Set of 5 KW Books: The Contribution of The Jubbulpore Mutiny to India’s Freedom : Did the INA also have a Role? | Songs of Soma: Transcreations of Vedic Hymns | Thunder Dragon The Covid Strike | Bose The Military Dimension: A Military History of INA and Netaji | Battle of Poonch 1971 Operations

1) Battle of Poonch 1971 Operations: This event is remembered for the heroic action of Naik Baldev Singh who continued engaging the enemy with his LMG (Light Machine Gun) till he was killed. Thinking the helipad to be the main locality, assaulting troops gave the success signal.

To their surprise, it was not so and now they were under continuous artillery fire. They launched repeated attacks from all approaches throughout the day and night of December 4-5, but the troops of 6 SIKH and 8 JAT frustrated all their attempts. Author: Brig Satjit Singh, AVSM, VSM (Retd) was commissioned into Regiment of Artillery in December 1953. He was Commanding Officer of 195 Mountain Regiment in 1971 Operations in Poonch. Being the CO of direct support regiment to 93 Infantry Brigade, he was intimately involved with the battles in Poonch during 1971 Operations. Artillery played a vital role in the operations, as is evident from this narrative.

He describes the operations at Poonch in a very interesting and eloquent manner. He was awarded VSM (Vashist Sewa Medal) for his distinguished service during the Poonch Operations.

2) Bose The Military Dimension: A Military History of INA and Netaji: This book is a 125thAnniversary tribute to Bose and his INA. It is a path breaking book that seeks to evaluate Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose as a military leader and assess the combat performance of the Indian National Army (INA) in WWII and its significant impact on the Freedom Struggle. Netaji was instrumental in India getting her freedom.

The book has gone into great details about each & every engagement fought by the INA. The INA was the primary catalyst that inspired the military revolts of 1946 that ultimately forced the British to quit. For the first time, the author has examined the events of 1946—especially the revolts in the Royal Indian Navy and the British Indian Army in great detail. He has cited British sources to prove that these revolts were primarily instrumental in forcing the British to leave in such a tearing hurry merely two years after they won the WWII. This book seeks to reopen the significant historical debate about how India got her freedom. A succession of court historians have tried to craft a narrative that India had obtained her freedom entirely by the soft power of Ahimsa/non-violence; that hard power had no role to play whatsoever. This is a huge sacrilege. As per the INA’s official history, the force had a total strength of 60,000. Of these, 26,000 were killed in action. This is an enormous scale of sacrifice. The pity is that the Nehruvian dispensation treated these men as traitors.

Author Maj Gen (Dr) G D Bakshi is a combat veteran with considerable experience in Kargil, Kishtwar and Rajouri sectors of J&K. He is a renowned military historian and a prolific writer who has written over 40 books. He is India’s most popular commentator on TV on matters of military.

3) Thunder Dragon The Covid Strike : The Bat Corona Virus Pandemic that struck the world recently was one of the greatest Black Swan events in the last hundred years. It has infected around 113 million people globally and left over 2 million dead. The global economy was devastated.

What caused this Pandemic?

Was it a natural epidemic?

Was it genetically engineered in the Wuhan Institute of Virology?

Did it leak out from there accidentally?

Or was it deliberately released as part of a biological warfare attack designed to cause disarray and collapse of nations & set them up for military strikes and economic devastation?

Was it a biological Pearl Harbour?

If so – who triggered it and why?

This book is the third in a series of War Gaming & Scenario Generation exercises in the Tom Clancy tradition. The war game serves as inspiration for a fictional narration in the form of a racy novel. In this book we explore “What if scenario” of – was COVID-19 a Biological Warfare first strike and how exactly it could have happened in China.

It is an entirely fictional account of a hypothetical scenario that is chillingly probable and based on detailed research & analysis. In 2019, CIA tips India off on a sinister effort to engineer Bat Corona Viruses in Wuhan. Two Indian agents, Col Dusty Bhardwaj of the Special Forces and Dr Ayesha Mir of RAW are sent in to find out what is happening. They uncover a bizarre plot to weaponise the virus and use it for a biological warfare – first strike that will set the stage for an invasion of Taiwan and incursions into Ladakh. Read on for the twists and turns of a bizarre plot that could actually have happened.

4) Songs of Soma: Transcreations of Vedic Hymns : Soma is the most mystical and magical riddle of the Vedas. It is said to be the elixir of Joy and ecstasy – the honey – wine of bliss. It inspires great creativity and deep mystical insights. It moves the tongue to song. It made the Vedic seers so creative and prolific in their output of mystical verses inspired by Soma.

Soma is also said to lengthen out the human life spans. It is the elixir of immortality – the fabled fountain of eternal youth. The fire bursts of Soma give incredible courage and heroism to the warriors in the battlefields. They take away all fear of death and pain. It was deified as a Deva – a god in the Vedic pantheon. The entire 9th Mandala of the Rig Veda is devoted to this magical Soma. Descriptions in the 9th Mandala of the Rig Veda (that is entirely devoted to Soma) suggest that it was a psychotropic plant of great power. A plant that could bend the mind and lead to altered states of conciousness. It was the favourite drink of the gods and used as sacrament in the Vedic fire sacrifices The later Atharva Veda and the Upanishads however, make no reference to psychtropic plants.

Soma they felt was entirely endogenous – produced by the human body and mind itself and no Exogenic substances were involved. It was the deep silence of the forest and the depth of meditation that produced Soma and its mystical insights. That ecstasy came from within. The Inebriation with the devine elixir of Soma has resulted in the most elegant and mystic poetry ever composed by man. What follows in this book are the inspired Songs of Soma which I have personally experienced.

5) The Contribution of The Jubbulpore Mutiny to India’s Freedom : Did the INA also have a Role? : Soon after the end of World War II, there were mutinies in the Royal Indian Navy, the Royal Indian Air Force and the Indian Army in February 1946. At the same time, trials of three prisoners of the Indian National Army were being held at the Red Fort in Delhi. After the mutinies, the British realised that they could no longer depend on the armed services, especially the Army, which was the only instrument of control over the sub-continent.

Most INA veterans claim that they played a major role in India’s independence from British rule. This is based on the assumption the mutinies were inspired by the INA. This hypothesis is flawed and is not supported by the available evidence. The contributions of the armed forces as well as the INA have been discussed in this book, based on official documents, books written by well-known historians as well as personal narratives of the persons involved. From the evidence on record it is clear that the Army Signals mutiny at Jubbulpore in 1946 played a crucial role in the decision of the British to quit India and also to advance the date of departure from June 1948 to August 1947.