Ali Hassan Bangwar
Realpolitik prioritises practical pursuit of national interests, but do these interests – often framed as the nation’s — truly benefit the people? Do the people’s needs, welfare and potential prosperity justify war? Moreover, who, if anyone, truly wins in war? Is the loser always the ultimate loser, and the winner always the ultimate victor? Are there ‘losers’ even on the winning side?
These questions gain urgency in the context of the escalating conflict between two nuclear-armed South Asian neighbours, demanding critical reflection to preserve sanity in the ongoing Indian misadventures and militarism against Pakistan.
Yet, sanity, truth and foresight often suffer as the first state-sponsored casualties in pre-war or wartime scenarios, drowned out by sensationalised ultra-nationalism and patriotism. For example, the Indian media — better described as ‘comedia’ — has and continues to fuel war hysteria, jingoism, lies and pro-war propaganda, reflecting the exclusivist and xenophobic tendencies of New Delhi’s current political and ideological regime.
Wars typically create more problems than solutions, raise more questions than answers, and incur disproportionate costs, demanding a deep examination of their implications, perceived inevitability and moral weight. Yet, hawks in India, propped up to power via radical ideology, rarely pause to reflect on these questions, let alone their answers.
The loss of innocent lives on either side of the border is indefensible, as is the ongoing aggression against Pakistan based on flimsy grounds. Actions, like unilaterally revoking a bilateral water treaty, launching missile and drone attacks on civilians and conducting cross-border assaults following the “false-flag” incident, highlight India’s persistent pursuit of hawkish and militaristic policies. Indian hawks have escalated tensions with Pakistan, igniting a conflict that threatens regional and global peace, as well as prospects of prosperity across the divide and beyond.
This aggression revives a form of Lebensraum and Völkisch ideology under the RSS’s Hindutva agenda, driven by promises of resolving historical grievances, realising Akhand Bharat, achieving regional supremacy and stoking anti-Pakistan sentiment.
