Bombay Dockyard
Bombay Dockyard—also known as Naval Dockyard—is an Indian shipbuilding yard at Mumbai. Shipbuilding was an established profession throughout the Indian coastline prior to the advent of the Europeans and it contributed to maritime exploration throughout Indian maritime history. Indian rulers weakened with the advent of the European powers during the middle ages. Indian shipbuilders, continued to build ships capable of carrying 800 to 1000 tons; the shipbuilders built ships like HMS Ceylon, inducted into the Royal Navy. Other historical ships made by the Indian shipbuilders included HMS Asia, HMS Cornwallis, HMS Minden; the Yard was established in 1735 by the East India Company, which brought in shipwrights from their base at Surat in order to construct vessels using Malabar teak. One of their number, Lovji Nusserwanjee Wadia, was a key figure in the success of the Yard, as indicated in The New Cambridge History of India: Science and Medicine in Colonial India: Between the seventeenth and early nineteenth centuries Indian shipyards produced a series of vessels incorporating these hybrid features.
A large proportion of them were built in Bombay. In 1736 Parsi carpenters were brought in from Surat to work there and, when their European supervisor died, one of the carpenters, Lowji Nuserwanji Wadia, was appointed Master Builder in his place. Wadia oversaw the construction of twenty-one of them for the Company. Following his death in 1774, his sons took charge of the shipyard and between them built a further thirty ships over the next sixteen years; the Britannia, a ship of 749 tons launched in 1778, so impressed the Court of Directors when it reached Britain that several new ships were commissioned from Bombay, some of which passed into the hands of the Royal Navy. In all, between 1736 and 1821, 159 ships of over 100 tons were built at Bombay, including 15 of over 1,000 tons. Ships constructed at Bombay in its heyday were said to be ‘vastly superior to anything built anywhere else in the world’. Lowji Wadia oversaw the building of Bombay Dock, Asia's first dry dock, in 1750. A contemporary British traveller, Abraham Parsons, described it as follows in 1775: Here is a dock-yard and well contrived, with all kind of naval stores deposited in proper warehouses, together with great quantities of timber and planks for repairing and building ships, forges for making of anchors, as well as every kind of smaller smiths’ work.
It boasts such a dry dock, as is not to be seen in any part of Europe, either for size or convenient situation. It has three divisions, three pair of strong gates, so as to be capable of receiving and repairing three ships of the line, at the same or at separate times. Near the dock is a convenient place to grave several ships at once, done as well, with as great expedition, as in any dock in England. Near the dock-yard is a rope walk, which for length and conveniency, equals any in England, that in the king’s yard at Portsmouth only excepted, like that, it has a covering to shelter the workmen from the inclemency of the weather in all seasons. Here are made cables and all sorts of lesser cordage, both for the royal navy, the company’s marine, the merchant, ships which trade to these parts of India. Besides cordage made of hemp, cables and all kinds of smaller ropes, are made of the external fibres of the cocoa-nut, which they have in such abundance in India, as to make a great article of trade among the natives of this place and those along the coasts, between Bombay and Cape Comorin.
The yarn made of these fibres is manufactured in the towns and villages, on or near the sea coast of Malabar: many vessels belonging to the natives are laden with this yarn, which they always find a quick sale for at Bombay and Surat, let the quantity be so great, as it is the only cordage made use of amongst the small trading vessels of the country: large ships use much of it, made into cables and smaller ropes. Ships built at Bombay are not only as strong, but as handsome, are as well finished as ships built in any part of Europe; this timber and plank arc peculiar to India only. Malabar, is, however good, great quantities of it are, brought to Bombay. In 1811 the British Royal Navy took over the Yard, continuing to work with the Wadia family as Master Shipwrights. There was much construction on the site around this time. Duncan Dock, the largest dry dock outside Europe at the time, was constructed in 1807–1810, r
INS Vikrant (R11)
INS Vikrant was a Majestic-class aircraft carrier of the Indian Navy. The ship was laid down as HMS Hercules for the British Royal Navy during World War II, but construction was put on hold when the war ended. India purchased the incomplete carrier in 1957, construction was completed in 1961. Vikrant was commissioned as the first aircraft carrier of the Indian Navy and played a key role in enforcing the naval blockade of East Pakistan during the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971. In its years, the ship underwent major refits to embark modern aircraft, before being decommissioned in January 1997, she was preserved as a museum ship in Cuffe Parade, Mumbai until 2012. In January 2014, the ship was sold through an online auction and scrapped in November 2014 after final clearance from the Supreme Court. In 1943 the Royal Navy commissioned six light aircraft carriers in an effort to counter the German and Japanese navies; the 1942 Design Light Fleet Carrier referred to as the British Light Fleet Carrier, was the result.
Serving with eight navies between 1944 and 2001, these ships were designed and constructed by civilian shipyards as an intermediate step between the full-sized fleet aircraft carriers and the less expensive but limited-capability escort carriers. Sixteen light fleet carriers were ordered, all were laid down as what became the Colossus class in 1942 and 1943; the final six ships were modified during construction to handle larger and faster aircraft, were re-designated the Majestic class. The improvements from the Colossus class to the Majestic class included heavier displacement, catapult, aircraft lifts and aircraft capacity. Construction on the ships was suspended at the end of World War II, as the ships were surplus to the Royal Navy's peacetime requirements. Instead, the carriers were sold to several Commonwealth nations; the ships were similar, but each varied depending on the requirements of the country to which the ship was sold. HMS Hercules, the fifth ship in the Majestic class, was ordered on 7 August 1942 and laid down on 14 October 1943 by Vickers-Armstrongs on the River Tyne.
After World War II ended with Japan's surrender on 2 September 1945, she was launched on 22 September, her construction was suspended in May 1946. At the time of suspension, she was 75 per cent complete, her hull was preserved, in May 1947 she was laid up in Gareloch off the Clyde. In January 1957, she was purchased by India and was towed to Belfast to complete her construction and modifications by Harland and Wolff. Several improvements to the original design were ordered by the Indian Navy, including an angled deck, steam catapults, a modified island. Vikrant displaced 16,000 t at 19,500 t at deep load, she had an overall length of 700 ft, a beam of 128 ft and a mean deep draught of 24 ft. She was powered by a pair of Parsons geared steam turbines, driving two propeller shafts, using steam provided by four Admiralty three-drum boilers; the turbines developed a total of 40,000 indicated horsepower which gave a maximum speed of 25 knots. Vikrant carried about 3,175 t of fuel oil that gave her a range of 12,000 nmi at 14 knots, 6,200 mi at 23 knots.
The air and ship crew comprised 1,110 officers and men. The ship was armed with sixteen 40-millimetre Bofors anti-aircraft guns, but these were reduced to eight. At various times, its aircraft consisted of Hawker Sea Hawk and Sea Harrier jet fighters, Sea King Mk 42B and HAL Chetak helicopters, Breguet Alizé Br.1050 anti-submarine aircraft. The carrier fielded between 23 aircraft of all types. Vikrant's flight decks were designed to handle aircraft up to 24,000 pounds, but 20,000 lb remained the heaviest landing weight of an aircraft. Larger 54 by 34 feet lifts were installed; the ship was equipped with one LW-05 air-search radar, one ZW-06 surface-search radar, one LW-10 tactical radar and one Type 963 aircraft landing radar with other communication systems. The Indian Navy's first aircraft carrier was commissioned as INS Vikrant on 4 March 1961 in Belfast by Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit, the Indian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom; the name Vikrant was derived from the Sanskrit word vikrānta meaning "stepping beyond", "courageous" or "bold".
Captain Pritam Singh was the first commanding officer of the ship, which carried British Hawker Sea Hawk fighter-bombers and French Alizé anti-submarine aircraft. On 18 May 1961, the first jet landed on her deck, it was piloted by Lieutenant Radhakrishna Hariram Tahiliani, who served as admiral and Chief of the Naval Staff of India from 1984 to 1987. Vikrant formally joined the Indian Navy's fleet in Bombay on 3 November 1961, when she was received at Ballard Pier by Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. In December of that year, the ship was deployed for Operation Vijay off the coast of Goa with two destroyers, INS Rajput and INS Kirpan. Vikrant did not see action, patrolled along the coast to deter foreign interference. During the Indo-Pakistani War of 1965, Vikrant was in dry dock refitting, did not see any action. In June 1970, Vikrant was docked at the Naval Dockyard, due to many internal fatigue cracks and fissures in the water drums of her boilers that could not be repaired by welding; as replacement drums were not available locally, four new ones were ordered from Britain, Naval Headquarters issued orders not to use the boilers until further notice.
On 26 February 1971 the ship was moved from Ballard Pier Extension to the anchorage, without replaceme
Andaman Islands
The Andaman Islands form an archipelago in the Bay of Bengal between India, to the west, Myanmar, to the north and east. Most are part of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands Union Territory of India, while a small number in the north of the archipelago, including the Coco Islands, belong to Myanmar; the Andaman Islands are home to the Andamanese, a group of indigenous people that includes a number of tribes including the Jarawa and Sentinelese tribes. While some of the islands can be visited with permits, others including the North Sentinel island are banned for entry by law; the Sentinelese are hostile to visitors and have had little contact with any other people. The government protects their right to privacy; the origin of the name Andaman is disbuted and not well known. In the 13th century, the name of Andaman appears in Chinese as Yen-to-man in the book Zhu Fan Zhi by Zhao Rugua. In Chapter 38 of the book, Countries In The Sea, Zhao Rugua specifies that going from Lambri to Ceylon, it is an unfavourable wind which makes ships drift towards Andaman Islands.
The earliest archaeological evidence yet documented goes back some 2,200 years. The indigenous Andamanese people appear to have lived on the islands in substantial isolation from that time until the 18th century AD. From 800 to 1200 AD, the Tamil Chola dynasty created an empire that extended from southeastern peninsular India to parts of Malaysia. Rajendra Chola I took over the Nicobar Islands. In 1789, the Bengal Presidency established a naval base and penal colony on Chatham Island in the southeast bay of Great Andaman; the settlement is now known as Port Blair. After two years, the colony was moved to the northeast part of Great Andaman and was named Port Cornwallis after Admiral William Cornwallis. However, there was much disease and death in the penal colony and the government ceased operating it in May 1796. In 1824, Port Cornwallis was the rendezvous of the fleet carrying the army to the First Burmese War. In the 1830s and 1840s, shipwrecked crews who landed on the Andamans were attacked and killed by the natives and the islands had a reputation for cannibalism.
The loss of the Runnymede and the Briton in 1844 during the same storm, while transporting goods and passengers between India and Australia, the continuous attacks launched by the natives, which the survivors fought off, alarmed the British government. In 1855, the government proposed another settlement on the islands, including a convict establishment, but the Indian Rebellion of 1857 forced a delay in its construction. However, because the rebellion gave the British so many prisoners, it made the new Andaman settlement and prison urgently necessary. Construction began in November 1857 at Port Blair using inmates' labour, avoiding the vicinity of a salt swamp that seemed to have been the source of many of the earlier problems at Port Cornwallis. 17 May 1859 was another major day for Andaman. The Battle of Aberdeen was fought between the British. Today, a memorial stands in Andaman Water sports complex as a tribute to the people who lost their lives. Fearing foreign invasion and with help from an escaped convict from Cellular Jail, the great Andamanese tribe stormed the British post, but they were outnumbered and soon suffered heavy loss of life.
It was identified that an escaped convict named Doodnath had changed sides and informed the British about the tribe's plans. Today, the tribe has been reduced with less than 50 % of them adults; the government of Andaman Islands is making efforts to increase the headcount of this tribe. In 1867, the ship Nineveh wrecked on the reef of North Sentinel Island; the 86 survivors reached the beach in the ship's boats. On the third day, they were attacked with iron-tipped spears by naked islanders. One person from the ship escaped in a boat and the others were rescued by a British Royal Navy ship. For some time and mortality were high, but swamp reclamation and extensive forest clearance continued; the Andaman colony became notorious with the murder of the Viceroy Richard Southwell Bourke, 6th Earl of Mayo, on a visit to the settlement, by a Muslim convict, a Pathan from Afghanistan, Sher Ali Afridi. In the same year, the two island groups Andaman and Nicobar, were united under a chief commissioner residing at Port Blair.
From the time of its development in 1858 under the direction of James Pattison Walker, in response to the mutiny and rebellion of the previous year, the settlement was first and foremost a repository for political prisoners. The Cellular Jail at Port Blair when completed in 1910 included 698 cells designed for solitary confinement. A notable prisoner there was Vinayak Damodar Savarkar; the Indians imprisoned here referred to its prison as Kala Pani. The number of prisoners who died in this camp is estimated to be in the thousands. Many more died of working conditions in this camp; the Viper Chain Gang Jail on Viper Island was reserved for troublemakers, was the site of hangings. In the 20th century, it became a convenient place to house prominent members of India's independence movement; the Andaman and Nicobar islands were occupied by Japan during World War II. The islands were nominally put under the authority of the Arzi Hukumat-e-Azad Hind (Provisional
Karachi Port Trust
Karachi Port Trust is a Pakistani federal government agency that oversees the operations of the Port of Karachi in Karachi, Pakistan. Between 1880 and 1887, the port was administered by the Karachi Harbour Board; the Karachi Port Trust was established by the Act IV of 1886, effective from 1 April 1887. The agency is headquartered at the colonial-era Karachi Port Trust Building from 1916. Karachi due to its geographical and strategic location is known as the gateway to Asia. By 1852, Karachi was an established city with a population of about 14,000 with a prosperous trade in over-seas markets. However, the existing Port started taking shape in 1854, when the projects of dredging the main navigable channel and the construction of a mole or causeway joining the main harbor with the rest of the city were undertaken. About 5 years construction of Manora Breakwater, Keamari Groyne, the Napier Mole Bridge, Native Jetty and the Chinna Creek were started which gave initial shape to the port; the construction of the wharves started in 1882, by 1914 the East Wharves and the Napier Mole Boat Wharf had been completed.
During the period between 1927 and 1944, the West Wharves of the Port, the lighterage berths and the ship-repairing berths were constructed. Most of these facilities were obsolete by the time Pakistan came into existence in 1947. Since the port administration has embarked on extensive development of the port on modern lines. At the time of independence in 1947, the Port capacity was about 1.5 million tons of dry cargo and 1.0 million tons of P. O. L. products per annum. Karachi Port is now handling over 11.74 million tons of liquid cargo and 25.45 million tons of dry cargo, including 1,213,744 TEUs which constitute about 60% of import/ export of the country. The Karachi Port is administered by a Board of comprising Chairperson and 10 Trustees; the Chairperson is appointed by the Federal Government and is the Chief Executive of Karachi Port Trust. The KPT Chairman is either a senior Central Superior Services officer or an admiral from Pakistan Navy; the remaining 10 Trustees are distributed between the public and the private sector.
The Vice Chairman of the Board is Chairman Pakistan National Shipping Corporation. The Chairman PNSC holds this position ex officio. Another notable member of the Board is Commander Karachi of Pakistan Navy; the COMKAR is a member of the Board ex officio. The five public sector trustees are nominated by the Federal Government; the seats for private sector trustees are filled by elected representatives of various private sector organisations. This way all port users find a representation in the Board of Trustees; the Chairman is Rear Admiral Jamil Akhtar HI T. Bt. Gwadar port Port of Karachi Port Qasim Transport in Karachi Transport in Pakistan Ministry of Maritime Affairs A Short History of Karachi Port, M. Adeel Qureshi, Education Officer, KPT Karachi Port Trust - Official site
Port of Karachi
The Port of Karachi is one of South Asia's largest and busiest deep-water seaports, handling about 60% of the nation's cargo located in Karachi, Pakistan. It is located between the Karachi towns of Kiamari and Saddar, close to the main business district and several industrial areas; the geographic position of the port places it in close proximity to major shipping routes such as the Strait of Hormuz. The administration of the port is carried out by the Karachi Port Trust, established in the nineteenth century; the history of the port is intertwined with that of the city of Karachi. Several ancient ports have been attributed in the area including "Krokola", "Morontobara", Barbarikon (the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea, Debal. There is a reference to the early existence of the port of Karachi in the "Umdah", by the Arab navigator Sulaiman al Mahri, who mentions "Ras al Karazi" and "Ras Karashi" while describing a route along the coast from Pasni to Ras Karashi. Karachi is mentioned in the sixteenth century Turkish treatise Mir'ât ül Memâlik by the Ottoman captain Seydi Ali Reis, a compilation of sailing directions from the Portuguese island of Diu to Hormuz in the Persian Gulf.
It warns sailors about whirlpools and advises them to seek safety in "Kaurashi" harbour if they found themselves drifting dangerously. There is a legend of a prosperous coastal town called Kharak in the estuary of the Hub River in the late 17th and early eighteenth century. In 1728 heavy rains silted up the harbour and resulted in the merchants of Kharak relocating to the area of modern Karachi. In 1729, they built a new fortified town called Kolachi on high ground north of Karachi bay, surrounded by a 16-foot high mud and timber-reinforced wall with gun-mounted turrets and two gates; the gate facing the sea was called "Kharadar", the gate facing the Lyari River was called "Mithadar". The modern neighbourhoods around the location of the gates are called Kharadar. Surrounded by mangrove swamps to the east, the sea to the southwest, the Layari river to the north, the town was well defended and engaged in a profitable trade with Muscat and Bahrain. From 1729 to 1783 the strategic location of Kolachi saw the town change hands several times between the Khans of Kalat and the rulers of Sind.
In 1783, after two prolonged sieges the town fell to the Talpur Mirs of Sind, who constructed a fort mounted with cannons on Manora island at the harbour entrance. The prominence of the port attracted the British, who opened a factory in Karachi at the end of the eighteenth century but disagreements with the Mirs on trade tariffs led to the closure of the factory; the British were concerned about Russian expansion towards the Arabian Sea, so in 1839 they occupied Karachi and the whole of the Sindh. The port served as a landing point for troops during the First Afghan War; the river Indus was an important artery of communication between Karachi and Jhirk Near Kotri Sindh, was an important river port. The Indus flotilla used large quantities of firewood and it was kept to fuel steamboats. A number of British companies opened offices and warehouses in Karachi and the population increased rapidly. By 1852, Karachi was an established city with a population of 14,000 and a prosperous overseas trade.
The modern port began to take shape in 1854, when the main navigation channel was dredged and a mole or causeway was constructed to link the main harbour with the rest of the city. This was followed by construction of Manora breakwater, Keamari Groyne, the Napier Mole Bridge and the Native Jetty Bridge; the construction of the wharves started in 1882, by 1914 the East Wharf and the Napier Mole Boat Wharf were complete while 1927 and 1944, the West Wharf, the lighterage berths and the ship-repair berths were constructed between 1927 and 1944. From the 1861 the Sindh Railway line connected Karachi to the cotton and wheat producing areas of the Sindh and northern British raj and by 1899 Karachi was the largest wheat and cotton exporting port in South Asia; the period between 1856 and 1872 saw a marked increase in trade during the American Civil War when cotton from Sindh replaced American cotton as a raw material in the British textile industry and the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869. Another major export was oil brought by rail from the Sui region in Balochistan.
Karachi's importance as a gateway to British India increased in 1911 when the capital was moved from Calcutta to Delhi. Karachi was an important military base during the First World War because it was the first British raj port of call for ships coming through the Suez Canal and was the gateway to Afghanistan and the Russian Empire. In 1936 the Sindh district of the Bombay Presidency was reorganised as a new province with Karachi as the capital instead of the traditional capital of Hyderabad; this led to buildings, thus increasing its population and importance. Karachi was again a military base and port for supplies to the Russian front during the Second World War. In 1947, Karachi became the capital of the new nation of Pakistan, resulting in a growth in population as it absorbed hundreds of thousands of refugees. Although the capital moved to Islamabad in 1959, Karachi remains the economic center of Pakistan, accounting for the largest proportion of national GDP based in part on the commerce conducted through the Port of Karachi and Port Qasim The new trade corridor realism of Gwadar port for promotion and advancement of economic activities can be just
Indian independence movement
The Indian independence movement was a series of activities whose ultimate aim was to end the British Raj and encompassed activities and ideas aiming to end the East India Company rule and the British Raj in the Indian subcontinent. The movement spanned a total of 90 years considering movement against British Indian Empire; the Indian Independence movement includes both protest and militant mechanisms to root out British Administration from India. The first organised militant movements were in Bengal, but they took root in the newly formed Indian National Congress with prominent moderate leaders seeking only their basic right to appear for Indian Civil Service examinations, as well as more rights, economic in nature, for the people of the soil; the early part of the 20th century saw a more radical approach towards political self-rule proposed by leaders such as the Lal, Bal and Aurobindo Ghosh, V. O. Chidambaram Pillai; the last stages of the self-rule struggle from the 1920s onwards saw Congress adopt Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi's policy of non-violence and civil disobedience, several other campaigns.
Nationalists like Subhash Chandra Bose, Bhagat Singh, Bagha Jatin,preached armed revolution to achieve self-rule. Poets and writers such as Subramania Bharati, Rabindranath Tagore, Muhammad Iqbal, Josh Malihabadi, Mohammad Ali Jouhar, Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay and Kazi Nazrul Islam used literature and speech as a tool for political awareness. Feminists such as Sarojini Naidu and Begum Rokeya promoted the emancipation of Indian women and their participation in national politics. B. R. Ambedkar championed the cause of the disadvantaged sections of Indian society within the larger self-rule movement; the period of the Second World War saw the peak of the campaigns by the Quit India Movement led by Congress, the Indian National Army movement led by Subhas Chandra Bose. The Indian self-rule movement was a mass-based movement that encompassed various sections of society, it underwent a process of constant ideological evolution. Although the basic ideology of the movement was anti-colonial, it was supported by a vision of independent capitalist economic development coupled with a secular, democratic and civil-libertarian political structure.
After the 1930s, the movement took on a strong socialist orientation, owing to the influence of Bhagat Singh's demand of Purna Swaraj. The work of these various movements led to the Indian Independence Act 1947, which ended the suzerainty in India and the creation of Pakistan. India remained a Dominion of the Crown until 26 January 1950, when the Constitution of India came into force, establishing the Republic of India. In 1971, East Pakistan declared independence as the People's Republic of Bangladesh. European traders first reached Indian shores with the arrival of the Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama in 1498 at the port of Calicut, in search of the lucrative spice trade. Just over a century the Dutch and English established trading outposts on the subcontinent, with the first English trading post set up at Surat in 1613. Over the course of the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, the British defeated the Portuguese and Dutch militarily, but remained in conflict with the French, who had by sought to establish themselves in the subcontinent.
The decline of the Mughal Empire in the first half of the eighteenth century provided the British with the opportunity to establish a firm foothold in Indian politics. After the Battle of Plassey in 1757, during which the East India Company's Indian Army under Robert Clive defeated Siraj ud-Daulah, the Nawab of Bengal, the Company established itself as a major player in Indian affairs, soon afterwards gained administrative rights over the regions of Bengal and Midnapur part of Odisha, following the Battle of Buxar in 1764. After the defeat of Tipu Sultan, most of South India came either under the Company's direct rule, or under its indirect political control as part a princely state in a subsidiary alliance; the Company subsequently gained control of regions ruled by the Maratha Empire, after defeating them in a series of wars. The Punjab was annexed in 1849, after the defeat of the Sikh armies in the First and Second Anglo-Sikh Wars. English was made the medium of instruction in India's schools in 1835, many Indians disliked British rule.
The English tried to impose the Western standards of education and culture on Indian masses, believing in the 18th century superiority of Western culture and enlightenment. Puli Thevar was one of the opponents of the British rule in India, he was in conflict with the Nawab of Arcot, supported by the British. His prominent exploits were his confrontations with Marudhanayagam, who rebelled against the British in the late 1750s and early 1760s. Nelkatumseval the present Tirunelveli Dist of Tamil Nadu state of India was the headquarters of Puli Thevan Syed Mir Nisar Ali Titumir. Along with his followers, he built a bamboo fort in Narkelberia Village, which passed into Bengali folk legend. After the storming of the fort by British soldiers, Titumir died of his wounds on 19 November 1831; the toughest resistance the Company experienced was offered by Mysore. The Anglo–Mysore Wars were a series of wars fought in over the last three decades of the 18th century between the Kingdom of Mysore on the one hand, the British East India Company (represented chiefly by the Madras Presiden
Indo-Pakistani War of 1965
The Indo-Pakistani War of 1965 was a culmination of skirmishes that took place between April 1965 and September 1965 between Pakistan and India. The conflict began following Pakistan's Operation Gibraltar, designed to infiltrate forces into Jammu and Kashmir to precipitate an insurgency against Indian rule. India retaliated by launching a full-scale military attack on West Pakistan; the seventeen-day war caused thousands of casualties on both sides and witnessed the largest engagement of armored vehicles and the largest tank battle since World War II. Hostilities between the two countries ended after a United Nations-mandated ceasefire was declared following diplomatic intervention by the Soviet Union and the United States, the subsequent issuance of the Tashkent Declaration. Much of the war was fought by the countries' land forces in Kashmir and along the border between India and Pakistan; this war saw the largest amassing of troops in Kashmir since the Partition of British India in 1947, a number, overshadowed only during the 2001–2002 military standoff between India and Pakistan.
Most of the battles were fought by opposing infantry and armoured units, with substantial backing from air forces, naval operations. Many details of this war, like those of other Indo-Pakistani Wars, remain unclear. India had the upper hand over Pakistan. Although the two countries fought to a standoff, the conflict is seen as a strategic and political defeat for Pakistan, as it had neither succeeded in fomenting insurrection in Kashmir nor had it been able to gain meaningful support at an international level. Internationally, the war was viewed in the context of the greater Cold War, resulted in a significant geopolitical shift in the subcontinent. Before the war, the United States and the United Kingdom had been major material allies of both India and Pakistan, as their primary suppliers of military hardware and foreign developmental aid. During and after the conflict, both India and Pakistan felt betrayed by the perceived lack of support by the western powers for their respective positions.
As a consequence and Pakistan developed closer relationships with the Soviet Union and China, respectively. The perceived negative stance of the western powers during the conflict, during the 1971 war, has continued to affect relations between the West and the subcontinent. In spite of improved relations with the U. S. and Britain since the end of the Cold War, the conflict generated a deep distrust of both countries within the subcontinent which to an extent lingers to this day. Since the Partition of British India in 1947, Pakistan and India remained in contention over several issues. Although the Kashmir conflict was the predominant issue dividing the nations, other border disputes existed, most notably over the Rann of Kutch, a barren region in the Indian state of Gujarat; the issue first arose in 1956. Pakistani patrols began patrolling in territory controlled by India in January 1965, followed by attacks by both countries on each other's posts on 8 April 1965. Involving border police from both nations, the disputed area soon witnessed intermittent skirmishes between the countries' armed forces.
In June 1965, British Prime Minister Harold Wilson persuaded both countries to end hostilities and set up a tribunal to resolve the dispute. The verdict, which came in 1968, saw Pakistan awarded 350 square miles of the Rann of Kutch, as against its original claim of 3,500 square miles. After its success in the Rann of Kutch, under the leadership of General Ayub Khan, believed the Indian Army would be unable to defend itself against a quick military campaign in the disputed territory of Kashmir as the Indian military had suffered a loss to China in 1962 in the Sino-Indian War. Pakistan believed that the population of Kashmir was discontented with Indian rule and that a resistance movement could be ignited by a few infiltrating saboteurs. Pakistan attempted to ignite the resistance movement by means of a covert infiltration, codenamed Operation Gibraltar; the Pakistani infiltrators were soon discovered, their presence reported by local Kashmiris, the operation ended unsuccessfully. On 5 August 1965 between 26,000 and 33,000 Pakistani soldiers crossed the Line of Control dressed as Kashmiri locals headed for various areas within Kashmir.
Indian forces, tipped off by the local populace, crossed the cease fire line on 15 August. The Indian Army met with considerable success, capturing three important mountain positions after a prolonged artillery barrage. By the end of August, both sides had relative progress. On 1 September 1965, Pakistan launched a counterattack, called Operation Grand Slam, with the objective to capture the vital town of Akhnoor in Jammu, which would sever communications and cut off supply routes to Indian troops. Ayub Khan calculated that "Hindu morale would not stand more than a couple of hard blows at the right time and place" although by this time Operation Gibraltar had failed and India had captured the Haji Pir Pass. At 3:30 hours, on 1 September 1965, the entire Chhamb area came under massive artillery bombardment. Pakistan had launched operation Grand Slam and India's Army Headquarter was taken by surprise. Attacking with an overwhelming ratio of troops and technically superior tanks, Pakistan made gains against Indian forces, who were caught unprepared and suffered heav
British India (1941-1947) 
India (from 1947)
Royal Indian Navy (till 1947) 
Indian Navy (after 1947)
Admiral
