It is Hyper-Nationalism

It is now almost two months since the terror attack at Pahalgam, leading to widespread condemnation across India and globally. The cold-blooded murder of 25 Indian nationals and 1 Nepali citizen, after religious identification, by a handful of terrorists sponsored by Pakistan at Balsanar in Kashmir on April 22 shattered the lives of numerous families. What is more, this time, this massacre was brazenly communal in nature. It was aimed at polarising communities on communal lines in India. The government still remains evasive on many disturbing questions. As regards security lapses, Indian people remain without answers, even after the much-publicised ‘operation sindoor’ that claims to have destroyed 9 terror camps in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir [PoK] and Pakistan proper. The Opposition rightly demands that a thorough investigation be conducted and its findings be made public. But the Modi-Shah brigade is interested in capitalising on the tragedy in vote market.

For one thing, Kashmir is the most militarised zone on earth. Any voice of dissent is crushed with iron hands. The central government, instead of addressing the basic issues the aggrieved are confronting day in and day out, is trying to create an atmosphere of fear psychosis by over-militarisation, particularly since the abrogation of Article 370. Now, there is an attempt to deny the responsibility for security lapses at Pahalgam with too much noise around ‘Operation Sindoor’.

People living along the Line of Control [LoC] suffered immensely during the 4-day conflict. The recurring India-Pakistan fire exchanges all along the LoC and international border have created a sense of helplessness among the border communities. War is not a video game–it leaves behind graves, shattered limbs, scorched fields and lasting psychological scars. The consequences of war cannot be anything but brutal even if it lasts for only a few days. And the people of Kashmir know it better.

War hysteria created after ‘Operation Sindoor’ refuses to subside because of jingoistic clamour for war by a section of the media. In Modi’s India, dissent is equated with disloyalty and peace is seen as cowardice. Any valid criticism is being dubbed urban naxalism in this biggest showcase of democracy. Many people enjoy war; they cheer the death of the other, and they regard mourning as weakness. Since 2014, an era of hyper-nationalism has turned war into a televised spectacle–media bravado fraught with falsehoods and blatant lies. Internationally, this televised phenomenon has become a dangerous trend since the beginning of the Russia-Ukraine war in 2022. Also, this war show advertises the superiority of some weapons manufactured by a few select companies. In the case of just just-concluded India-Pakistan war, China, Pakistan’s all-weather ally and defence partner, tested the efficacy of its drones and air-defence systems against India. It may open a huge market for China’s defence producers in many third-world countries where China has strategic and economic interests.

From 2016 to 2020, India recorded more than 14,000 ceasefire violations by Pakistani Rangers, with more than 300 civilian deaths and thousands displaced. Villages in Jammu and Kashmir–like Poonch and Kupwara–have faced repeated evacuations. Families live in bunkers for months, schools remain shut and harvests rot in fields. For some Kashmiris, displacement is a recurring crisis, not a one-time nightmare.

Wars waged on television screens deliver an ‘entertainment show’, not solutions. In reality, they aggravate antagonisms between India and Pakistan. Politicians and media, on both sides of the fence, profit from nationalism, rather hyper-nationalism, while the people on the ground pay the price. The real cost of conflict–paid in broken bodies, ruined lives, and lost futures–is borne by those far from TV shows and power corridors.

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Frontier
Vol 57, No. 51, June 15 - 21, 2025