Going Beyond Belligerence
The structures collide. The four day war has revealed that the ruling dispensation and opposition leaders need to ponder over and articulate a fresh narrative, while our professional army deserve full appreciation. The doctrine of political belligerence needs revisiting. Whether it is political belligerence or religious aggression, it has come to a saturated level. The messages are clear that India lives in pluralism and each constituent of this pluralism is significant for the core. And each one has to own this country with head and heart, so that there is no trust deficit. There should be neither appeasement of any kind, as in the past, nor any belligerence found in the current public politics. We are not Pakistan.
Let them be happy with their policies. Pakistan has become a willful colony of China. It suits its military requirements to retain its tacit political power. It is a strange contradiction. Prayers to God and craving for non-God. Jinnah was conscious of this contradiction. He had not created Pakistan of this mould. He had desired Pakistan to live like Canada. We do not need Indian pluralism to be enfeebled, either. Political differences signal healthy democracy. Its suppression brings ailment to the system. We need politics of accommodation, not narrative of belligerence. The politics of belligerence has lost the credibility.
The ninety hours’ war has brought out many facets of present day existence, including axioms of survival. No geography is unexposed and every activity is monitored. It is technology, data management and compression of time and space matter. It is your own strength that shapes trustworthy boundary. Untested costly Rafale proved vulnerable against Chinese less costly J10 fighters. While, our Brahmos and Akash missiles had their say beyond imagination. So was the valor and professionalism of our armed forces. This is our strength.
The emergent narrative is that the real world exists in between sky and the earth, in unseen spaces. The stronger its comprehension, better it would be to realize the formidable trajectories. The realm of power, notions of surveillances, dominance and punishment are through cybernetics and virtual realities. The war can be fought from any corner, without any noise. This has made visible reality and visible strength subordinate to such super structures. It is at a point in history, where Chinese dictates matter with American power to liaise. The world lives in this worldview of dominance of hegemony in trade and military might.
Neither China is interested nor is America bothered in the human safety of India and Pakistan. Their interest lies in trade and new experimentations. The cold war of expansionism of territories is over, but the open war on trade and new technologies are on rise beyond doubt. The United States and China drastically rolled back tariffs on each other’s goods. Markets are important with purchasing power being measured. Military intervention is to protect it. The belligerent mind set of India and Pakistan to finish each other is a laughing matter in stock exchange. Who cares for human lives or human rights violations? New technologies, Advancement in Artificial Intelligence and cybernetics are the fields to find resources and avenues anywhere in the world. America and Chinese success stories reveal to us that it has been science and technology and human creativity in discipline with hard work that has made difference.
No religious or primordial jingoism have ever made persons or countries great. Chinese, since 1972, went to United States of American to exchange programs. With cheap technology to advanced technology, everything they marketed without conditions. Americans relied on brain drain of best minds, gave them money and resources to stay atop in the world. It is how business deals and military experimentation go hand in hand, somewhere religiosity and primordial belligerence find space and environment to grow. The new normal should not be this mindset to finish each other. It goes beyond control with each escalation.
Pakistan should understand where it stands. It would do good to itself, if it supports peace in Kashmir and allows Indian Muslims to be Indian. The present ruling dispensation in India should not tread the path that Pakistan has been plying. The minorities are assets. India lives in pluralism and each one is significant and important to contribute to the prosperity and stability of this country. Our plural, and professional army is an illustration of efficiency, passion and professionalism. The leaders have a role to play. Pakistan may not draw its lessons, but educated Muslims anywhere in the world would like to have better image of religion than exhibited by Pakistan. There is huge awakening about it, quite open in the international guarded talk shows. We live in multi religious and multicultural world. Pakistan’s elite celebration over Chinese edge is not a sustainable joy for any knowledgeable Muslim. Nobody wants tragedies to happen in the families, which are spread on either side of the boundaries. The discourse of politics needs to change in both the countries. The concocted stories on social media or construed discourses are subject to scrutiny. The public awareness, social versions, international disclosures are not of same mode as it used to be in the previous century.
The world is not in secured geographies any longer. Politics has to make it secured. China’s leadership exhibits peace in talks, but aggressive in deeds. The world has seen it. How imprudent it is that Pakistan’s leadership, instead of overhauling its security doctrine has taken same discourse, which even their own people find hard to believe. In many ways, the four day war with Pakistan has revealed discerning facts. People need respite from language of violence and hate. We are no longer competing with Pakistan.
There is nothing to compete with them. The reality is that China is ahead of us. Countering China does not mean playing American game, but having a foreign policy akin to safeguard our pluralism, while remaining vigilant for our national interests. India has the advantage of civilization proximity with China, which is well acknowledged in Chinese academia. Strengthen it, if possible. The internationalism is competitive in trade and access to resources. China’s weaponry without conditionality sells more than America’s costlier and conditions attached to its products. It is cheap and without interference. If its interests are blocked, it has ways to overcome its advisories. India has to admit the Chinese strength in weaponry and cybernetics. Regenerative politics in peaceful conducive social atmosphere and institutional merit is its response. We have lively pluralism and representative democracy that in the long run is sustainable and accumulative symbolic capital. It keeps India evolving. Value it.
Prof. Ashok Kaul, Retired Emeritus professor of Sociology at Banaras Hindu University
