Illusions of Peace and the Inevitability of War — What’s in for a common Indian?
Takeshi Kovacs in the Sci-Fi series ‘Altered Carbon’ quotes, “Peace is an illusion, and no matter how tranquil the world seems, peace doesn’t last long. Peace is a struggle against our very nature. A skin we stretch over the bone, muscle, and sinew of our own innate savagery.”
The Russian aggression against Ukraine takes us Indians back to Feb-Mar 2022 when our own people, mostly students, were stuck in a war zone. The obvious reaction to blame Russia and have sympathy for Ukraine is expected. Detesting the events of wars and hope for peace is what’s ideal. However, idealism only creates a utopia, never to usher. The War in Ukraine must push the collective psyche of common Indian citizens to rethink their positions on ‘War’ and ‘Peace’.
If we study the long course of human history, peace in any geography has been an aberration. Wars have furthered the changing course of history, as a norm — Wars to increase the territory, capture economic resources, impose cultural and religious identities, cleanse and replace civilizations. The latest addition to it has been in information, cyber and space domains.
Samuel Huntington talks about two necessary facets in an ethnic or national identity for its survival — Substance (knowledge of markers of collective belonging) and Salience (knowledge of markers of “who is the enemy”). India’s foreign policy in early years of independence was dictated by morality of individuals in power. It couldn’t comprehend the nature of Chinese Communism and Pakistani Islamism that was determined to be the enemy of India. Indians, through text books and state owned media, were continuously fed the false illusion of peace and possible brotherhood with these two enemy territories. This could not establish the substance and especially salience among Indians. It was less successful than required in the process of building a national identity.
Amid the backdrop of Russia-Ukraine war, we Indians must take a step back from our individual morality and political echo-chambers to rethink our positions on War and Peace. Jewish people believed themselves as “global citizens” who don’t need a defined ethnic territory to prosper. It took Jews a Holocaust and 6 million lives to understand the importance of “Homeland” and “Astute Self Centered Foreign and Defense Policy”. Since the establishment of State of Israel, Jews have eliminated their enemies through various overt and covert warfare measures. Chinese understood the same after Former Premier Deng Xiaoping opened up the economy. Chinese even created a cyber firewall to establish salience in emerging technological space. They escalate limited border tensions with India to safeguard their territorial and other interests.
Indian Polity has shown the will to further a few interests but rarely. For instance, Pokhran Nuclear tests for deterrence, Liberation of Bangladesh for eliminating Pakistan from eastern borders, recent Surgical strike and Air strike against Pakistan as a warning against state sponsored terror, and tough negotiation with Chinese at Galwan and Pangong Tso.
Thankfully, atleast two generations of Indians have not felt the physical heat of wars at their doorstep, apart from border villages. Is it going to stay the same? I want to believe but don’t think so. However, the Western propaganda and influence (led by USA) on Indian Academia, Media and Judiciary doesn’t let larger Indian society to rethink positions of idealism and morality during wars. All of it, while the NATO bombs various countries of West Asia with no mercy and morality. The collective West, led by USA, forces these “values” of Human Rights all over the world but acts as per their “interests” only. Their narrative and influence in Indian society is so powerful that democratically elected sovereign national governments find it difficult to further the Indian interests even when the threat has reached our borders. This indicates complete mental and intellectual colonization of the Indian elite.
Being a democracy, societal forces pull back the political will to take self-interest based positions in external and internal affairs fearing a domestic backlash.
As Indian economy grows and intertwines with the world more, we have a golden opportunity to further our military, economic and cultural interests — through instruments of overt and covert limited aggression. This requires a societal change among citizens. A shift from idealism that detests wars to realism that is ever-ready for regulated aggression to further the comprehensive national power. Interestingly, Indians have shown realism during the Canadian PM, Justin Trudeau’s fiasco on blaming India over the killing of a Khalistani terrorist, Hardeep Nijjar (Canadian citizen) by unknown gunmen. It seems like shift is coming.
We must instill it in our conscience as the citizens of a rising nation rooted in once glorious civilization - “War is evil but it is often the lesser evil” (said George Orwell), and a society that detests war in the false hope of ever-lasting peace and moral grandstanding is like a sheep waiting to be slaughtered.
Jai Hind!
