About the Book: 1965: Holding the line at Asal Uttar
During the 1965 war, around the flat fields and irrigation canals of Khemkaran
town, dust rose in clouds and the horizon appeared deceptively open. It was in
this daunting landscape that India attempted to advance on 6 September, and was
met with fierce resistance by Pakistani artillery. Indian units were forced to
pull back, regroup, and choose their ground. That ground was Asal Uttar, meaning
true north. The line that formed there did not possess depth in the classical
sense. In fact, it was a thin line composed of tired men who dug their heels in
and