By Col Vijayant Thakur (Retd) · Defence faculty, The Cavalier
India's armed forces have fought five wars since 1947 by the usual count: four with Pakistan (1947–48, 1965, 1971 and Kargil in 1999) and one with China in 1962. Around them sit named operations: the actions of 1948 and 1961 that completed the map, Siachen, the Maldives rescue, a ten-month standoff, cross-border strikes and evacuations. The table below gives each one's codename, the service that led and the outcome in one line.
Examiners love this ground because it is made of pairs that look alike: two Operation Vijays, two Rahats (three, in fact), Cactus and Cactus Lily, and Pakistani codenames printed beside Indian ones. Read the timeline once, then the trap list, and use the child pages for detail. This is the hub of the wars branch of our Defence GK library.
The Timeline, 1947 to 2025
Pakistan's own names are marked. Where no official name exists, the table says so. Outcomes follow official statements.
| Year | War or operation | Codename(s) | Adversary or context | Led by | Outcome in one line |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oct 1947 – 1 Jan 1949 | Kashmir war | Op Gulmarg (Pakistan's name for the tribal invasion of 22 Oct 1947) | Pakistan-backed raiders, then regular troops; accession signed 26 Oct | Army, with IAF airlift | Troops flown into Srinagar on 27 Oct 1947; UN-brokered ceasefire took effect on 1 Jan 1949. |
| 13–17 Sep 1948 | Hyderabad action | Op Polo (officially a "police action") | Princely state of Hyderabad and the Razakars | Army | Hyderabad's forces surrendered on 17 Sep. |
| 18–19 Dec 1961 | Liberation of Goa, Daman and Diu | Op Vijay | Portugal | Army, Navy and IAF together | Portuguese surrender on 19 Dec; the territories joined India. |
| 20 Oct – 21 Nov 1962 | Sino-Indian War | None to remember | China | Army | China declared a unilateral ceasefire on 21 Nov; Rezang La was fought on 18 Nov. |
| Aug – 23 Sep 1965 | Indo-Pak War | Op Gibraltar and Op Grand Slam (both Pakistan's); Op Riddle (named by PIB, which links it to the Army's 1 Corps) | Pakistan | Army and IAF | Ceasefire on 23 Sep; the Tashkent Declaration followed on 10 Jan 1966. |
| 3–16 Dec 1971 | Bangladesh Liberation War | Op Trident and Op Python (Navy); Op Cactus Lily (named by PIB, which links it to 1 Corps); Op Chengiz Khan (Pakistan's air strikes of 3 Dec) | Pakistan, in the east and the west | All three services | Pakistan's Eastern Command surrendered at Dhaka on 16 Dec; Bangladesh emerged. |
| 13 Apr 1984 | Siachen Glacier | Op Meghdoot | Pakistan | Army, with IAF air support | Indian troops took the heights of the Saltoro Ridge and have held them since. |
| Jul 1987 – Mar 1990 | Indian Peace Keeping Force, Sri Lanka | Op Pawan (from Oct 1987) | LTTE, under the Indo-Sri Lanka Accord of 29 Jul 1987 | Army, with Navy and IAF | The force withdrew by March 1990. |
| 3–4 Nov 1988 | Rescue of the Maldives government | Op Cactus | Coup attempt in Malé, at President Gayoom's request | Army paratroopers, airlifted by the IAF; Navy followed | The coup was put down within hours. |
| May – Jul 1999 | Kargil War | Op Vijay (Army), Op Safed Sagar (IAF), Op Talwar (Navy) | Pakistani intrusion across the LoC | All three services | Positions cleared; 26 July became Kargil Vijay Diwas. |
| Dec 2001 – 2002 | Border mobilisation | Op Parakram | Pakistan, after the attack on Parliament on 13 Dec 2001 | All three services | No war; forces pulled back in 2002–03 (dates vary by source). |
| 28–29 Sep 2016 | Surgical strikes across the LoC | No official name | Launch pads in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, after the Uri attack of 18 Sep | Army | Announced by the DGMO on 29 Sep. |
| 26 Feb 2019 | Balakot air strike | No official name announced | A Jaish-e-Mohammed camp, after the Pulwama attack of 14 Feb | IAF | IAF jets struck a camp near Balakot; an air engagement followed on 27 Feb. |
| 15–16 Jun 2020 | Galwan face-off | No official name announced | China, in eastern Ladakh | Army | The Army said 20 of its personnel lost their lives; patrolling resumed at Depsang and Demchok after the 2024 disengagement. |
| 7–10 May 2025 | Operation Sindoor | Op Sindoor | Pakistan, after the Pahalgam attack of 22 Apr 2025 | Indian Armed Forces | Nine sites targeted (PIB, 7 May); the Prime Minister said Pakistan's army contacted India's DGMO on 10 May. |
Two rows need care. PIB named Riddle and Cactus Lily on 21 June 2024, recalling the role of the Army's 1 Corps in operations including Riddle (1965), Cactus Lily (1971), Pawan (1987) and Cactus (1988). It gives no detail, so the table shows only that link. The 2016, 2019 and Galwan rows have no codename because none was announced.
Internal security operations, such as Operation Blue Star (June 1984, Punjab) and counter-insurgency in Jammu and Kashmir and the North East, are not wars with an external adversary and are left out.
Start and end dates for Op Parakram and Op Pawan differ across sources. UPSC follows official dates, so learn the firm ones: 1 January 1949, 16 December 1971, 13 April 1984.
Operation Sindoor, Galwan and Strikes: What Was Officially Said
Operation Sindoor. After the Pahalgam attack of 22 April 2025, in which PIB records that 25 Indians and one Nepali citizen were killed, the Ministry of Defence announced on 7 May 2025 that the Armed Forces had launched Operation Sindoor against terrorist infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir. PIB's wording: nine sites were targeted, the action was "focused, measured and non-escalatory", and no Pakistani military facilities were targeted. A release of 8 May says drones and missiles that Pakistan sent against military targets in northern and western India on the night of 7–8 May were neutralised, and that Indian forces then targeted air defence radars and systems at several locations in Pakistan. The Prime Minister said on 12 May that Pakistan's army contacted India's DGMO on the afternoon of 10 May and that India had "suspended" its retaliatory action. Pakistan has given its own account; this page records only Indian official statements. The official timeline is on Operation Sindoor.
Galwan. The Army's statement of 16 June 2020 said a violent face-off took place at Galwan in eastern Ladakh during de-escalation, and that 20 Indian personnel lost their lives. PIB's 2024 year-end review records the consensus of 21 October 2024 on disengagement from Depsang and Demchok, followed by joint verification and resumed patrolling. The terrain is covered in borders, LAC and LoC.
Strikes of 2016 and 2019. The DGMO announced the 2016 strike as an Army action across the LoC, with no codename. Balakot in 2019 was an IAF strike. A PIB release of 17 September 2025 quotes the Raksha Mantri citing Sindoor, the 2016 strike and Balakot together, saying India chooses hard power when negotiations fail.
Evacuation and Humanitarian Operations
Since 2015 the forces have often brought Indians home from war zones and carried relief abroad. The main official source is PIB's backgrounder of 15 February 2026 on armed forces in humanitarian assistance and disaster relief. The Ministry of External Affairs leads evacuations; the Navy, Air Force and Air India provide ships and aircraft.
| Year | Operation | Where and why | What was done |
|---|---|---|---|
| Apr 2015 | Op Rahat | Yemen: civil war | Evacuation of Indians and foreign nationals by Navy ships and aircraft, with Air India. |
| Apr 2015 | Op Maitri | Nepal: earthquake | Relief by IAF, Army and NDRF (PIB). |
| Feb–Mar 2022 | Op Ganga | Ukraine: war | 18,282 citizens returned on 90 flights, 14 of them IAF (PIB). |
| Feb 2023 | Op Dost | Türkiye and Syria: earthquake of 6 Feb | Army field hospital at Iskenderun; relief flown on five IAF C-17 aircraft (PIB). |
| Apr 2023 | Op Kaveri | Sudan: fighting | Launched 19 April 2023; IAF and Navy moved evacuees from Port Sudan to Jeddah, then to India (PIB). |
| Oct 2023 | Op Ajay | Israel: war after 7 Oct | Charter flights from Tel Aviv; the first landed in Delhi on 13 Oct 2023. |
| Jun 2025 | Op Sindhu | Iran and Israel: conflict | MEA figure of 27 Jun 2025, as reported by the press: 4,415 Indians returned, 3,597 from Iran and 818 from Israel. |
| Nov–Dec 2025 | Op Sagar Bandhu | Sri Lanka: Cyclone Ditwah | Launched 28 Nov 2025; about 1,058 tonnes of relief delivered by 9 Dec 2025 by Navy ships and IAF aircraft (PIB). |
Rahat 2013 was the IAF's relief in the Uttarakhand floods; Megh Rahat 2014 was the IAF's flood relief in Jammu and Kashmir; Rahat 2015 was the Yemen evacuation. Read the year first.
The usual figure for Op Rahat is about 4,640 Indians and 960 foreign nationals (MEA, April 2015, as reported by the press). Learn the year and services, not a total.
- 28 Nov 2025: Operation Sagar Bandhu launched for Sri Lanka after Cyclone Ditwah.
- 7 Dec 2025: The Raksha Mantri virtually inaugurated the Galwan War Memorial in Ladakh (PIB).
- 16 Dec 2025: Vijay Diwas: portraits of all 21 Param Vir Chakra recipients opened at Rashtrapati Bhavan (see Param Vir Chakra).
UN Peacekeeping in Brief
PIB's backgrounder of 9 March 2025 states that India has sent over 290,000 peacekeepers to more than 50 UN missions since the 1950s, that over 5,000 Indian troops were serving in nine of the eleven active missions, and that nearly 180 have died in service. It calls India one of the largest troop contributors. Indian troops served in Korea in the early 1950s and in the Congo in the 1960s, where Captain Gurbachan Singh Salaria won the Param Vir Chakra in 1961. Today the larger commitments are Lebanon (UNIFIL, an infantry battalion group), the Golan Heights (UNDOF, a logistics battalion), DR Congo and South Sudan.
Three facts carry most of the marks. Missions are authorised by the Security Council and deployed with the consent of the main parties; the General Assembly does not authorise them. The all-woman formed police unit sent to Liberia in 2007 was the first of its kind. And India trains peacekeepers at the Centre for UN Peacekeeping, Manekshaw Centre, New Delhi. The child page UN Peacekeeping gives the mission-by-mission record.
Look-Alike Names and the Traps They Set
| Look-alike | The difference |
|---|---|
| Op Vijay (1961) and Op Vijay (1999) | Goa, Daman and Diu from Portugal, a tri-service action; and the Army's operation in the Kargil War. Same name, thirty-eight years apart. |
| Op Cactus (1988) and Op Cactus Lily (1971) | Cactus rescued the Maldives government with airlifted paratroopers; Cactus Lily was a 1971 operation that PIB links to the Army's 1 Corps. |
| Op Rahat 2013, 2014, 2015 | Uttarakhand floods; Jammu and Kashmir floods (Megh Rahat); Yemen evacuation. |
| Op Meghdoot and Op Safed Sagar | Siachen, April 1984, Army; Kargil air operation, May 1999, IAF. |
| Op Trident and Op Python | Both 1971, both naval strikes on Karachi: Trident on 4–5 December (Navy Day, 4 Dec), Python on 8–9 December. See Navy fleet operations. |
| Gibraltar, Grand Slam, Gulmarg, Chengiz Khan | Pakistan's names for its own 1947, 1965 and 1971 moves. Never match them to Indian services. |
| Vijay Diwas and Kargil Vijay Diwas | 16 December: the 1971 surrender. 26 July: the end of Kargil. More dates: defence days and dates. |
The gallantry awards won in these wars are on gallantry awards, and the services that fought them on Indian Army, Indian Navy and Indian Air Force. How they now plan to fight together is on tri-services; the 1999 war is the reason the Integrated Defence Staff exists, as our Silver Jubilee explainer shows.
Guided Tour: Pages in the Wars and Operations Branch
| Page | What it covers |
|---|---|
| Indo-Pak War 1947 | Accession, the tribal invasion, the airlift to Srinagar and the ceasefire of 1 January 1949 |
| Sino-Indian War 1962 | The sectors, Rezang La and what the official reports record |
| Indo-Pak War 1965 | Gibraltar, Grand Slam, Asal Uttar and the Tashkent Declaration |
| Bangladesh Liberation War 1971 | Causes, Trident and Python, the eastern campaign, the surrender and the Simla Agreement |
| Kargil War 1999 | Op Vijay, Safed Sagar and Talwar, the key battles, the four Param Vir Chakras and the review committee |
| Operation Meghdoot | Siachen since 1984, the actual ground position line and logistics at altitude |
| Operation Sindoor | The 2025 operation: the trigger, what was announced, the official timeline |
| Other Operations | Polo, Vijay (Goa), Pawan, Cactus, the 2016 strikes, Balakot and evacuations |
| UN Peacekeeping | India's missions, the women's contingent and the peacekeeping centre |
For the 1962 background, our Panchsheel and non-alignment note explains the foreign policy of the years before the war; post-independence India covers the princely states, Hyderabad and Goa.
Exam pins
- Five wars by the usual count: 1947–48, 1962, 1965, 1971, 1999; 1962 is with China.
- Troops airlifted into Srinagar on 27 October 1947; UN ceasefire on 1 January 1949. Op Gulmarg was Pakistan's name for the raid.
- Op Polo (Sept 1948) took Hyderabad; Op Vijay (Dec 1961) took Goa, Daman and Diu, and the name was reused in 1999 for Kargil.
- 1962: began 20 October; China's unilateral ceasefire on 21 November; Rezang La on 18 November.
- CAPF chronology: Riddle (1965), Cactus Lily (1971), Meghdoot (1984), Safed Sagar (1999).
- 1971: Trident (4–5 Dec), Python (8–9 Dec); Dhaka surrender on 16 December, Vijay Diwas.
- Meghdoot: Siachen, 13 April 1984. Pawan: Sri Lanka, 1987–90. Cactus: Maldives, 3 November 1988.
- Kargil: Vijay (Army), Safed Sagar (IAF), Talwar (Navy); Kargil Vijay Diwas 26 July.
- 2016 surgical strikes: no official name; Balakot (26 Feb 2019): IAF.
- UN: over 290,000 peacekeepers sent (PIB, March 2025); all-woman police unit in Liberia, 2007.
Asked in past papers
Questions come as pure chronology, "which operation was where", and recent evacuations.
Arrange the following military operations undertaken by India against Pakistan in correct chronological order: 1. Operation Cactus Lily 2. Operation Riddle 3. Operation Meghdoot 4. Operation Safed Sagar.
(a) 1-2-3-4 (b) 2-1-3-4 (c) 4-1-2-3 (d) 4-2-1-3
Answer: (b). Riddle (1965), Cactus Lily (1971), Meghdoot (1984), Safed Sagar (1999). Option (a) swaps the first two, the tempting slip.
The Battle of Rezang La, an epic battle in hostile conditions, was fought by the Indian Army in:
(a) 1948 (b) 1956 (c) 1962 (d) 1972
Answer: (c). Rezang La, in Ladakh, was fought on 18 November 1962; Major Shaitan Singh of the Kumaon Regiment received the Param Vir Chakra posthumously. Option (a) tempts because the 1947–48 fighting was also in the north.
Which one of the following statements with regard to India's surgical strike mission inside Pakistan Occupied Kashmir is correct?
(a) It was conducted in the year 2018. (b) It was led by the Indian Air Force. (c) It was not given any name. (d) It was sanctioned by the United Nations.
Answer: (c). The strikes of 28–29 September 2016 were announced as an Army action with no official codename. Option (b) confuses them with Balakot in 2019, which the Air Force carried out.
India is the first country in the world to deploy an all-woman contingent to a UN Peacekeeping Mission. In which country did this mission operate?
(a) Liberia (b) Sudan (c) Burundi (d) Croatia
Answer: (a). The all-woman formed police unit went to the UN Mission in Liberia in 2007. Sudan tempts because India has large deployments there.
'Operation Kaveri' is a rescue operation launched by the Government of India to evacuate Indian citizens who were stranded in:
(a) Kuwait (b) Ukraine (c) Afghanistan (d) Sudan
Answer: (d). Kaveri began on 19 April 2023 in Sudan. Ukraine, option (b), was Operation Ganga in 2022; candidates often swap the two.
Chronology questions give operation names instead of dates, so learn each operation's year from the timeline. Practise on the NDA and CDS past-paper pages, and expect the newest evacuation in current-affairs questions; our daily defence notes track them.
Practice MCQs (with answers)
- Which operation name was used both for the liberation of Goa in 1961 and for the Army's action in the Kargil War of 1999?
- Operation Polo
- Operation Vijay
- Operation Cactus
- Operation Meghdoot
- Operation Meghdoot, launched on 13 April 1984, was the Army's operation at
- the Rann of Kutch
- Jaffna in Sri Lanka
- the Siachen Glacier
- Malé in the Maldives
- Arrange in chronological order: 1. Operation Cactus (Maldives) 2. Operation Meghdoot 3. Operation Pawan 4. Operation Vijay (Kargil).
- 2-1-3-4
- 3-2-1-4
- 1-2-3-4
- 2-3-1-4
- Which of the following was the name Pakistan gave to its own military move, not an Indian operation?
- Operation Grand Slam
- Operation Safed Sagar
- Operation Talwar
- Operation Cactus Lily
- Operation Ganga, launched in 2022, evacuated Indian citizens from
- Sudan
- Yemen
- Ukraine
- Israel
- Consider the statements. 1. Operation Pawan was the deployment of the Indian Peace Keeping Force in Sri Lanka. 2. In Operation Cactus in 1988, Army paratroopers were flown to the Maldives at the request of its president. 3. Operation Polo was carried out against Portuguese-ruled Goa. Which are correct?
- 1 only
- 1 and 2 only
- 2 and 3 only
- 1, 2 and 3
1-b, 2-c, 3-d, 4-a, 5-c, 6-b. Q3: Meghdoot (1984), Pawan (1987), Cactus (1988), Vijay (1999), so 2-3-1-4. Q4: Grand Slam is Pakistani; Safed Sagar is the IAF's, Talwar the Navy's, Cactus Lily the Army's. Q5: Sudan was Kaveri, Israel Ajay. Q6: Polo was Hyderabad, not Goa.
Where to Go Next
Boards ask about wars in group tasks and lecturettes, and our lecturette topics show how to structure a short talk on Kargil or Siachen. For the latest operation read our Operation Sindoor explainer, and for 1999 our Kargil Vijay Diwas note. Graduates aiming at the officer academies can join the CDS course at The Cavalier, which teaches this history with weekly tests; see also the career in the Indian Army and military exercises.
Frequently asked questions
How many wars has India fought since independence?
By the usual count India has fought five wars: four with Pakistan (1947–48, 1965, 1971 and Kargil in 1999) and one with China (1962). The 2001–02 mobilisation, Operation Parakram, ended without a war, and official statements describe Operation Sindoor as a military operation against terrorist infrastructure.
What was Operation Vijay?
The name belongs to two operations. Operation Vijay of December 1961 liberated Goa, Daman and Diu from Portuguese rule, with the Army, Navy and Air Force acting together. Operation Vijay of 1999 was the Army's operation in the Kargil War, whose end is marked every year on Kargil Vijay Diwas, 26 July.
What is the difference between Operation Cactus and Operation Cactus Lily?
Operation Cactus was the November 1988 rescue of the Maldives government, with Army paratroopers airlifted by the Air Force at the president's request. Operation Cactus Lily was a 1971-war operation that PIB links to the Army's 1 Corps. PIB names both in one release of 21 June 2024.
What did PIB say about Operation Sindoor?
PIB announced on 7 May 2025 that the Armed Forces had struck nine terrorist-related sites in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir after the Pahalgam attack, in a manner it called focused, measured and non-escalatory. The official timeline is on our Operation Sindoor page.
What was Operation Ganga and how is it different from Operation Kaveri?
Operation Ganga (February to March 2022) brought Indian citizens home from Ukraine; PIB records 18,282 returned on 90 flights, 14 of them IAF. Operation Kaveri (from 19 April 2023) evacuated Indians from Sudan through Port Sudan and Jeddah, using IAF and Navy assets. The pair is a common exam swap.
More in Defence GK
Sources: pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=2127370 · pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=2128268 · pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=2228319 · pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=2109587
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