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First Village
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Dr. Shreesh K Pathak
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Border Pulse by Lt. Gen. Rajeev Chaudhary
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Bharat is Loosing West Asia, But...
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Editorial
From the Watchtower
September 2026 Belongs to Bharat
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Cartoon
The Back Page Brief
Dr. Shreesh K Pathak
(Editor, Seema Sanghosh English)
The rise of China, Bharat’s growing economic and military capabilities, Russia’s confrontation with the West, conflicts in West Asia, and competition over technology, energy and critical minerals are reshaping global power.
The New Delhi Summit is a test of whether the expanded BRICS can convert its weight into strategic influence.
BRICS began in 2006 with Brazil, Russia, Bharat and China, with South Africa joining later. Its expansion has brought Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Indonesia into the grouping. Today, the 11-member BRICS represents nearly half of the world’s population and around 40 percent of global GDP.
But why has BRICS become increasingly important?
BRICS offers developing countries another platform for cooperation.
But the issue today goes beyond representation. Economic security has become national security. Access to energy, critical minerals, technology, secure supply chains and reliable financial systems increasingly determines strategic freedom.
BRICS therefore offers developing countries another platform for cooperation.
BRICS is not a military alliance, and its members do not agree on every geopolitical issue. Yet they share an interest in a more representative and multipolar international system.
For Bharat, BRICS is closely connected with strategic autonomy.
Bharat does not want its foreign policy to depend on any single power. It needs strong partnerships across the United States, Europe, Russia, Japan, Australia, the Gulf and the Global South, while managing competition with China.
BRICS gives Bharat additional strategic space.
Bharat has used its BRICS chairship to focus on trade finance, MSMEs, digital services, energy, technology, health and investment.
Easier finance and new markets can create business opportunities. This is where geopolitics meets Bharat’s everyday economy.
Bharat’s importance to BRICS goes beyond economic size.
Bharat has a vast market, technological capabilities, a major pharmaceutical industry and credibility among developing countries. More importantly, it maintains relationships across different power centres.
Bharat works with Washington and Moscow, engages with Europe and the Gulf, and remains a voice of the Global South.
Bharat can help ensure that BRICS remains an inclusive platform rather than becoming an instrument of any single power.
That is why Bharat needs BRICS, but BRICS also needs Bharat.
No discussion of BRICS can avoid China.
China is the largest BRICS economy and Bharat’s most consequential strategic competitor. The boundary question, trade deficit, technology and national security remain major concerns.
Yet competition does not eliminate the need for dialogue.
On August 25, Bharat’s National Security Adviser Ajit Doval and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi held the 25th round of Special Representatives’ talks on the boundary question in Beijing. The two sides agreed on measures concerning border management, communication channels, border trade, trans-border rivers and continued negotiations, with the next round scheduled in Bharat in 2027.
It is significant, but not a settlement.
Bharat and China have not resolved their differences. They are trying to manage them and prevent competition from becoming uncontrolled conflict.
The economic relationship presents another contradiction. Bharat’s merchandise trade deficit with China reached $99.2 billion in 2024-25. Yet Chinese machinery, electronics and industrial components are also used in Bharat’s manufacturing system.
Bharat therefore needs to reduce excessive dependence on China without weakening its own industrial competitiveness.
Bharat’s 2026 BRICS chairship has given the grouping a practical orientation, with more than 350 meetings and engagements across over 25 Indian cities.
The theme, “Building for Resilience, Innovation, Cooperation and Sustainability,” reflects this effort.
For Bharat, the Summit is an opportunity to demonstrate leadership. For the Global South, it is a test of practical delivery.
Chinese President Xi Jinping’s first visit to Bharat since 2019 adds another strategic dimension, offering both sides an opportunity to demonstrate that competition need not become confrontation.
Modern military power cannot be separated from industrial and technological capacity. Dependence on external sources for critical minerals, semiconductors, energy or key technologies can create strategic vulnerabilities even when a country possesses strong armed forces.
Bharat should therefore use BRICS to diversify critical supply chains, strengthen energy security and promote technology cooperation where appropriate.
Digital infrastructure and payment systems are also becoming strategic assets. Growing interest in payment interoperability and central bank digital currencies could provide additional options, and Bharat’s UPI experience gives it an advantage.
For Bharat, the objective should be greater efficiency, resilience and strategic choice, not simply replacing the US dollar.
BRICS will not suddenly reduce inflation or eliminate Bharat’s trade deficit with China. But international decisions gradually affect ordinary lives.
Better trade finance can help exporters. New markets can create opportunities for Bharatiya companies. Digital payment connectivity can make cross-border transactions easier. Cooperation on energy, critical minerals and supply chains can strengthen economic security.
Peace between two nuclear-armed neighbours has enormous strategic value.
Bharat should neither turn BRICS into an anti-American platform nor allow it to become an anti-China instrument.
Its objective should be strategic autonomy.
Where interests with China converge, Bharat should cooperate; where they diverge, it should compete. Where national security is involved, it should remain cautious, while deepening partnerships across the United States, Europe, Russia, Japan, Australia and the Gulf.
Bharat’s greatest opportunity is not to join another camp. It is to use BRICS to shape a more balanced international order.
The success of the New Delhi Summit will not be measured only by declarations. It will be measured by whether Bharat can convert its BRICS leadership into greater economic resilience, stronger strategic autonomy, deeper engagement with the Global South and a more stable security environment.
Bharat’s strength lies in maintaining multiple partnerships according to national interest.
BRICS will not replace the West, nor will it become a perfectly unified geopolitical bloc. But it can become an important pillar of a more plural global order.
For Bharat, the task is clear: not merely to participate in this transformation, but to help shape it.
Seema Sanghosh English | September 2026
BORDER PULSE
Where the Stars Meet the Border
I had seen many borders in my four decades in uniform, but Hanle felt different. Here, the border seemed less like a line on a map and more like a meeting point; with the sky above, the mountains around, and Bharat quietly going about its life below.
At nearly 15,000 feet, Hanle is a small village in the cold desert of Ladakh, where life is sparse, the winters are unforgiving and the horizon seems almost limitless. Yet this unlikely corner of Bharat possesses something most places on earth would envy; the stars. The air is exceptionally dry, the skies remarkably clear and artificial light almost non-existent. At night, the heavens do not merely appear above Hanle; they seem to descend upon it.
This is my first stop in what I hope will be a continuing journey along Bharat's frontiers; a journey I call Border Pulse. I want to look beyond the familiar maps and military posts and discover the pulse of the people who live there, the infrastructure that sustains them, the opportunities that are emerging and the strategic importance that increasingly surrounds their lives.
Hanle is a perfect place to begin.
Life here has a rhythm of its own. The landscape is vast, but the village is intimate. Homes, fields, animals, prayer flags and people occupy a tiny human island in an immense wilderness. The mountains dictate the seasons, the weather dictates movement and altitude dictates almost everything. Water is precious, vegetation is limited and winter is not merely a season but a test of endurance.
Yet it would be wrong to look at Hanle only through the lens of hardship.
There is a quiet dignity in the way people have adapted to this extraordinary environment. Life has been lived here for generations, long before satellites, telescopes and strategic roads appeared on the horizon. The village is not an outpost waiting for Bharat to discover it. It is part of an old civilisation that has always known how to live with the mountains.
That history is most visible in the Hanle Monastery.
The monastery stands as a reminder that Bharat's frontier has never been merely a geographical concept. Faith, culture and commerce travelled across these mountains centuries before modern boundaries were drawn. The monastery was constructed in the early 1600s by King Sengge Namgyal and belongs to the Drukpa Kagyu sect. The rhythm of prayers here is measured not by clocks but by the rhythm of the mountains.
Standing there I noticed that huge repair works were on to restore the structure and of course the faith. I was struck by the extraordinary juxtaposition. The monastery looks inward, towards memory and faith. A few kilometres away, Bharat's scientists are looking outward, towards the universe.
The India Astronomical Observatory sits on Mt Saraswati and has transformed Hanle into one of the world's remarkable locations for astronomical observation. Its 2-metre Himalayan Chandra Telescope operates remotely, while other sophisticated facilities; including the MACE telescope and the GROWTH-Bharat robotic telescope; have made this remote Himalayan valley a significant centre of scientific research.
It is one of nature's wonderful ironies. The very conditions that make life difficult here make astronomy possible. The altitude, dryness, low atmospheric water vapour and absence of light pollution provide scientists with exceptionally clear skies.
The mountains that isolate Hanle from much of the world have also given Bharat an extraordinary window to the universe.
And now the stars are beginning to bring another opportunity to the village. Hanle was notified as Bharat's first Dark Sky Reserve in December 2022. The idea is not simply to protect scientific research but to create a new local economy around astro-tourism. Local residents have been trained as Astronomy Ambassadors and equipped with telescopes. The objective is simple but profound: allow the village itself to participate in the value created by its extraordinary natural asset.
This is precisely the kind of development I would like Border Pulse to explore. For too long, we have viewed border development primarily through the prism of roads, bridges, tunnels and military logistics. All of these are essential. But a road is ultimately meaningful because of what it does to human life.
This is where the Border Roads Organisation enters the Hanle story.
I have spent the final leg of my professional life looking at borders through the prism of roads, and I have learnt that a road in the plains and a road in the Himalayas are two very different propositions. Here, a road is an engineering achievement, but it is also a lifeline. It brings food, medicines, education and essential supplies. It connects children to schools, villagers to markets and communities to healthcare. It allows tourists and scientists to arrive and government services to reach.
For a soldier, a road is logistics. For a villager, it is life.
The BRO's work in these unforgiving mountains is therefore not simply about kilometres of road constructed. Its larger contribution is to reduce the tyranny of distance. Every kilometre that becomes more reliable shrinks the psychological distance between a remote village and the rest of Bharat.
And in a border region, development and security are inseparable. Hanle is only 20 km away from Line of Actual Control and its proximity to the Bharat-China frontier gives it strategic significance. But I would argue that its greatest strategic value does not lie merely in its location on a map. It lies in the fact that it is a living Indian settlement.
A communications link that serves the security forces can also connect a school. A better road that moves military supplies can also bring tourists. Scientific infrastructure can generate local employment. Tourism can give young people a reason to stay. This is the new grammar of border development. And perhaps this is where we need to change our vocabulary.
For generations, places like Hanle were described as the last villages of Bharat. The phrase itself carries a psychological message: beyond here, there is nothing. Prime Minister Modi on 22 October 2022 at Mana renamed these villages; the First Villages.
The change may appear semantic, but it is actually strategic. That means better roads, communications, schools, healthcare, tourism, livelihoods and opportunities. It means ensuring that a young person born in Hanle can see a future in Hanle without feeling that success necessarily requires leaving it.
The future of Bharat's borders will not be secured by infrastructure alone. Nor will it be secured by security forces alone. It will be secured when the people living on the frontier feel that they are not living at the edge of Bharat, but at the heart of it.
That is the larger lesson I took away from Hanle.
As evening descended, the mountains slowly disappeared into the darkness. The monastery remained silent. The village settled into its night. Somewhere above, telescopes began their patient search across millions of light years. And the roads, built and maintained through some of the most difficult terrain on earth, continued their quiet work of bringing this remote corner closer to the rest of the country.
I thought of the remarkable convergence taking place here. The monastery holds the memory of the past. The observatory searches the universe for the future. The village holds the present. And the road quietly connects them all.
A nation's security does not begin at its borders. It begins with the cohesion of the society within them. As Bharat observes Rashtriya Ekta Diwas on 31 October, the legacy of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel's political integration acquires renewed strategic relevance. In an era of terrorism, radicalisation, cyber warfare, disinformation and organised crime, national cohesion is increasingly a component of national security.
Seema Sanghosh English invites original essays examining national unity as a strategic asset and a foundation of national resilience.
We welcome rigorous analysis addressing questions such as:
How can Bharat's diversity become a source of strategic strength?
What lessons does Sardar Patel's integration of Bharat offer contemporary security policy?
How do terrorism, radicalisation, disinformation and cyber threats exploit social fault lines?
What roles should the Union, states, police, armed forces, intelligence agencies and civil society play in strengthening internal resilience?
How can Bharat protect social cohesion while safeguarding constitutional freedoms?
Does Bharat's growing strategic power require a stronger doctrine of internal resilience?
We are not looking for ceremonial essays on national unity. We seek evidence-based analysis examining unity through the lenses of sovereignty, internal security, national resilience and state power.
Word limit: 700 to 1,000 words
Author biography: Maximum 80 words
Photograph: One recent photograph
Originality: Submissions must be original and not under consideration elsewhere.
Email: eng.sanghosh@gmail.com
Subject: Essay Submission, September 2026
Last date: 30 September 2026
Seema Sanghosh English is published by Seema Jagran Manch, New Delhi, dedicated to Bharat's defence, border security and strategic affairs.
Seema Sanghosh English | September 2026
Company Quartermaster Havildar Abdul Hamid
The Tank Destroyer of Asal Uttar
In the plains of Punjab, where fields of sugarcane once stood between two armies, Bharat's soldiers faced one of the largest tank battles fought anywhere since the Second World War. Amid that battle stood a quartermaster, a man whose peacetime duty was to manage stores and rations, who rose to become the single most feared name in the path of an advancing Pakistani armoured column. Company Quartermaster Havildar Abdul Hamid of 4 Grenadiers did not simply defend a position at Asal Uttar. He broke the back of an enemy offensive, tank by tank, until his own life was given in the doing of it.
The Soldier from Dhamupur
Abdul Hamid was born on 1 July 1933 in the village of Dhamupur, in the Ghazipur district of Uttar Pradesh, to Mohammad Usman, a tailor by profession, and Sakina Begum. He grew up alongside three brothers and two sisters in a household of modest means. In December 1954 he joined the Indian Army, trained at the Grenadiers Regimental Centre in Nasirabad, and was posted to the 4th Battalion, The Grenadiers, in 1955.
His first taste of war came in 1962, during the Sino-Indian conflict, when his battalion fought at the Battle of Namka Chu as part of the 7th Infantry Brigade. Surrounded and cut off, the unit broke out on foot through Bhutan to reach safety. It was a hard baptism, and it prepared men like Hamid for the far greater test that awaited them three years later.
Patton Nagar
By 1965, Hamid had earned a reputation as the finest shot in the battalion's 106mm recoilless gun platoon. When Pakistan launched a massive armoured thrust into the Khem Karan sector in September that year, 4 Grenadiers was ordered to hold a vital position before the village of Chima, on the road to Bhikhiwind. On 8 September, enemy tanks breached the forward lines and began advancing toward Asal Uttar. Hamid, commanding an RCL gun mounted on a jeep, moved through intense shelling and tank fire to bring his weapon into range.
Over the two days that followed, Hamid destroyed six Pakistani Patton tanks, shifting position after each kill to avoid being targeted in return, choosing ground, waiting, firing, and moving again with a discipline that unnerved an enemy accustomed to overwhelming Bharat's forward defences with armour alone. The sector where the wrecks of Pakistan's finest tanks came to litter the fields would afterward be remembered as Patton Nagar, a graveyard the Indian Army had not expected to build so completely in three days of fighting.
On 10 September 1965, while engaging a seventh tank, Hamid was killed. He was thirty two years old. His widow, Rasoolan Bibi, had pleaded with him not to leave on such short notice when a strap on his kit had snapped as he prepared to rejoin his unit, an omen she could not shake. He went anyway, because for a soldier of his conviction, the call of the motherland outweighed every private fear.
The Param Vir Chakra
For his conspicuous gallantry and supreme sacrifice at Asal Uttar, Abdul Hamid was awarded the Param Vir Chakra, Bharat's highest decoration for valour, posthumously. His actions are widely credited with blunting the momentum of Pakistan's armoured offensive at a decisive point in the war, buying time and confidence for the Indian Army's own counterthrust in the sector. He was buried at the battlefield itself, and each year the villagers of Asal Uttar gather to mark his martyrdom. A statue of Hamid stands today at Param Yodha Sthal, beside the National War Memorial in New Delhi, a permanent tribute from a grateful nation.
The Legacy
Abdul Hamid did not lead a regiment or command a campaign. He held a single gun, on a single jeep, against tanks that outweighed him a thousand times over, and he did not yield ground. His story reminds Bharat that valour carries no rank of its own, that a quartermaster with steady hands and an unbending will can turn back an army. Six decades on, the fields near Asal Uttar remain quiet, but the ground still carries his name, and the nation that stands watch over its borders today owes something of that vigilance to the soldier who refused to let the tanks pass.
The tanks came seeking an open road to Amritsar; they found instead a Grenadier who would not move, and in his standing ground, Bharat found the ground it needed to stand.
Seema Sanghosh English | September 2026
Strategic Bookshelf
Securing India the Modi Way: Pathankot, Surgical Strikes and More
Publication Details
Title: Securing India the Modi Way: Pathankot, Surgical Strikes and More
Author: Nitin A. Gokhale
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing India
First Published: September 2017
Original Edition: 256 pages
ISBN: 9789386643872
Format: Hardcover; a revised and updated paperback edition, retitled to include Balakot and the anti satellite missile test, followed in 2019
Subject: National Security Policy, Counter Terrorism, Defence Studies, India Pakistan Relations
Seema Sanghosh English | September 2026
SURGICAL STRIKE
Precision without war.
DEFINITION
A surgical strike is a precise, limited military operation conducted against a specific target with the deliberate aim of achieving a narrow objective while minimising collateral damage and avoiding a wider escalation into full scale war. The strike is planned around exact intelligence, a defined target set and a tight window of execution. Unlike conventional offensives that seek to hold ground or destroy an adversary's broader capability, a surgical strike is calibrated to hit a specific target, achieve a specific effect and then conclude the operation swiftly.
THE BREAKDOWN
Intelligence. Purpose is to identify the exact target with confirmed location and activity pattern. Systems used include human intelligence, signals intelligence, satellite imagery and drone surveillance. The tactical effect is that without precise intelligence, the strike cannot remain surgical and risks becoming indiscriminate.
Planning. Purpose is to design an operation that achieves the objective while limiting exposure of own forces and avoiding unintended targets. This involves route planning, timing, extraction plans and coordination between services. The tactical effect is a narrow operational window that reduces the chance of detection or escalation.
Execution. Purpose is to strike the target with speed and precision. Systems used include special forces, precision guided munitions, helicopters or fighter aircraft depending on the nature of the target. The tactical effect is that the operation is completed before the adversary can organise a meaningful response.
Restraint. Purpose is to achieve the objective without expanding into a broader conflict. This is the defining feature that separates a surgical strike from an act of war. The tactical effect is that it signals capability and resolve while keeping the door open to de-escalation.
SURGICAL STRIKE VS. CONVENTIONAL OFFENSIVE
Surgical strike targets a specific objective. Conventional offensive targets broader capability or territory.
Surgical strike is short in duration. Conventional offensive is sustained over time.
Surgical strike seeks minimal collateral damage. Conventional offensive accepts wider damage.
Surgical strike avoids full scale escalation. Conventional offensive risks full scale war.
Surgical strike relies on precision and intelligence. Conventional offensive relies on mass and firepower.
THE BHARATIYA PERSPECTIVE
For Bharat, the surgical strike entered the national vocabulary through the cross border operation of September 2016, conducted by the Indian Army against terror launch pads along the Line of Control following the Uri attack. The operation demonstrated Bharat's capability to respond to provocation with precision rather than open war, striking specific targets while avoiding a wider conflict with Pakistan. This was followed by the Balakot air strike of 2019, which extended the principle of surgical, limited action into the air domain.
Both operations reflect a doctrine that has become central to Bharat's response posture, the ability to impose cost on the adversary at a time and place of Bharat's choosing, without allowing the adversary to dictate the scale of the conflict.
KEY TAKEAWAY
A surgical strike is Bharat's demonstration that strength does not always require war, and that precision, when backed by resolve, can deliver a message no less powerful than an army on the march.
Seema Sanghosh English | September 2026
1. What was the central theme of the review period?
A. Expansion of Bharat’s space programme
B. Building the industrial base while engaging major powers abroad
C. Modernisation of agricultural infrastructure
D. Expansion of tourism and trade
2. On which date did the Navy take delivery of INS Mangrol?
A. 18 August
B. 20 August
C. 21 August
D. 27 August
3. INS Mangrol belongs to which class of vessels?
A. Nistar class
B. Mahe class
C. Shivalik class
D. Visakhapatnam class
4. Approximately what percentage of indigenous content does INS Mangrol have?
A. 60%
B. 70%
C. 75%
D. Over 80%
5. INS Samarthak, delivered by L&T, is the Navy’s first indigenous:
A. Diving Support Vessel
B. Multi Purpose Vessel
C. Anti-Submarine Warfare Corvette
D. Survey Vessel
6. INS Nipun will serve as the mother ship for which capability?
A. Aircraft carrier operations
B. Deep Submergence Rescue Vessel
C. Mine countermeasure operations
D. Maritime surveillance aircraft
7. The sixth Positive Indigenisation List notified on 18 August contained how many items?
A. 305
B. 389
C. 405
D. 450
8. What was the estimated business potential of the sixth Positive Indigenisation List?
A. ₹1,270 crore
B. ₹3,070 crore
C. ₹10,700 crore
D. ₹30,700 crore
9. The Defence Acquisition Council cleared capital acquisition proposals worth approximately:
A. ₹50,000 crore
B. ₹75,000 crore
C. ₹1.10 lakh crore
D. ₹1.27 lakh crore
10. Approximately what percentage of the value of these procurement proposals is expected to be sourced from Bharatiya industry?
A. 75%
B. 85%
C. 90%
D. 98%
11. What is the primary significance of an Acceptance of Necessity (AoN)?
A. It is a signed procurement contract
B. It completes the trials process
C. It authorises the requirement but is not yet a signed contract
D. It guarantees immediate delivery
12. What is the total outlay of the Semicon 2.0 programme?
A. ₹30,700 crore
B. ₹75,000 crore
C. ₹1.10 lakh crore
D. ₹1.27 lakh crore
13. Which of the following is NOT one of the six areas covered by Semicon 2.0?
A. Chip design
B. Fabrication equipment and materials
C. Talent
D. Naval shipbuilding
14. According to the review, over what percentage of fabrication equipment used by Bharatiya fabs is still imported?
A. 50%
B. 70%
C. 80%
D. 90%
15. Kaveri 2.0 is being developed around a redesigned core in which thrust class?
A. 60 kN
B. 75 kN
C. 90 kN
D. 130 kN
16. On 20 August, Bharat and Japan signed a Memorandum of Arrangement concerning:
A. Nuclear energy cooperation
B. Maritime Security Cooperation
C. Semiconductor manufacturing
D. Space exploration
17. Which three pillars formed the basis of Prime Minister Modi’s address at the 26th SCO Summit?
A. Defence, trade and technology
B. Security, connectivity and opportunity
C. Energy, agriculture and defence
D. Terrorism, trade and investment
18. What was the outcome of the 25th round of Bharat-China Special Representatives’ talks?
A. A final settlement of the boundary dispute
B. An eight-point consensus
C. A new defence treaty
D. Resumption of all bilateral trade
19. Bharat signed a contract with Russia for approximately how many R-37M long-range air-to-air missiles?
A. 100
B. 200
C. 300
D. 500
20. Which European country agreed with Bharat on cooperation involving rockets, ammunition and naval mine countermeasure systems?
A. France
B. Germany
C. Belgium
D. Italy
Answer Keys: 1B, 2C, 3B, 4D, 5B, 6B, 7C, 8B, 9C, 10D, 11C, 12D, 13D, 14D, 15C, 16B, 17B, 18B, 19C, 20C
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