United Service Institution of India

General MM Naravane, PVSM, AVSM, SM, VSM (Retd)*@

Based on the Fourth Gen KV Krishna Rao Memorial Lecture, this Occasional Paper uses the Malayan campaign and the fall of Singapore as a historical case study to illuminate contemporary debates on theaterisation in India. General Naravane reconstructs British grand strategy, higher defence organisation and the fractured civil–military set-up in South-East Asia, showing how divided command, service rivalries, under-resourced plans and an absence of coherent theatre strategy produced strategic defeat. The lecture draws sharp parallels with current Indian discussions on theatre commands, emphasising the primacy of a clearly articulated National Security Strategy and National Defence Strategy, unity of command, integrated planning and realistic capability building over purely economic arguments. It argues that theaterisation is a means, not an end, and that the theatre commander must have both authority and adequate staff to prosecute operations. The paper thus offers historically grounded guidance for India’s ongoing military reforms.