Shiv Kunal Verma
Articles
Shiv Kunal Verma’s columns, essays and book excerpts in The Sunday Guardian, The Tribune, Scroll, Firstpost, Indian Exceptionalism and other publications.
On this site in full
Kashmir and Ladakh
A ten-part history, The Sunday Guardian, August to October 2020
Read all ten parts here, with the original photographs, the readers’ letters and the PDFs.
All articles
Newest first. Search, or filter by publication or subject.
2026
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ScrollBattles of the Indian Republic
A new book reconstructs the devastating Nam Ka Chu battle of the 1962 Sino-Indian War
An excerpt from ‘1962: Death Trap in Nam Ka Chu’.
Ashok Kalyan Verma with Shiv Kunal Verma
Scroll
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ScrollBattles of the Indian Republic
How Khemkaran’s flat fields and irrigation canals helped the Indian Army defend the Punjab plains
An excerpt from ‘1965: Holding the Line at Asal Uttar’.
Harash Vir Singh and Shiv Kunal Verma
Scroll
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Indian ExceptionalismEssay · No. 05
The Majesty of Governance
Indian Exceptionalism must start with people, resilient systems and institutional integrity.
Indian ExceptionalismReprinted in The Sunday Guardian, 4 Oct 2026
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ScrollBattles of the Indian Republic
Kargil War: when the 27 Rajput battalion climbed a perilous mountain peak to launch attacks
An excerpt from ‘1999: The Battle for the Heights of Point 5770’.
Konsam Himalay Singh and Shiv Kunal Verma
Scroll
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The TribuneBattles of the Indian Republic
The contrasting battles of Asal Uttar and Khemkaran
An excerpt from the ‘Battles of the Indian Republic’ series, published by Aleph.
Brigadier Harash Vir Singh with Shiv Kunal Verma
Tribune
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ScrollBattles of the Indian Republic
A new book recounts events leading up to the first Kashmir war fought immediately after Partition
An excerpt from ‘1947: The Battle of Badgam and Shalateng’.
Ajay Kumar Raina with Shiv Kunal Verma
Scroll
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ScrollBook excerpt
How India fought Pakistan’s attack in the Rann of Kutch in 1965
An excerpt from ‘The Sabre Slayers: The Air Battles of the 1965 War with Pakistan’.
Philip Rajkumar and Shiv Kunal Verma
Scroll
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Sanctuary AsiaCover story
Defending India: an ecological perspective
There are few places left on Earth where one can still watch the planet manufacturing life in real time.
Sanctuary Asia
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Indian ExceptionalismEssay · No. 03
The Classroom Republic
Two essays, one question: what has education done to trust, and to the faculty of seeing things as they are.
In “Two Voices on the Classroom Republic”, with Achyut Tiwari
Indian Exceptionalism
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The TribuneSpectrum
New Army Uniforms 2026 regulations are about memory and identity
The Army Uniforms 2026 regulations are not just about uniforms, badges and distinctions, but about memory and identity.
Tribune
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The TribuneFeature
Four legs on the frontline
From counter-terror operations to disaster zones and remote Himalayan posts, India’s service dogs work beside soldiers.
Tribune
2025
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The TribuneComment
Thorat, the soldier who saw 1962 coming
In 1961, Lt Gen BM Kaul orchestrated the appointment of Gen Pran Thapar, a pliant figure who would facilitate Kaul’s rise.
TribuneArchived copy
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The Sunday GuardianOpinion
Strategy minus the optics
Having seen the Kargil fighting up close and written books on the ’62 and ’65 conflicts with China and Pakistan…
Sunday Guardian
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The Sunday GuardianInvestigation
Why Pakistan needs a rear-view mirror
India should take additional economic sanctions that hurt, initiate a few covert actions…
Sunday GuardianArchived copy
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The Sunday GuardianInvestigation
Pahalgam: India’s moment of truth
They say we never learn from history, but it is worth remembering, the gates to Fortress India have always been opened…
Sunday GuardianAlso in Garhwal PostArchived copy
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Garhwal PostObituary
Ajai Banerji: sincere ‘Mastermind’
The passing of Ajai Banerji came as a double whammy because not only was he my house mate and a respected ‘S Former’…
Garhwal Post
2024
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Garhwal PostWeekly column
NDA: the Standard Bearers
23 years ago, I made the film ‘Standard Bearers’ on the National Defence Academy…
Garhwal Post
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Garhwal PostFeature
A photo exhibition for Lt Gen Adi Sethna’s birth centenary
In 1940, Adi Sethna joined the Doon School.
Garhwal Post
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Garhwal PostWeekly column
Growing up lesson
As a 7-year old kid I had the most amazing collection of realistic looking toy guns.
Garhwal Post
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Garhwal PostWeekly column
Salute to RD ‘Sir’
The worst part about growing older is the loss of parents, families, friends and people who helped shape and define your life…
Garhwal Post
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Garhwal PostWeekly column
Million dollar question
Even though I grew up under the shadow of the Himalayan Range and the twinkling lights of Mussoorie…
Garhwal Post
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Garhwal PostWeekly column
Return to a transformed Doon
Genealogy for most of us takes the form of a family tree… The first of his weekly columns.
Garhwal Post
2022
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FirstpostBook excerpt
Anti-Sikh riots of 1984 and the experiences of an on-field journalist
Just how systematic the killings were can be gauged from the fact that there were no large mobs going wild, just small groups of about a dozen men… From ‘Life of an Industani’.
Firstpost
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FirstpostBook excerpt
When Bob Khathing marched in: India’s Tawang action of 1951
Khathing’s mission remained unknown to Prime Minister Nehru till it was accomplished. From ‘1962: The War That Wasn’t’.
Firstpost
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Governance NowBook excerpt
Shooting in Kargil: a man, a camera and a war
An excerpt from ‘Life of an Industani: Six Degrees of Separation’.
Governance Now
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Garhwal PostLife of an Industani, serialised · 6 of 6
The Great Betrayals
On 1 July I was given a white Sumo with a local Kashmiri driver and a JCO for liaison purposes.
Garhwal Post
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Garhwal PostLife of an Industani, serialised · 5 of 6
Night Without End
Extract 5 of 6: his days filming with the Hizbul Mujahideen in 1995.
Garhwal Post
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Garhwal PostLife of an Industani, serialised · 4 of 6
Salt of the Earth
Extract 4 of 6, introduced by Col Ajay K Raina.
Garhwal Post
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Garhwal PostLife of an Industani, serialised · 3 of 6
Project Tiger: the new kid in town
Extract 3 of 6.
Garhwal Post
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Garhwal PostLife of an Industani, serialised · 2 of 6
The crossing of Umasi-La
Extract 2 of 6.
Garhwal Post
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Garhwal PostLife of an Industani, serialised · 1 of 6
The Doon School: north to south
Back in Dehradun, after hectic last-minute preparations, I arrived at the Doon School wearing a pair of green trousers.
Garhwal Post
2021
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FirstpostBook excerpt
How our generals repeatedly bungled during the 1965 war, but junior commanders saved the day
Indian generals, in the actual conduct of operations, often resorted to tactics that bordered on the bizarre. From ‘1965: A Western Sunrise’.
Firstpost
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News18Book excerpt
When Ayub Khan heeded Chinese advice on Kashmir, and paid the price
So entwined were the Chinese with Pakistani plans that Ayub Khan was willing to discuss with Zhou Enlai the tactics he wished to adopt in case of war with India.
News18Also in Canary Trap
2020
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The Sunday GuardianKashmir and Ladakh · Part X
The Islamization of PoliticsEnter the Lion of Kashmir
‘Papa’
Read here
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The Sunday GuardianKashmir and Ladakh · Part IX
A Bipolar UniverseMaharaja Hari Singh’s ‘Great Betrayal’
By the time Hari Singh ascended the throne of Jammu and Kashmir, coincidently on his thirtieth birthday on 23 September 1925, he was already marked by the British as a bit of a wild card.
Read here
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The Sunday GuardianKashmir and Ladakh · Part VIII
Cat and Mouse GamesThe British Empire & the J&K Maharajas
I first heard of the Gulabnama, written by Kripa Ram, from Tsering Angdu’s son, Rinchen, who said a copy written in Urdu and wrapped in red makhmal (velvet), had been with the Stakjing family for more than a hundred years if not more.
Read here
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The Sunday GuardianKashmir and Ladakh · Part VII
Kingdom of MountainsDogras and the East India Company
The Treaty of Amritsar, between the East India Company and the Dogra ruler, Raja Gulab Singh on 16 March 1846 was a watershed, for it not only created the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir under the suzerainty of the British Indian Empire, it also virtually defined the southern, eastern and western boundaries of a new political creation that elevated the Dogras into being the key players controlling northern India.
Read here
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The Sunday GuardianKashmir and Ladakh · Part VI
Stones of SilenceLadakh and Beyond
The Kiang, or the Tibetan Wild Ass (Equus kiang) whose small herds inhabit the area around Chushul and the Spangur Gap, shows a lot more common sense than the Chinese premier, Xi Jinping when it comes to identifying borders.
Read here
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The Sunday GuardianKashmir and Ladakh · Part V
The Master MindsGulab Singh and the ‘Haramzadas’
After having signed a Treaty of Friendship with the British in 1809, Maharaja Ranjit Singh had bought time in an effort to keep the fast growing British Empire at bay.
Read here
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The Sunday GuardianKashmir and Ladakh · Part IV
Dining at the High TableThe Early Military History of Kashmir
Time and again one hears the lament that Kashmir somehow evolved as an isolated entity, and hence it must be treated as a special, stand-alone case.
Read here
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The Sunday GuardianKashmir and Ladakh · Part III
Puppeteers without StringsThe Pied-pipers of Hate
One of the questions that seems to haunt Indian academics and intellectuals in particular, to say nothing of the 1.3 billion multitude, is the identity of India itself.
Read here
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The Sunday GuardianKashmir and Ladakh · Part II
The Heaven BornThe Men Who Ruled Kashmir
There is a road that runs from Roing to Anini in Arunachal Pradesh that goes over the Mayudia pass.
Read here
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The Sunday GuardianKashmir and Ladakh · Part I
Nights Without EndFour Days with the Hizbul Mujahideen
At the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy for Administration in Mussoorie, my film Kashmir: Baramula to Kargil was being screened on the very day the Government of India decided to nullify Article 370 and reconstitute the state of Jammu and Kashmir into two union territories.
Read here
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The Sunday GuardianChina and the LAC, summer 2020
Target G219, deploy weapons of peace
Whenever China decides to poke at India anywhere on the 4,056 kilometre boundary…
Sunday Guardian
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The Sunday GuardianChina and the LAC, summer 2020
Repeated intelligence failures: time to worry
Keep an eye on the developments in what is known as the ‘Central Sector’…
Sunday Guardian
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The Sunday GuardianChina and the LAC, summer 2020
Ladakh could be a feint, China’s big push may be coming from the east
India, led by its overactive media, will continue to harp on the carefully laid out trap that focuses on ‘loss of territory’…
Sunday Guardian
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The Sunday GuardianChina and the LAC, summer 2020
Optical illusions: how to win wars, not just battles
A narrative is being put out by a lobby that India has lost territory and PP 14 is no longer with us.
Sunday Guardian
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The Sunday GuardianChina and the LAC, summer 2020
Chinese checkers: looking beyond the mask
After the start of the pandemic, few would have expected Xi Jinping to don the war paint…
Sunday Guardian
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The Sunday GuardianChina and the LAC, summer 2020
Enemy at the gates, so don’t cry wolf
Learn to master the ancient Indian art of maunvrat.
Sunday Guardian
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The Sunday GuardianChina and the LAC, summer 2020
The psychological games the Chinese play with us
In 1962, PLA ‘terror squads’ had shown no mercy or remorse, gunning down and bayoneting retreating Indian soldiers…
Sunday Guardian
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The Sunday GuardianChina and the LAC, summer 2020
Time to take on the neighbourhood bully
Georg Hegel says we learn from history that we have never learnt from history.
Sunday GuardianAlso in Garhwal Post
2016
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ScrollBook excerpt
How India lost its way in the war that wasn’t against China in 1962
Poor leadership and planning let the Indian side down against the Chinese attack on Se-La.
Scroll
Nothing matches.