Editing Jawaharlal Nehru (section)

=== Sino-Indian War of 1962 ===
{{See also|Sino-Indian War}}
[[File:India disputed areas map.svg|thumb|alt=See caption |Map showing [[List of disputed territories of India|disputed territories of India]]]]

From 1959, in a process that accelerated in 1961, Nehru adopted the "[[Forward policy (Sino-Indian conflict)|Forward Policy]]" of setting up military outposts in disputed areas of the Sino-Indian border, including 43 outposts in territory not previously controlled by India.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Noorani |first=A.G. |title=Perseverance in the peace process |url=http://www.hinduonnet.com/fline/fl2017/stories/20030829001604900.htm |date=29 August 2003 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050326174852/http://www.hinduonnet.com/fline/fl2017/stories/20030829001604900.htm |archive-date=26 March 2005 |work=[[Frontline (magazine)|Frontline]] |publisher=hinduonnet.com |access-date=15 August 2021}}</ref> China attacked some of these outposts, and the [[Sino-Indian War]] began, which India lost. The war ended with China announcing a unilateral ceasefire and with its forces withdrawing to 20 kilometres behind the [[line of actual control]] of 1959.<ref>{{cite book | last=Klintworth | first=G. | title=China's India War: A Question of Confidence | publisher=Strategic and Defence Studies Centre, Research School of Pacific Studies, Australian National University | series=Working paper (Australian National University. Strategic and Defence Studies Centre) | year=1987 | isbn=978-0-7315-0087-1 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Nt65AAAAIAAJ| page=10|quote=China declared a unilateral ceasefire and by December it had withdrawn its forces to positions 20 km behind the line of actual control that had existed in 1959}}</ref>

The war exposed the unpreparedness of India's military, which could send only 14,000 troops to the war zone in opposition to the much larger [[Chinese Army]], and Nehru was widely criticised for his government's insufficient attention to defence. In response, defence minister V. K. Krishna Menon resigned and Nehru sought [[US military aid]].<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=O4JIDwAAQBAJ|title=Comrades against Imperialism: Nehru, India, and Interwar Internationalism|page=195|publisher=Cambridge University Press|quote=Menon resigned under India's military preparedness failed to prevent a Chinese invasion during the Sino-Indian war of 1962|author=Michele L. Louro |year=2018|isbn=9781108419307}}</ref> Nehru's improved relations with the US under [[John F. Kennedy]] proved useful during the war, as in 1962, the [[president of Pakistan]] (then closely aligned with the Americans) Ayub Khan was made to guarantee his neutrality regarding India, threatened by "[[communist]] aggression from Red China".<ref>{{Cite news |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,842104-10,00.html |title=Asia: Ending the Suspense |date=17 September 1965 |access-date=15 August 2021 |magazine=[[Time (magazine)|Time]] |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130521075607/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0%2C9171%2C842104-10%2C00.html |archive-date=21 May 2013}}</ref> India's relationship with the Soviet Union, criticised by right-wing groups supporting [[free-market]] policies, was also seemingly validated. Nehru would continue to maintain his commitment to the non-aligned movement, despite calls from some to settle down on one permanent ally.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/cold-wars/alternative-world-visions/2D0ABD3F6605FE74F3307698D7989643|title=Alternative World Visions|editor-first=Lorenz M.|editor-last=Lüthi|date=2020|publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]]|pages=261–328|isbn=978-1-108-41833-1|access-date=10 July 2021|archive-date=10 July 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210710103427/https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/cold-wars/alternative-world-visions/2D0ABD3F6605FE74F3307698D7989643|url-status=live}}</ref>

The unpreparedness of the army was blamed on Defence Minister Menon, who "resigned" from his government post to allow for someone who might modernise India's military further. India's policy of weaponisation using indigenous sources and self-sufficiency began in earnest under Nehru, completed by his daughter Indira Gandhi, who later led India to a crushing military victory over rival Pakistan in 1971. Toward the end of the war, India had increased her support for Tibetan refugees and revolutionaries, some of them having settled in India, as they were fighting the same common enemy in the region. Nehru ordered the raising of an elite Indian-trained "Tibetan Armed Force" composed of Tibetan refugees, which served with distinction in future wars against Pakistan in 1965 and 1971.<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/may/07/tibetans-in-exile-india-elections-right-to-vote |title=Tibetans-in-exile divided over right to vote in Indian elections |last=Sehgal |first=Saransh |date=7 May 2014 |work=[[The Guardian]] |access-date=18 December 2018 |archive-date=18 December 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181218193314/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/may/07/tibetans-in-exile-india-elections-right-to-vote |url-status=live }}</ref>