Ever since the formation of human communities and societies in the history of civilisation and statecraft, the notion of “patriotism” arose out of the awareness that armed forces were necessary to protect a certain way of life.
On the back of the recent India-Pakistan conflict, where both sides came close to a dangerous escalation, the former Indian Army Chief General Manoj Naravane made a poignant speech which went viral. He said, “War is not romantic. It is not your Bollywood movie. It is very serious business,” referring to the national hysteria that had developed around the military exchanges, especially online and on many mainstream television news channels―backing our government and the armed forces to go out for an “all-out” war and “finish Pakistan once and for all”. A worrisome sentiment for Kashmir and its people―caught in the line-of-fire―who once again stood to lose their fragile peace and signs of prosperity.
The fact that a ceasefire was called within four days of India’s unprecedented decision to conduct devastating precision strikes on nine terror camps within Pakistan, left many Indians disheartened and disillusioned. In the midst of this ludicrous hysteria, pacifist liberals and peace activists were seen campaigning against “warmongering” and calling the government to “de-escalate”. Given the significantly polarised global consciousness and disruptive geopolitics of recent years―wherein the rules-based order (RBO), also known as the liberal international order (LBO), being labelled the “changing world order” (CWO) since COVID-19, is already getting re-christened as the “new international order” (NIO) in 2025―the need of the hour for India’s national consciousness lies somewhere in between.
India Faces A Two-Front Threat
War is real, and it is here to stay. In a country of India’s size, a population as diverse, and a federal-democratic governance structure as layered and spread out―moments of undivided national attention, let alone patriotic fervour, can be hard to come by. Most of its middle-aged citizens witnessed India giving a befittingly and powerful response to Pakistan’s infiltration deep within our territory during the Kargil conflict of 1999 on television, and well before today’s overwhelming social media landscape. Under the unflinching stewardship of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee―who had extended the hand of friendship and peace to Pakistan only a few months prior―many Indians formed a personal connection with soldiers who had laid down their lives for the country back then, including the “bravest of the brave”, Param Vir Chakra awardee and martyr, the late Captain Vikram Batra, who went on to become a national icon.
Then came the gruesome Mumbai attack of 2008, in which almost 170 Indians are believed to have lost their lives. How many more such instances of betrayal did India need to contend with?
In 2014, the then newly-elected Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi invited his Pakistani counterpart, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, to his swearing-in ceremony as a gesture of goodwill. In 2015, Modi even visited Lahore. In 2016, Pakistan-backed terror groups attacked an Indian Army camp in Uri, Kashmir, killing 19 Indian soldiers in a brutal betrayal once again. Yet, India gave the adversary the benefit of the doubt and unprecedented access during investigations. From there on, a more defiant Indian counter-terrorism doctrine has taken shape―crossing conventional boundaries and expectations.
In 2017, through the offensive melee with China (in Bhutan’s Doklam) via Operation Juniper, and then in 2020, though a more pronounced military standoff in Galwan, India has built upon its more muscular and direct approach to sovereign threats in border territories. Further, in the aftermath of both incidents, India has employed a host of strong diplomatic and economic measures like renewing its engagement with the “China weary” QUAD (Quadrilateral Security Dialogue) grouping and becoming the first country in the world to completely ban the controversial Chinese social media platform TikTok.
As Congress MP Shashi Tharoor said in an interview during the latest cross-border conflict, “Geopolitically, India is a status-quo power and wants to focus on the progress of its own citizens through development, technology, and nation-building. Pakistan is a Revisionist State, however, and seeks to disrupt India via its long-held strategy of a ‘death by a thousand cuts’, aiming to capture more Indian territory on the basis of a shared religion with our northernmost state; having already claimed a part of post-partition Kashmir, today known as Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir.” China is well-known across geopolitics as the world’s foremost Revisionist State in that sense. Not only is it disrupting the US’ monopoly as the undisputed global superpower, it also wishes to be the sole major power in Asia, which puts it at loggerheads with its immediate civilisational, billion-strong neighbour―India. Strategic affairs experts have long identified this as India’s two-front security challenge. It’s what keeps security and foreign policy stakeholders in New Delhi on their toes.
India-Pakistan: Old Scars, New Doctrines
Indian strategic affairs experts maintain that India must stay open to dialogue with Pakistan (and China), given the ensuing global flux. Unlike an increasing number of Indian nationalists, who wish Pakistan becomes a ‘failed state’, these experts (identifying with “patriotism”), have wished for its stability; even prosperity―keeping in mind that its failure as a neighbour only heightens the historical “security dilemma” that exists between the two nations―across both factors―expansionist greed and inherent insecurity.
However, in April 2025, came a vitriolic anti-Hindu/pro-Muslim speech from a dictatorial-theological Pakistan’s Army Chief, General Asim Munir, clearly targeting the democratic and pluralist idea of India. He was only trying to sow discord among India’s vulnerable Hindu-Muslim dynamic, besides distracting attention from his own domestic unpopularity. Days later, 25 Indian civilians―many of them targeted for being Hindus―and a foreigner (Nepali) were gunned down in the gruesome terror attack in Pahalgam by operatives of a Kashmiri insurgent group called The Resistance Front (TRF), known to be an off-shoot of the Pakistan-based terrorist organisation Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT).
Surely, India could not let this pass. Besides responding with immediate non-kinetic measures like putting the long-standing, strategically sacrosanct Indus Waters Treaty “in abeyance”, its kinetic response, Operation Sindoor, was responsible, calculated, and yet, stronger than ever before. It included using deep, precision air-to-ground strikes causing significant damage to 11 Pakistan military bases, sending a clear message to the adversary (and to the world)―that India will not hold back in defending its national security, sovereign integrity, and the safety and peace of its citizens. The Pakistani Army’s vicious grip on their nation may or may not continue to hold, but as Modi made it clear in his speech to the nation on May 12 that its designs on India will be dismantled unfalteringly. Even with its larger and stronger eastern-neighbour, China, shrewdly supplying high-grade weapons to Pakistan on the one hand, keeping India militarily stretched in Ladakh on the other, and continuing to distract it with unconventional interference in its northeastern states.
In this mission, India will need all 1.4 billion of its citizens to develop a stronger personal (and in many cases professional) commitment to national security, a deeper sensibility towards its ever-committed armed forces, and unite behind their government of the day. Setting aside everyday differences across political ideology, religious beliefs, and socio-economic divides. The old adage from Russian political theorist, Leon Trotsky, “You may not be interested in war, but war is interested in you” has never been more applicable in the Indian context.
Early signs suggest a growing awareness of this need. India’s parliamentary Opposition helped the Union government take a firm stand against the US President’s implied interference and (suggested “trade deal” related) trivialisation of the core tenets of Indian national interest expressed during the ongoing Operation Sindoor. The Indian government immediately backed that up with an announcement to send an “all-party” delegation comprising esteemed Indian Members of Parliament, joined by distinguished former diplomats, on a diplomatic mission to 33 major cities across the world―carrying India’s strategic message against terrorism, reiterating its long-standing commitment to regional stability, and amplifying its growing role in global security.
To achieve a lasting peace with a rogue state on one side and a bully on the other, we must be willing to put up a fierce fight, collectively.
(The author currently works at the intersection of digital technology, global affairs, and democratic systems)
