War is a commodity in India that’s often packaged with a tri-colour to conceal its grotesque features. It sells well in the large Indian political market as there are a lot of takers, who consider war and military force as two important pillars of “nationalism” and “patriotism”; nothing else matters. Whenever a militant strike takes place against the army or paramilitary forces in Kashmir, Chhattisgarh, Nagaland or Manipur, the middle class and elite urban dwellers from upper-caste Hindu society get into a frenzy mode vehemently demanding sheer violence against the people of those regions.
In the case of Kashmir, they always want a war with Pakistan and anyone, who promises them a war, even a nuclear war, gets their vote. Everything else can wait, but the war can’t, and by selling this bait of war and by fanning jingoism since 1947, politicians of different shades and hues have ruled India with impunity. They have developed a culture which was prevalent in Europe during the First World War — the culture of chauvinism. It denies any scope to question the government’s war policy or the military establishment going against the prevalent international democratic norms, any such criticism is stamped as “treachery” and such critics are then persecuted.
No, it’s not Nazi Germany, it is India; the experiment that’s called world’s second largest democracy. Indeed, if the fascist Donald Trump-led imperialist US is world’s largest democracy, then another imbecile fascist-led Junta state like India can, of course, be the second one following the standard of regression.
This war-fetish persona of the Indian urban elite and middle class from the upper-caste Hindu strata didn’t develop in a day or two, or under Narendra Modi’s premiership, rather, it has always been there since the formation of two states — India and Pakistan — on the basis of religious identity in 1947.
It’s this war-fetish character of the upper-caste urban elites and middle class that has brought Modi to power. These class and caste groups voted Modi with an aspiration to see a total war with Pakistan that will ravage the neighbouring country and satiate the desire of those who have unquestionably believed that the woes of their own society have roots in the conspiracies purportedly hatched by Pakistan, which is itself an economically backward country quagmire in crisis, feudalism and colonial exploitation.
Soon after the Pulwama militant attack that killed 41 CRPF men on 14 February 2019, we saw the rejuvenation of the ultra-chauvinist chest-thumpers who call the military an epitome of patriotism and considers the wealth-creating working class and peasantry as the liability of “taxpayers’ money”. The BJP is unsurprisingly capitalising on this war cry of the politically-crucial urban middle class and elite upper-caste Hindus, showing their anger and jingoism as the mood of entire India, whose six states have higher poverty than 26 Sub-Saharan countries.
The Modi regime is planning another round “surgical strike” along the LoC, as per the press, to use the theatrics and optics of the purported attack to polarise voters before the forthcoming election. Even the opposition parties have succumbed to the viral chauvinist epidemic and they’re also demanding a no-holds-barred attack on Pakistan or at least the places where R&AW suggests the presence of terrorist camps in the neighbouring territory.
One such “surgical strike” helped the BJP with immense marketing opportunities and opened the gateway of earning opportunities to one of Modi’s sycophant directors, who made a film out of the purported tale of a “surgical strike” against Pakistan-based terrorists. Many more films will come out as the hyper-bhakts of Modi in the Hindi film industry will soon come up with multiple “patriotic” scripts to build up support for the megalomaniac dictator’s fascist regime.
Many urban, upper caste Hindu elites and middle class will consume such content and join the chorus demanding an all-out war with Pakistan. They will surely lambast Navjot Singh Sidhu for questioning the extreme jingoistic fervour officially sponsored by the Modi regime all over India. They are the one who will support the rumbustious mob attacking Kashmiri people and Muslim residents in Jammu, Bihar, Uttarakhand, etc, as they seek gory atrocities against the Kashmiri people in particular and Muslims in general to satisfy their Brahminical blood lust.
What makes this section of the population, which is nearly 25% of the population including a large number of vegetarian food terrorists — those who consider the myth that consuming meat makes a human being violent — to vouch for violence to resolve a political deadlock caused in Kashmir? The answer to this question can be found in the history of these classes and the socio-economic position of their caste groups in the present society.
Throughout history, the upper-caste Hindus had got the lower caste Hindus to fight wars on their behalf. Though the upper-caste kshatriya was supposed to be the custodian of a state’s weapons and protect it, the actual work was entrusted on the lower caste shudras, who were drafted in the armies of different rulers to fight the battles and protect the rule of the upper-caste rulers.
The British colonial rulers formed a united military command after taking over the reins of the colony from the East India Company and their British Indian Army became one of the most brutal and notorious armies in the history of the world.
The British colonial rulers proudly declared that they have raised a huge army consisting of Indian men, paid with Indian money to kill and oppress their fellow Indians. From Jallianwalabagh to other horrendous massacres, the colonial army’s men, irrespective of their religious or caste lineages, didn’t blink their eyes before executing any heinous crime against humanity following the order of their European officers. It was only a job for them, like any other, devoid of any ideology or nationalist values.
In the British Indian Army, the British colonial rulers didn’t allow the Indian sub-continent natives to become an officer. The officers were considered the elite members of the white European society and after the British left India partitioning the land to create two distinct and hostile entities — India and Pakistan — the army was distributed between the new rulers of these two states without any change in form, structure, ideology or principles. There was no democratisation or sanitisation of the military and it just changed the insignia to express loyalty towards the newly founded government, while carrying on the colonial legacy and attitude.
Since the colonial-era rules, regulations, practices and ranks still exist in the armed forces and paramilitary forces, therefore, it’s often found that the highest ranks of the military establishment are manned by upper-caste Hindus, Sikhs and very rarely few Christians or Muslims. It’s rare to see Dalits, tribal people or backward caste Hindus getting the opportunity to become officers of higher ranks, rather, in most cases, the division of labour at the lowest level in the armed forces is done on the basis of the caste system.
Hence, one will always find sweepers, cleaners, drivers, gardeners, orderlies, cobblers and washermen from those castes, which have been forced to do such menial labour historically. No upper-caste Hindus can be seen in these jobs at any point in time. Similarly, one will always find upper-caste Hindus in the role of cooks, priests, etc, as per the caste system. Most of the frontline soldiers come from backward castes, followed by members of Dalit and tribal communities. The lowest ranks of the armed forces swell with these Bahujan people, while the upper-castes monopolise the leadership roles following Indian Brahminical tradition.
Though there is a general, unwritten rule in the military to keep a minimal presence of the Muslim community in all branches of defence due to the sheer Islamophobic character of the establishment, at times a few Muslims are chosen for higher ranks to showcase India’s inclusivity vis-a-vis neighbouring Pakistan. Yet, most of the officers who have risen to the higher echelons of the Indian military establishment from the Muslim community unsurprisingly belong to the upper-caste ashraf, while the lower-caste Muslims, the pasmandas never go anywhere close to the establishment, forget the higher roles.
In case of a war, if one breaks out tomorrow, or in case of the civil war going on in different parts like Chhattisgarh, Manipur, Nagaland, Assam, etc, the majority of the soldiers who will have to die en masse fighting on behalf of the government to appease the blood lust of the upper-caste elites and middle class, will belong to the Bahujan community. It will be those like Tej Bahadur Yadav, a hapless soldier who either has to face an enemy bullet or lose his job if he complains about poor food quality. It will be like those many soldiers who commit suicide due to the stress their inhuman job adds to their lives.
Yet, they appear for the “run” to qualify and enrol in the army or the paramilitary, they willfully go to fight and persecute other people from the oppressed classes and communities, because this is the only job for many of them, who would never get any other opportunity at the places where they belong from. Thus they run, they climb, they fight, kill and get killed to ensure their families get enough to eat. It’s the tale of poverty, lack of opportunities and the threat of financial insecurity that will continue to drive young men to join the military and paramilitary forces, not the blood lust that drives an average bigoted, Hindutva-incensed nincompoop.
These urban elites and middle class haven’t experienced the pain of war. Living in Delhi, Mumbai or Bengaluru, they can vent out their anger through their keyboards and call for war, yet, unlike the European people or the Chinese or the Vietnamese, these people haven’t seen the tragic side, the repercussions of war.
The three official wars and two border conflicts that India fought with two of its neighbours didn’t reach the interior of the country. There was no displacement in Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru or Chennai due to these wars. There were no enemy planes bombing these cities, no shells bursting outside schools or offices, there were no massive civilian casualties in these wars, except they brought hunger, black marketing, poverty due to inflation and affected the workers and the peasants the most.
Urban, upper-caste Hindu, elites and middle class didn’t suffer much due to these wars, except for the death of few officers from their strata. They haven’t seen the wars as closely as the Europeans, the Chinese, the Vietnamese, the Koreans, etc, the grandparents didn’t pass on the warning about wars to their grandchildren in India as the Second World War remained far away from India. Thus, it’s normal to find here war enthusiasts; it’s normal to find out these privileged lot reading Mein Kampf, which is considered as a despicable piece of literature in the whole world, or wearing Nazi insignia for fun or to show “attitude”.
Far away from the borders, far away from the death zone, cocooned in their safe havens they can easily vouch for a war with Pakistan or China because they know it won’t be they who will have to face the bullets, shells and grenades, rather some “expendable” poor Bahujan will be there to do his job, the job that asks for killing and dying for a government.
They have no choice, they have no privilege to sit back in a safe haven and lecture people on patriotism, they know if they don’t fight they won’t survive, their families will be economically ruined. Getting killed in action will at least help their families with a regular pension, though the promise to implement one rank one pension was breached by the Modi regime.
Ask any close family members of those who are killed in the line of duty throughout India if they want a war, and obviously, the answer will be in negative because it’s the poor, the socio-economically backward people who need peace the most as it guarantees them at least a chance to survive. At least in the peacetime, they will know their family members have less chance to be killed than during the period of war. They know whoever will die, the loss will be to families like them in a predatory war, as it will take away the hope and of course, an important wage earner, from such families.
These poor Bahujan people for whom being in the military is a compulsion and not a joy, will never want a war, will never want to venture out in jungles or villages to kill tribal people unless they are compelled to do so. It’s said, no one understands the pain of a war more than a soldier because a soldier knows that those who will be killed by his or her bullets are most likely the soldiers of the other side, sent to die at the frontiers by their political bosses. The political bosses who would publicly exhibit their patriotism by writing on social media, appearing in television shows or by simply clicking selfies with soldiers but never venture into the fronts to participate in the wars themselves.
It’s impossible to expect normalcy from these privileged caste and class groups in India due to their historic alignment with the oppressor classes and powers. They are the one who fascinates about Zionist Israel and wants New Delhi to pursue a similar or a far more notorious agenda to colonise the people of Kashmir, Nagaland and other parts. They are those who love to hail the US imperialism, and inherently, they despise the idea of socio-economic, ethnic, religious, gender and political equality guaranteed and enforced by a Constitution.
Thus, their obstreperous behaviour is absolutely predictable during such a post-attack phase. The political optics of this rumbustious outburst may look promising to the BJP, but for the common people, the working class, the farmers and the toiling masses struggling for their right to exist and right to the wealth they create through their labour, it’s a challenge.
It’s a challenge because the discourse around war and chauvinism fanned by the Modi regime will not only divert the mass attention from the deteriorating socio-economic condition and the failures of the government in generating employment, providing better income to the farmers, providing better health and education opportunities to the common people but will also confine it within the narrow walls of sectarianism and jingoism.
To defeat this menace, to defeat these privileged warmongers in the society, who have a fetish for violence, bloodshed and brutal oppression on the people who decline to show obeisance towards them and those in power, it’s necessary to build up a nationwide democratic and anti-fascist movement to detoxify the common people from the virus of jingoism and xenophobia through which the privileged sections captivate their thinking capacity.
It’s important to strengthen the farmers’ and workers’ movements to ensure that the country can again see the peasants’ Long March to Mumbai, the workers’ rally to New Delhi, which the Modi regime is trying to stop using its brute force. The more the political discourse will tilt towards the working class and the farmers from the present hyper jingoistic mode, the more the forces of democracy and class struggle can allow peace to have an upper-hand over the upper-caste elite and middle class’s vociferous cacophony for war with Pakistan.
In the case of Kashmir, they always want a war with Pakistan and anyone, who promises them a war, even a nuclear war, gets their vote. Everything else can wait, but the war can’t, and by selling this bait of war and by fanning jingoism since 1947, politicians of different shades and hues have ruled India with impunity. They have developed a culture which was prevalent in Europe during the First World War — the culture of chauvinism. It denies any scope to question the government’s war policy or the military establishment going against the prevalent international democratic norms, any such criticism is stamped as “treachery” and such critics are then persecuted.
No, it’s not Nazi Germany, it is India; the experiment that’s called world’s second largest democracy. Indeed, if the fascist Donald Trump-led imperialist US is world’s largest democracy, then another imbecile fascist-led Junta state like India can, of course, be the second one following the standard of regression.
This war-fetish persona of the Indian urban elite and middle class from the upper-caste Hindu strata didn’t develop in a day or two, or under Narendra Modi’s premiership, rather, it has always been there since the formation of two states — India and Pakistan — on the basis of religious identity in 1947.
It’s this war-fetish character of the upper-caste urban elites and middle class that has brought Modi to power. These class and caste groups voted Modi with an aspiration to see a total war with Pakistan that will ravage the neighbouring country and satiate the desire of those who have unquestionably believed that the woes of their own society have roots in the conspiracies purportedly hatched by Pakistan, which is itself an economically backward country quagmire in crisis, feudalism and colonial exploitation.
Soon after the Pulwama militant attack that killed 41 CRPF men on 14 February 2019, we saw the rejuvenation of the ultra-chauvinist chest-thumpers who call the military an epitome of patriotism and considers the wealth-creating working class and peasantry as the liability of “taxpayers’ money”. The BJP is unsurprisingly capitalising on this war cry of the politically-crucial urban middle class and elite upper-caste Hindus, showing their anger and jingoism as the mood of entire India, whose six states have higher poverty than 26 Sub-Saharan countries.
The Modi regime is planning another round “surgical strike” along the LoC, as per the press, to use the theatrics and optics of the purported attack to polarise voters before the forthcoming election. Even the opposition parties have succumbed to the viral chauvinist epidemic and they’re also demanding a no-holds-barred attack on Pakistan or at least the places where R&AW suggests the presence of terrorist camps in the neighbouring territory.
One such “surgical strike” helped the BJP with immense marketing opportunities and opened the gateway of earning opportunities to one of Modi’s sycophant directors, who made a film out of the purported tale of a “surgical strike” against Pakistan-based terrorists. Many more films will come out as the hyper-bhakts of Modi in the Hindi film industry will soon come up with multiple “patriotic” scripts to build up support for the megalomaniac dictator’s fascist regime.
Many urban, upper caste Hindu elites and middle class will consume such content and join the chorus demanding an all-out war with Pakistan. They will surely lambast Navjot Singh Sidhu for questioning the extreme jingoistic fervour officially sponsored by the Modi regime all over India. They are the one who will support the rumbustious mob attacking Kashmiri people and Muslim residents in Jammu, Bihar, Uttarakhand, etc, as they seek gory atrocities against the Kashmiri people in particular and Muslims in general to satisfy their Brahminical blood lust.
What makes this section of the population, which is nearly 25% of the population including a large number of vegetarian food terrorists — those who consider the myth that consuming meat makes a human being violent — to vouch for violence to resolve a political deadlock caused in Kashmir? The answer to this question can be found in the history of these classes and the socio-economic position of their caste groups in the present society.
Throughout history, the upper-caste Hindus had got the lower caste Hindus to fight wars on their behalf. Though the upper-caste kshatriya was supposed to be the custodian of a state’s weapons and protect it, the actual work was entrusted on the lower caste shudras, who were drafted in the armies of different rulers to fight the battles and protect the rule of the upper-caste rulers.
The British colonial rulers formed a united military command after taking over the reins of the colony from the East India Company and their British Indian Army became one of the most brutal and notorious armies in the history of the world.
The British colonial rulers proudly declared that they have raised a huge army consisting of Indian men, paid with Indian money to kill and oppress their fellow Indians. From Jallianwalabagh to other horrendous massacres, the colonial army’s men, irrespective of their religious or caste lineages, didn’t blink their eyes before executing any heinous crime against humanity following the order of their European officers. It was only a job for them, like any other, devoid of any ideology or nationalist values.
In the British Indian Army, the British colonial rulers didn’t allow the Indian sub-continent natives to become an officer. The officers were considered the elite members of the white European society and after the British left India partitioning the land to create two distinct and hostile entities — India and Pakistan — the army was distributed between the new rulers of these two states without any change in form, structure, ideology or principles. There was no democratisation or sanitisation of the military and it just changed the insignia to express loyalty towards the newly founded government, while carrying on the colonial legacy and attitude.
Since the colonial-era rules, regulations, practices and ranks still exist in the armed forces and paramilitary forces, therefore, it’s often found that the highest ranks of the military establishment are manned by upper-caste Hindus, Sikhs and very rarely few Christians or Muslims. It’s rare to see Dalits, tribal people or backward caste Hindus getting the opportunity to become officers of higher ranks, rather, in most cases, the division of labour at the lowest level in the armed forces is done on the basis of the caste system.
Hence, one will always find sweepers, cleaners, drivers, gardeners, orderlies, cobblers and washermen from those castes, which have been forced to do such menial labour historically. No upper-caste Hindus can be seen in these jobs at any point in time. Similarly, one will always find upper-caste Hindus in the role of cooks, priests, etc, as per the caste system. Most of the frontline soldiers come from backward castes, followed by members of Dalit and tribal communities. The lowest ranks of the armed forces swell with these Bahujan people, while the upper-castes monopolise the leadership roles following Indian Brahminical tradition.
Though there is a general, unwritten rule in the military to keep a minimal presence of the Muslim community in all branches of defence due to the sheer Islamophobic character of the establishment, at times a few Muslims are chosen for higher ranks to showcase India’s inclusivity vis-a-vis neighbouring Pakistan. Yet, most of the officers who have risen to the higher echelons of the Indian military establishment from the Muslim community unsurprisingly belong to the upper-caste ashraf, while the lower-caste Muslims, the pasmandas never go anywhere close to the establishment, forget the higher roles.
In case of a war, if one breaks out tomorrow, or in case of the civil war going on in different parts like Chhattisgarh, Manipur, Nagaland, Assam, etc, the majority of the soldiers who will have to die en masse fighting on behalf of the government to appease the blood lust of the upper-caste elites and middle class, will belong to the Bahujan community. It will be those like Tej Bahadur Yadav, a hapless soldier who either has to face an enemy bullet or lose his job if he complains about poor food quality. It will be like those many soldiers who commit suicide due to the stress their inhuman job adds to their lives.
Yet, they appear for the “run” to qualify and enrol in the army or the paramilitary, they willfully go to fight and persecute other people from the oppressed classes and communities, because this is the only job for many of them, who would never get any other opportunity at the places where they belong from. Thus they run, they climb, they fight, kill and get killed to ensure their families get enough to eat. It’s the tale of poverty, lack of opportunities and the threat of financial insecurity that will continue to drive young men to join the military and paramilitary forces, not the blood lust that drives an average bigoted, Hindutva-incensed nincompoop.
These urban elites and middle class haven’t experienced the pain of war. Living in Delhi, Mumbai or Bengaluru, they can vent out their anger through their keyboards and call for war, yet, unlike the European people or the Chinese or the Vietnamese, these people haven’t seen the tragic side, the repercussions of war.
The three official wars and two border conflicts that India fought with two of its neighbours didn’t reach the interior of the country. There was no displacement in Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru or Chennai due to these wars. There were no enemy planes bombing these cities, no shells bursting outside schools or offices, there were no massive civilian casualties in these wars, except they brought hunger, black marketing, poverty due to inflation and affected the workers and the peasants the most.
Urban, upper-caste Hindu, elites and middle class didn’t suffer much due to these wars, except for the death of few officers from their strata. They haven’t seen the wars as closely as the Europeans, the Chinese, the Vietnamese, the Koreans, etc, the grandparents didn’t pass on the warning about wars to their grandchildren in India as the Second World War remained far away from India. Thus, it’s normal to find here war enthusiasts; it’s normal to find out these privileged lot reading Mein Kampf, which is considered as a despicable piece of literature in the whole world, or wearing Nazi insignia for fun or to show “attitude”.
Far away from the borders, far away from the death zone, cocooned in their safe havens they can easily vouch for a war with Pakistan or China because they know it won’t be they who will have to face the bullets, shells and grenades, rather some “expendable” poor Bahujan will be there to do his job, the job that asks for killing and dying for a government.
They have no choice, they have no privilege to sit back in a safe haven and lecture people on patriotism, they know if they don’t fight they won’t survive, their families will be economically ruined. Getting killed in action will at least help their families with a regular pension, though the promise to implement one rank one pension was breached by the Modi regime.
Ask any close family members of those who are killed in the line of duty throughout India if they want a war, and obviously, the answer will be in negative because it’s the poor, the socio-economically backward people who need peace the most as it guarantees them at least a chance to survive. At least in the peacetime, they will know their family members have less chance to be killed than during the period of war. They know whoever will die, the loss will be to families like them in a predatory war, as it will take away the hope and of course, an important wage earner, from such families.
These poor Bahujan people for whom being in the military is a compulsion and not a joy, will never want a war, will never want to venture out in jungles or villages to kill tribal people unless they are compelled to do so. It’s said, no one understands the pain of a war more than a soldier because a soldier knows that those who will be killed by his or her bullets are most likely the soldiers of the other side, sent to die at the frontiers by their political bosses. The political bosses who would publicly exhibit their patriotism by writing on social media, appearing in television shows or by simply clicking selfies with soldiers but never venture into the fronts to participate in the wars themselves.
It’s impossible to expect normalcy from these privileged caste and class groups in India due to their historic alignment with the oppressor classes and powers. They are the one who fascinates about Zionist Israel and wants New Delhi to pursue a similar or a far more notorious agenda to colonise the people of Kashmir, Nagaland and other parts. They are those who love to hail the US imperialism, and inherently, they despise the idea of socio-economic, ethnic, religious, gender and political equality guaranteed and enforced by a Constitution.
Thus, their obstreperous behaviour is absolutely predictable during such a post-attack phase. The political optics of this rumbustious outburst may look promising to the BJP, but for the common people, the working class, the farmers and the toiling masses struggling for their right to exist and right to the wealth they create through their labour, it’s a challenge.
It’s a challenge because the discourse around war and chauvinism fanned by the Modi regime will not only divert the mass attention from the deteriorating socio-economic condition and the failures of the government in generating employment, providing better income to the farmers, providing better health and education opportunities to the common people but will also confine it within the narrow walls of sectarianism and jingoism.
To defeat this menace, to defeat these privileged warmongers in the society, who have a fetish for violence, bloodshed and brutal oppression on the people who decline to show obeisance towards them and those in power, it’s necessary to build up a nationwide democratic and anti-fascist movement to detoxify the common people from the virus of jingoism and xenophobia through which the privileged sections captivate their thinking capacity.
It’s important to strengthen the farmers’ and workers’ movements to ensure that the country can again see the peasants’ Long March to Mumbai, the workers’ rally to New Delhi, which the Modi regime is trying to stop using its brute force. The more the political discourse will tilt towards the working class and the farmers from the present hyper jingoistic mode, the more the forces of democracy and class struggle can allow peace to have an upper-hand over the upper-caste elite and middle class’s vociferous cacophony for war with Pakistan.
