Buzzing :

Delhi Rain in AugPrepayment of LoanFinancial FreedomMilk prices Increase in MaharashtraQ1 ResultsDhoot Transmission IPOAmarnath Yatra suspendedQuit India Movement AnniversaryOTT Releases
Home / Blueprint Defence Magazine / Books / A man ahead of his time

A man ahead of his time

General K Sundarji's biography explores India's military doctrine through its most tumultuous decades

7 min read
Updated On: Aug 10 2026 | 7:15 AM IST
Mohammad Asif Khan
InGeneralBrasstacks:TheSundarji Story, by Probal Dasgupta, this is the place where the last chapter begins.

InGeneralBrasstacks:TheSundarji Story, by Probal Dasgupta, this is the place where the last chapter begins.

In the muddy fields of Waterloo, the French emperor Napoleon Bonaparte was defeated by the Duke of Wellington, Arthur Wellesley. This was the same Wellesley who defeated Napoleon’s admirer, Tipu Sultan, 16 years earlier, in 1799, at Seringapatam, thus establishing Britain’s stronghold in southern India.
 
Wellesley had an affinity for Nilgiris Hills and located there was a cantonment named Jackatalla, which was christened “Wellington” in his memory in 1860. After independence, this place became the favourite escape for India’s generals. It is this place where General Krishnaswamy Sundarji chose to retire at the end of his 42 years of service.
 
In General Brasstacks: The Sundarji Story, by Probal Dasgupta, this is the place where the last chapter begins. In 336 pages, he narrates the life of Sundarji starting from partition till the wars of 1965 and 1971, the insurgencies of the 1980s, and finally the nuclear age.
 
Dasgupta, a former Indian Army officer, has written bestselling military histories, including Watershed 1967: India’s Forgotten Victory Over China and Camouflaged: Forgotten Stories from Battlefields.

Also Read

Ashes to Light: How patriarchy shapes women's everyday lives in hidden ways

 
This book narrates the early days of independence in India and the destiny of General Sundarji’s life with the fate of a new nation. He was born in Chengelpet (also called Chingleput), Madras Presidency, British India (presently Tamil Nadu), to a Tamil Brahmin family.
 
Sundar wanted to have a “Ji” in his name because India’s independence icon, Mahatma Gandhi, was respectfully called “Gandhiji.” He went on to join the British Indian Army at the end of World War II, but he never saw any actual combat because he was inducted quite late.
 
In 1947, as a young officer in Baluchistan, Sundarji hoisted the Pakistani flag on August 14 and the Indian tricolor on August 15. He escorted Hindu and Sikh refugees to safety and later provided security to Muslim refugees travelling into Pakistan. He went on to witness the full brutalities of the partition as entailed in the book.
 
Post-independence, he was part of an army that was quickly transforming from a colonial force to an independent army of a young and fragile republic that was thrust into war with its newly dissected neighbour, Pakistan, over Kashmir.
 
Sundarji, then a young officer, was part of the Mahar Regiment, whose machine gun companies provided fire support to infantry battalions. Among the more interesting anecdotes Dasgupta includes is Sundarji’s adventures in helping Lieutenant Colonel Harischandra Sakhram Param, a fellow Mahar officer, sneak out to a local Kashmir club for drinks.
 
The most interesting chapters are on Operation Bluestar that happened in June 1984, which was probably the biggest challenge of Sundarji’s life.
 
The author highlights that there were differences of opinion between those within the military regarding the Operation.
 
What stayed with me was the story of Lieutenant General Shabeg Singh, a hero of the 1965 and 1971 wars, who later became the architect of the Bhindranwale’s defences against the very army he had served.
 
The irony was that Shabeg Singh, who had trained the young officer Kuldip Singh Brar at the National Defence Academy, would face Brar across the battlefield and meet his eventual end. The book describes how Operation Bluestar left a permanent mark on Sundarji; according to his wife, he emerged a changed man after this operation. He later said, “We went inside with humility in our hearts and prayers on our lips.”
 
The book describes Sundarji’s handling of the 1986 Sumdorong Chu standoff with China as a masterclass in psychological warfare. It illustrates how Sundarji ordered the airlifting of heavy equipment and supplies to areas above Tawang, a move that made China reconsider its aggressive ambitions.
 
At the centre of the biography is Operation Brasstacks, the largest military exercise in South Asia since World War II, held between November 1986 and March 1987, involving more than 400,000 troops.
 
Sundarji planned to draw Pakistani attention to the Punjab front while launching a blitzkrieg through the Thar desert. In Exercise Digvijay, the precursor to Brasstacks, Sundarji “moved large armoured columns at very high speeds and over distances that no Indian armoured regiment had moved before.”
 
But the author does not shy away from the most contentious question: Was it a genuine exercise or a provocation designed to trigger a war? Lieutenant General P N Hoon is quoted as saying, “Brasstacks was no military exercise. It was a plan to build up the situation for a fourth war with Pakistan.” Some analysts still argue that Sundarji’s strategy was deliberately “open-ended” to provoke Pakistan into making the first move or launching an operation to capture territories in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, a claim he had denied.
 
The author does not present Sundarji as “a hero without flaws”. He made his share of miscalculations before Operation Pawan in 1987, the Indian intervention in Sri Lanka, when he predicted that the Indian Army would wipe out the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in two weeks if they turned hostile.
 
The LTTE was a militant organisation that fought for an independent Tamil state in northern and eastern Sri Lanka, and was backed by India initially. They did turn hostile, and Indian forces spent nearly two and a half years fighting them in Sri Lanka; Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi was killed by an LTTE suicide bomber in May 1991 during an election rally in Sriperumbudur, Tamil Nadu.
 
The book does not sidestep the Bofors scandal. Sundarji was centrally involved in the selection of the 155 millimetre howitzer. Initially, he recommended the French Sofma gun, then switched his support to the Swedish Bofors.
 
The book throws light on the difference of views between military and the Indian government when Sundarji, in his first interview after retirement to India Today in 1989, firmly refuted claims made by the then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi that security reasons made the government unable to exercise its cancellation right. This very Bofors gun would play a decisive role against Pakistan in the Kargil War 10 years later.
 
The author explains how Sundarji reshaped Indian military doctrine; he was “a 21st-century general dealing with a 20th-century army.” He was one of the first to advocate for computer-assisted wargaming and insisted on jointness between the army, navy, and air force, a notion still discussed in the form of theatre commands.
 
On the nuclear front, he was ahead of his time. In his retirement years he published an essay outlining his vision for “small nuclear power,” minimum credible deterrence, no first use, and a limited arsenal.
 
The book offers human details of Sundarji’s life. However, it reads more like a summary of the events of Sundarji’s life, and not a sneak peek into his mind or the kind of person he was.
 
Any critique of this biography would be incomplete without mentioning its flaws. Occasionally, the writing is so preoccupied with politics and military procedures that the person Sundarji himself becomes less prominent. However, what distinguishes Dasgupta’s book from others is his lack of nationalistic chest-beating.
 
In many ways, the book weaves the life of General Sundarji with the journey of modern India. Like Wellesley, Sundarji was a man with ambition and strategic brilliance whose career was marked by victories and miscalculations. But where Wellesley built an empire, Sundarji sought to defend a young republic.
 
lll
 
General Brasstacks: The Sundarji story By Probal Dasgupta
Penguin Random House India
Pages: 336, Price: ₹999
  The next book that Blueprint will feature: The State and The Soldier: A History of Civil-Military Relations in the United States by Kori Schake
Premium ContentPremium ContentSubscription ExpiredSubscription Expired

Your access to Blueprint has ended. But the story is still unfolding.

No longer a subscriber? There’s a new reason to return.

Introducing Blueprint - A magazine on defence & geopolitics

Introducing Blueprint - A magazine on defence & geopolitics

Like what you read? There’s more in every issue of Blueprint

From military strategy to global diplomacy, Blueprint offers sharp, in-depth reportage on the world’s most consequential issues.

Exclusive pricing for Business Standard digital subscribers

Choose your plan

Exclusive Pricing

Choose your plan

58% off
₹6,000

Blueprint Digital

₹2,500

annual (digital-only)

₹208/Month

70% off
₹12,000

Blueprint Complete

₹3,500

annual (digital & print)

₹291/Month

41% off
₹6,000

Blueprint Digital

₹3,500

annual (digital-only)

₹291/Month

62% off
₹12,000

Blueprint Complete

₹4,500

annual (digital & print)

₹375/Month

Subscribe NowSubscribe NowRenew NowRenew Now

Renews automatically, cancel anytime

Browse all Plans

Here's what's included:

  • Access to the latest issue of the Blueprint digital magazine

  • Online access to all the upcoming digital magazines along with past digital archives

  • * Delivery of all the upcoming print magazines at your home or office

  • Full access to Blueprint articles online

  • Business Standard digital subscription

  • 1-year unlimited complimentary digital access to The New York Times (News, Games, Cooking, Audio, Wirecutter, The Athletic)

Written By :

Mohammad Asif Khan

Mohammad Asif Khan is a Senior Correspondent at Business Standard, where he covers defence, security, and strategic affairs.
First Published: Aug 10 2026 | 7:15 AM IST

In this article : BOOK REVIEW

Next Story