I’d take an Indian infantry officer from the 70s/80s over most other militaries of that time to get results. Those men didn’t mess around. Ever since COIN became their main focus the quality of Indian military has gone through the floor and that’s across all branches (the navy mostly maintains competence though)
Btw I’d like to add. Even the COIN formations of that time were superior to those of the current era.
In Nagaland, in the 70s, as well as Mizoram, Nagas and Mizos would attack camps in groups of 50-60. Army men and Assam rifles woild usually go up against company sized elements. They even used mortars, Chinese weapons, etc. only thing they didn’t have was IEDs.
And the SOPs, intel network, etc was far superior. There were many instances of army men breaking ambushes by company sized elements, and assaulting company sized element groups as well. In one case, a company sized naga attack was routed by a counter charge.
In one case, we almost got Isaac Muviah in 1974. We had instances of regular infantry battalions launching cross border strikes in east Pakistan against Mizos.
And paras of that time were simply on a different level. Even throughout the 90s as well Imo. The 1971 Chachro raid, 1988 Maldives coup, mandhol raid, meghdoot raid of 1965 etc were simply legendary. I don’t think paras could a raid which was inside Pakistan proper like that anymore.
And loook at the Jaffna Helifrop. Despite being an operational blunder, a company of 10 para held off nearly 1000 ltte, which had more firepower, for 24 hours. They suffered 6 KIA, while killing nearly 100 LTTE. Meanwhile, in 2023, a group of 8 militants managed to inflict 5 KIA on 9 para and leave without a scratch. Imagine if the paras of today faced something similar to that of the botched op.
Off topic, but personally my favorite chapter of the Indian army was Op Polo. It was beat down ofI desert storm proportions lol.
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