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{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2018}}
{{Use Indian English|date=July 2018}}
The '''Henderson Brooks-Bhagat report''' (or the '''Henderson Brooks report)''' is the report of an invesigative commission, which conducted an Operations Review of the Indian Army in the [[Sino-Indian War]] of 1962. It was commissioned by General [[J. N. Chaudhuri]], appointed the Army chief at the conclusion of the war. Its authors were Lieutenant-General [[T.B. Henderson Brooks]] and Brigadier [[Premindra Singh Bhagat]], a [[Victoria Cross]] recipient and a former Director of Military Intelligence. The report was mainly written by Brig.  Bhagat.{{sfnp|Hoffmann, India and the China Crisis|1990|p=221}}

The some parts of the report was leaked to public in March 2014. The lessons learned from it were summarised by the defence minister [[Y. B. Chavan]] in the Indian Parliament.{{sfnp|Hoffmann, India and the China Crisis|1990|p=221}} Journalist [[Neville Maxwell]] acquired a copy of Part I of the report and published it on his blog site. The published version was not validated by the Indian government but scholars generally take it to be authentic.{{sfnp|Van Eekelen, Indian Foreign Policy and the Border Dispute|2015|p=224}}

== Investigation ==
The functioning of the Army Headquarters was outside the purview of the commission, as was the civilian direction of the army. The commission had access to the directives issued to the lower levels of the army command but these did not provide information about the political directions given by the civilian authorities.{{sfnp|Van Eekelen, Indian Foreign Policy and the Border Dispute|2015|p=224}}

Scholar Willem van Eeekelen states that General Chaudhuri did not want to "dig too deeply" into the conduct of the top military echelon.{{sfnp|Van Eekelen, Indian Foreign Policy and the Border Dispute|2015|p=224}}

== The Report ==
The report was highly critical of the Indian military high command of the time as well as of the execution of operations. According to Australian journalist [[Neville Maxwell]], the report claims that the Indian government, which was keen to recover territory, advocated a cautious policy but that the Army Headquarters dictated a policy that was militarily unsound.<ref>{{cite web|title=Henderson-Brooks report hold Bureaucracy for defeat in 1962 China War|url=http://news.biharprabha.com/2014/03/henderson-brooks-report-hold-bureaucracy-for-defeat-in-1962-china-war/|work=IANS|publisher=news.biharprabha.com|accessdate=18 March 2014}}</ref>{{better source needed|date=June 2021}}

On 17 March 2014, Maxwell posted a portion of the report (Part I) on his website.<ref name="unnithan">{{cite news |last=Unnithan |first=Sandeep|title=Henderson Brooks report lists the guilty men of 1962 |url=http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/the-guilty-men-of-1962-india-china-war-jawahar-lal-nehru-krishna-menon/1/350080.html |accessdate=8 April 2014 |newspaper=India Today |date=18 March 2014}}</ref> He had acquired a copy of the report while writing his book ''India's China War'', and included "gist" of it in the book.<ref name="pandalai">{{cite news|last=Pandalai |first=Shruti |title=Burying Open Secrets: India's 1962 War and the Henderson-Brooks Report |url=http://southasia.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2014/04/02/burying_open_secrets_indias_1962_war_and_the_henderson_brooks_report |accessdate=8 April 2014 |newspaper=Foreign Policy |date=2 April 2014 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20140408224604/http://southasia.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2014/04/02/burying_open_secrets_indias_1962_war_and_the_henderson_brooks_report |archivedate=8 April 2014 }}</ref> In an interview, Maxwell said he had never seen Volume 2 but understood it to be "mainly memos, written statements and other documents on which the authors based the report".<ref name="chowdhury">
{{cite news
| title = Neville Maxwell interview: the full transcript
| author = Debasish Roy Chowdhury
| publisher = South China Morning Post
| url = http://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1461102/neville-maxwell-interview-full-transcript
| date = 2014-03-31
| accessdate = 2014-03-31
}}</ref>

== Discussion ==
Some analysts argue that the continuing public controversy over the report indicates that many of the problems identified in the report still continue.<ref>{{cite web|author=David Brewster|url= https://www.academia.edu/7698503|title= Leaked 1962 report reveals India's still-unresolved military weaknesses, Lowy Interpreter, 2 April 2014. Retrieved 1 September 2014}}</ref>

Governments led by Indian National Congress as well as the Bharatiya Janata Party have refused to declassify the report over the decades, claiming that its contents are extremely sensitive and are of "current operational value".<ref>
Declassification law on official documents needs review, says committee Murali Krishnan, Nerve News, [http://www.nerve.in/news:2535004934]
</ref>
BJP leader [[Arun Jaitley]], who had argued for the report's declassification while in opposition changed his stance after his appointment as the Minister of Defence and continued the former policy of classification.<ref>
Venkatesan Vembu, [http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report_the-ghost-of-1962_1377901 The ghost of 1962], Daily News & Analysis, 2 May 2010, </ref><ref>
[http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report-did-arun-jaitley-delete-his-blogpost-on-the-india-china-war-report-from-his-website-2000849 Did Arun Jaitley delete his blogpost on the India-China war report from his website?], Daily News and Analysis, 9 July 2014.
</ref>

==References==
{{reflist|30em}}

== Bibliography ==
* {{citation |last=Hoffmann |first=Steven A. |title=India and the China Crisis |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BpSRwC5_EPUC |year=1990 |publisher=University of California Press |ISBN=978-0-520-06537-6 |ref={{sfnref|Hoffmann, India and the China Crisis|1990}}}}
* {{Cite journal |last=Maxwell |first=Neville |date=April 14-20, 2001 |title=Henderson Brooks Report: An Introduction |jstor=4410481 |journal=Economic and Political Weekly |volume=36 |number=14/15 |pages=1189-1193 |via=JSTOR}}
* {{citation |last=Van Eekelen |first=Willem |title=Indian Foreign Policy and the Border Dispute with China: A New Look at Asian Relationships |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=G3nsCgAAQBAJ |year=2015 |publisher=BRILL |isbn=978-90-04-30431-4 |ref={{sfnref|Van Eekelen, Indian Foreign Policy and the Border Dispute|2015}}}}

== Further reading ==
* [[Prem Shankar Jha]] (5 June 2020). [https://thewire.in/security/china-india-1962-war-henderson-brooks-bhagat-report Why It Is Imperative That Indians Come to Know What Happened in 1962]. ''The Wire''.
* Dr. Bhartendu Kumar Singh (2013). [https://usiofindia.org/publication/usi-journal/henderson-brooks-report-and-indias-china-challenge/ Henderson Brooks Report and India’s China Challenge]. ''United Service Institution of India''.

==External links==
* Neville Maxwell, [https://web.archive.org/web/20140409111124/http://www.nevillemaxwell.com/uncategorized/1-albartross-2/#more-19 My Albatross]. With link to the text of the report.
*[http://www.indiandefencereview.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/TopSecretdocuments2.pdf PDF of the report on Indian Defence Review]
*The Henderson Brooks Report on [https://www.outlookindia.com/website/story/the-henderson-brooks-report/289845 Outlook] as uploaded by Neville Maxwell

{{DEFAULTSORT:Henderson Brooks-Bhagat Report}}
[[Category:Sino-Indian War]]
[[Category:1963 in India]]

Henderson Brooks–Bhagat Report - Revision history

->GoingBatty: General fixes and manual cleanup

122.177.12.140 at 02:22, 9 July 2021