Essay On National Defence

An Essay on National Defense
The power to defend the states against aggression is the primary responsibility of a people. For the last hundred and fifty years we were free from foreign attacks and the whole responsibility for defense rested with the British. This had made us self-complacent; we did not bother about our defenses. How the British defended us is well known to the people of Bengal when the foreign army rode roughshod over the people’s interests in the name of national defense. But now we have to think about this problem for a truly national standpoint, for the responsibility rests with us.

The first step is to organize a real national defense force consisting of an army, a navy and an air-force. This is admitted by all. We are already on the way towards building up these forces. Our entire army is today nationalized, and under our own military leaders our armies have should their mettle at home and abroad in a remarkable

India is well protected by nature. She was overrun and conquered by foreign powers in the past more for her own disunity than for the weakness of her defenses. She never had, in that past, a national army or navy, for the people were never able to unite. Today a foreign power will not find it so easy to attack the country, for the country as a whole will rise in self-defense. The true defense of the country lies is the heart of the people. If the heart of the people is sound, that is the best national define. Hence national defense, in the proper sense, can never be the concern merely of Government only, it is the duty and responsibility of the people. It is the sacred duty that devolves upon every individual in a country is imbued with this strong conviction, then that country becomes invincible. It is, therefore, the moral duty of every able bodied youth in the country to be a member of the territorial forces, ready to rush to arms whenever the country is in