Close Encounters: Lessons from Five Influential Battles in History

At a time when the geopolitical environment is mired by the Russo-Ukrainian conflict with no end in sight, the book- “Close Encounters: Lessons from Five Influential Battles in History” by author Abhijit Kothiwale is bound to pique the curiosity of genuine book readers. Battles are as old as human history. History is replete of battles. Pitched battles have always been the defining points redrawing the contours and effective progress of the parties that have crossed swords at the battle fields. While the enormity, impact and sophistication has perhaps evolved over the period of time, battles have been instrumental in the rise and fall of civilisations. Battles determine fate of communities, kingdoms, countries, empires and even civilisations.

Battle besides being a platform for show of strength has been an act where warring sides try to put their best foot forward to secure their interests. A multitude of factors needs to be configured properly or have to fall in place to render a party victorious. But whatever be the case, the fallout of the battles has always impacted the progress and development of civilisations altogether.

Even now, the world is at war and it becomes more pertinent to us to drawn lessons from some of the important battles that have changed the trajectory altogether. It is well known fact that history is written by victors- who hailed the winners and showed losers in a poor light. Consequently, a one-sided interpretation of the historical events has continued to dominate the discourse. This in turn prompted people to label a civilisation based on these bigoted perspectives. These perspectives by extension continued to weigh large on the collective psyche of the people as well.

Unfortunately, civilisations as such are labelled based on their ability to trump the intruders and defend their land. India, which has faced uninterrupted assaults by a barrage of invaders was by and large viewed through this lens. Defeat in pivotal battles at the hands of invaders was nonchalantly attributed to some character flaw as such. They were duped to believe that they deserved to lose and were destined to enslavement.

This irredeemable indolent narrative was used as a potential weapon by the colonists to demoralise and weaken the fighting spirit of the Indians. Even before the actual war, colonial powers employed these psych-ops against the collective rebellion of the Indians to demoralise them. This inferiority complex or trait has been wantonly grilled into the minds of the Indians.

Creating divisions and planting in an illusionary defeatist attitude, Indians were led to believe that they are destined to lose. This narrative is wielded even today to weaken the citizen. Facing both internal and external enemies, it is extremely important for a country like India to invest energies and intellect to undertake a dispassionate analysis of major battles that changed the direction of our civilisation identity.

This book, ventures to offer such an objective account of the major battles in the history of India. To make it more interesting and to drive in home the message that a victory in the battle is essentially hinged on several aspects, the author presents an abridged and non-partisan account of battles between two major civilisations as well- fall of Constantinople in 1453 and Siege of Vienna in 1683.

The choice of the battles chosen by the author from Indian history is quite instructive. The book investigates the Battle for Delhi 1857, the Battle of Plassey in 1757 and the Battle of Colachel 1741. While bitter loses in the former two battles have pushed India into the hackles of the colonialism, the meticulous battle strategy of King Marthanda Verma in the Battle of Colachel has conclusively repelled the Dutch from establishing its base in India.

This book besides offering a dispassionate analysis of the major battles in history and conscientiously factors in various aspects that have heralded the course of the battle and changed the outcomes.

Written in a very simple language, catering to the consumption of teenagers, the book presents an unbiased account of the events in the run up to the battles. To make the book more interesting, the author might consider including maps to help reader to better appreciate the challenges posed by various geographies. The book harps on every minute detail and military strategy that paved way for the victory in the battle. Lucidly concluding and reinforcing the various aspects of the battle, the author made a decent job in helping the readers understand the critical role played by various tangible and intangible inputs that go into a war preparation.

Analysing the panoply of ingredients that determine the outcome of the war such as- “leadership, strategy, weapons, motivation and ideology, momentum, preparation and attention to detail in planning, turning points and close calls”, the author draws attention to most underrated facet of any battle and rightly quotes Napolean who once said, “I would rather have lucky generals than good ones”. The role played by luck is often discounted. But these chance events, proved to be turning points that changed the course of the war. Finally, the author appeals the administration to make right investments and create institutions to meet any kind of challenge and impels the government to fashion a robust military doctrine.

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