INDIAN MILITARY ACADEMIES ARE SECOND TO NONE ! -- Gp Capt AG Bewoor

28th July 2026

EDITOR'S NOTE:

This well reasearched  analysis  by Gp Capt AG Bewoor  reviews the existence   of our military academies and justifies their aim and  purpose of keeping our country safe and secure as   proved in  several  past wars / conflicts  that the country faced. The  trigger for  this article  was some disturbing news  and spontaneous views/ responses expressed  by few  veterans  about  our military academies, especially the NDA, which is the main feeder  for our finishing academies- IMA AFA & INA.

The author has made some valid and relevant comparisons of our  military academies with several older foreign academies like  West Point and Sandhurst and also traced the success/ failure  of these academies as compared to ours.

While this  review  of our military training academies and its comparison with older foreign academies is quite encouraging there is tremendous need and  scope to do some honest reviews and reforms of our military academies where needed . For past 15 years the Victory India Campaign books, magazines and MVI think tank and website have produced numerous articles  ,debates and approach papers.  These have clearly identified the flaws, weaknesses and shortcomings in our selection and training systems that neeed to be addressed to improve the overall quality of our military leadership at all levels!

Editor MVI 

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1. There have been astounding suggestions on this subject from a battery of veterans who have served in our armed forces. These men have studied, experienced, fallen in love with, nurtured, supported and guided training institutions throughout their careers. Institutes that were created decades back with a very long-term vision in the minds of the creators are being recommended to be abandoned. These worthies say scrap NDA and take boys / girls directly into the specialist academies, AFA/IMA/NA after graduation. The other view is equally bizarre; make NDA a four-year course and commission cadets from Khadakwasla with a graduate degree, and forget about the final stage academies, since everything will happen at NDA. They forget that Air Force and Navy training cannot happen within our NDA, the cadets have to go away to Dundigal and Ezhimala.

2. Terrific ideas, both. But without any proposal on what to do with the institutes that become redundant? What will you do with NDA Khadakwasla? The idea is to stop taking boys / girls after Class XII, let them complete graduation and after 3 / 4 yrs at a civilian college, get them into IMA at Dehra Dun, AFA at Dundigal, and NA at Ezhimala? Fine, but can NDA lie vacant, with approximately 1000 staff and their families along with 7000 acres of real estate full of dwelling units and scores of buildings and infrastructure? On the other hand, if we decide to graduate and commission cadets into officers at NDA and do away with the three specialist academies, what happens to those three places?  Not a word on the vacuum that will be created? Ofcourse, AFA and NA cannot be abandoned because NDA cannot replace them, only poor IMA will get the chop. The idea be it in the form of a Staff paper or a Formal Appreciation, it is woefully incomplete and poorly structured. Disastrous and calamitous are the only adjectives that come to mind immediately. Be aware that these ideas have appeared on the website of MVI and have found space because of the tragic death of a cadet. I must accept that such prose must have been spoken of and possibly even appeared in print earlier, but it got ignored because the trigger was minor unlike now, when a young boy has died. Or is this truly the very first time anyone has suggested what is stated earlier?

3. There is much allusion to West Point WP. How much study has been made of the merits and flaws of WP by those who recommend copying that academy is unknown to us. There is no reference to any such activity at the many Think Tanks that dot our country, especially within Delhi. Why is it WP and not RMA Sandhurst which was created in 1947 by combining a few military colleges in UK. But the deduction is that it is the best thing going and should be copied by India's Armed Forces. Even though by tradition and legacy, copying Sandhurst would be preferred, is it not? Without going too deep into WP let's have a look at some specifics about it. WP started in 1802, that is 224 years back. NDA is of 1949 vintage, IMA is 1932, AFA at Dundigal is of 1972 era, before that it was AFFC at Jodhpur and Ezhimala started in Jan 2009. Thus, WP has been through hundreds of iterations / changes / modifications / additions & deletions and so on. Many were well thought through and many must have been done to satisfy public opinion or political compulsions. Others must have happened based on lessons learnt in the wars that USA won & lost. With a larger-than-life role that USA has had to take up after 1945, many changes must have been introduced in WP as also at the Naval academy at Annapolis and Air Force academy at Colorado. Those changes have impacted how American forces have behaved and performed in all their conflicts post 1950 all the way to Iran in 2026. One thing is for sure, they have not shut down any of their military academies, nor have they created a separate exclusive academy for the Marine Corps. A quick look at what the WP officers have done since 1950, because some of us consider WP output as a very fine guide and standard for India to emulate.

4.  American armed forces have fought many wars after 1945. Korea, Vietnam, Desert Storm, Iraq War, Somalia, Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan and now Epic Fury against Iran. The leadership in all these wars were by officers from their military academies with WP providing the largest pool. Much planning and strategic thinking must have taken place before entering each war, that is what WP teaches does it not? Our analysts who suggest that our military academies should take guidance and clues from WP, need to ask themselves this question; out of the seven wars listed, which war did the USA win? None is the true answer. The army leadership in each war was from WP as they had no other academy. Yet there are those who demand that we copy and emulate WP for creating Indian military leaders? Do we want to give birth to losers? The Vietnam memorial has 58318 names and is very famous, they also have memorials for the other lost wars.  How is all this relevant to the closing down of NDA? It is inherently built into the suggestion because our wanting to imitate and match WP for our academies, is cutting one's nose to spite the face. Not for a moment do I doubt the fighting capabilities, courage, generosity, innovativeness, initiative and robustness of the American Armed Forces. But to take their training methodologies and philosophies and apply them to India is diabolically suicidal for more reasons than one. Also keep in mind that Pakistan has taken much from American military systems, and their officers did battle along with US officers in Afghanistan, yet will anyone say that therefore Pakistani military training and philosophies are superior? Which war / battle / engagement has Pak won against India, and they have very heavily adopted WP training patterns? Yet some suggest we copy WP?

5. Let us look at the wars and battles that India fought with leadership coming out from NDA, IMA, AFFC & AFA, NA, OTA, ACC. The 1947-48 war was won by officers many of whom were trained in the UK, others at IMA and AFFC of the RIAF, and we won that war neat and clean and we still hold those lands, rivers, mountains 80 years later. We have not withdrawn and gone home, that is our home. In 1962 we were punished while being led by officers from our own NDA and Indian academies. All of them redeemed themselves in full measure in 1965 and superbly in 1971. Officers trained at NDA and then onto specialist academies won the 1971 campaign. In the interim, these very same NDA trained cadets performed creditably in foreign lands as UN Forces, not an iota of any input from WP or any other western military philosophy and training syllabus. There followed consistent insurgencies where these NDA trained cadets have persistently led their troops to victories without any foreign inputs or doctrines. This counterinsurgency battle is still being fought and is being won by the cadets who were trained at NDA with a syllabus that was made in India, modified in India, enhanced in India, and refined in India. Not a drop of stimuli from any foreign academy to influence the thinking and planning against insurgency. Then we had Parakram, IPKF, Sumdarongchu, Kargil, Maldives, UN Missions, Afghanistan, Depsang, Doklam, Eastern Ladhak and not forgetting eternal Siachen. All led by cadets trained in NDA and our specialist academies and do note, absolutely untouched by WP or Sandhurst. Every battle and skirmish and war won by leadership that was born, trained, nurtured, matured, steeled by officers who passed out of NDA and specialist academies. In heaven's name, why is there a suggestion to close them and follow the principles at WP which has given military leaders who have lost and withdrawn from every war they got into? Indeed, the US military establishment suffers from a diabolical civilian bureaucracy that interferes and overwhelms them, WP notwithstanding. Never forget the overbearing influence of McNamara during the Vietnam war. Named then as the McNamara Theory, later it was rechristened as McNamara Fallacy; which advocated decision making for war based only on quantifiable matrix, and ignoring qualitative or unmeasurable factors. That theory made USA lose in Vietnam. It has been said so often that McNamara and his wizards won the Vietnam war thousands of times on the White Boards inside the Pentagon; but lost it on the battlefields. But our critical factor is that all those WP graduates allowed McNamara to do what he did even after he was consistently proved a failure. What kind of officers allow a corporate man to send their soldiers to death based on fallacious methodologies and assessments? And sadly, all these officers came out from WP. Is that the kind of military leadership we are wanting for India? We too have a bureaucracy that governs India and the military. But our officers, who are trained at our academies, do not let such foolishness prevail. 

6. And one final query. Pray what will be done at NDA when we close it down for training cadets? Or on the other hand what do we do with Prem Nagar when we close down IMA and commission army officers from Khadakwasla? Air Force and Navy cadets will have to go to Ezhimala and Dundigal, won't they?  Has any one of these authors given a thought on this matter before suggesting closing of NDA or IMA and reappropriating either for some other equally national activity?  Recall that the Viceregal Lodge in Simla was made into Rashtrapati Niwas in 1947 and the Governor General and President would spend summer in Simla.  If not the president, the Governor of Punjab would spend summer in Simla. That stopped in 1965 and the building now houses the Indian Institute of Advanced Studies. So, once we get rid of the 2000 cadets and their support staff with their families, what will we use the 7000 acres of Khadakwasla and its imposing buildings for? 

7. And all this is erupting because a cadet tragically died on the PT ground? When will our experts, analysts, military strategists and ordinary commentators accept that the barriers and avenues for a project are never the same, from Brazil to Bangladesh, from Arctic to Antarctica, from New York to New Delhi? Granted that none of our military academies are perfect, they never will be; besides the more perfect a thing, the more susceptible it is to evil intentions. That imperfection must be remedied by us Indians in our Indian way, with Indian thinking to suit the Indian environment. The current example of Cockroach protest and Govt response is so pertinent, we have to find an Indian way. There were many external suggestions flowing into New Delhi during the protest, to mislead India. Let us be very sure, India will never make war with anyone thousands of kilometres away. The USA on the other hand, has no one to wage against anyone who is closer than 9000 Kms. Why are we ignoring this geographical reality? It has nothing to do with WP, NDA, IMA, Sandhurst, Annapolis, Leavenworth, Canberra, London, Paris, Berlin and so on. We are here; they are there. Our adversaries are next door, theirs are far away. The differences between us are innumerable and cannot be ignored, we copy them to our peril. Mercifully there are a majority who understand and accept this truth of India. Our future and excellence in military arenas do not lie in taking leaves from guidebooks of WP and other foreign military academies. That avenue is full of unknown pitfalls because those books have been written for that culture and civilisation, with their values controlled by their faith, and societal practices. USA has not closed WP even though they have lost every war since 1945. And we want to close NDA or IMA because a cadet died in PT kit? I am not being flippant about the tragedy that has befallen the family, there are thousands of us Faujis who have suffered similar tragedies under different circumstances, but tragic just the same. I am very concerned, apprehensive, anxious and uneasy, that there are among us who’s attention is diverted from navigating the main river, because a cloudburst upstream causes some turbulence and in that upheaval some sadly perish.