatum and another refused. In 1967 the one that refused was the one that fired back.