Jul 02 2026 to Jul 02 2026 6:30 p.m.

Where

Bangalore International Centre

7 4th Main Rd, Stage 2, Domlur 560071

Event Description

From hoisting the tricolour on Pakistani soil in 1947 to compelling the Chinese to withdraw in the Himalayas, General Krishnaswamy Sundarji’s 820-day tenure as Army Chief straddled the first six decades of a free India: bold, brazen, and fiercely debated.

His story runs through the 1980s, India’s most dramatic decade: Operation Brasstacks, Operation Bluestar, Operation Pawan, Bofors — each decision attracting supporters and detractors in equal measure.

Probal DasGupta, author of General Sundarji’s biography, is in conversation with Aditya Ramanathan this evening. Together they dive deep into the personality, quirks, and thinking of a military leader unafraid to make his own decisions, and the India he helped shape. The session will close with an audience Q&A.

Speakers

Probal DasGupta
Author
Probal DasGupta is an author, historian and columnist. He is the author of Watershed 1967: India’s Forgotten Victory Over China, Camouflaged: Forgotten Stories from Battlefields, and General Brasstacks: The Sundarji Story. He writes a regular column ‘Beyond the Lines’ in Firstpost, and has been a contributor to two anthologies. A Braun-Myers Fellow, JN Tata Scholar and RD Sethna Scholar, and alumnus of Columbia University, he served with the Gorkha Rifles before building a career across global consulting firms. He is the founder of Birdstone, advisors on investment risks, governance and reputation.

Aditya Ramanathan
Fellow, Advanced Military Technologies Programme, Takshashila Institution
Aditya Ramanathan is a Research Fellow at the Takshashila Institution, where he heads the Advanced Military Technologies Programme and its work on outer space affairs. He is co-editor of The Sheathed Sword: From Nuclear Brink to No First Use, an anthology that brings together top scholars on nuclear weapons from around the world to debate the feasibility of no-first-use policies. He was co-host of Yuddha: The Indian Military History Podcast, and help set up All Things Policy, Takshashila’s flagship podcast.