After Pahalgam, a nation united in battling terror

Trusting the government to do the right thing with all its might and maturity, we must assist it by resisting giving in to communal passions

The Indian State has to be saluted for the reflexive maturity shown by it to the Pahalgam carnage. Prime Minister Narendra Modi cutting short his visit to Saudi Arabia, directing the Union home minister to visit Kashmir and take stock of the situation immediately, and the swift identification of immediate retaliatory steps against Pakistan from where the terrorists obviously crept into Kashmir, are exactly what can be expected of a self-respecting government. The scrapping of visa facilities, the sealing of the Attari check-post , the expulsion of a certain number of Pakistan officials from its High Commission in India, and the suspension of the Indus Water Treaty (IWT) are actions that no ruling dispensation in India could have failed to consider and execute. And we can be sure that plans that cannot be revealed for reasons of security and intelligence are underway to give the masterminds of the attack the lesson they deserve.

There is something very important in this preparedness we must remind ourselves at all times: Readiness for war is one thing, the mongering of war quite another (Hindustan Times)

But there is no doubt that the terrorists have heard from India the resounding message: “Jumhuriyat-e-Hind ke sath jurrat agar karoge, to Khabardar, na tum bachoge na tumhare neech iraade!” (Those who have the gall to trifle with the Republic of India, beware! Neither will you survive nor your base plans.)

The unmistakable clarity of this message has been strengthened by the unambiguous support India has got from two of the world’s most powerful nations: Russia and the US, besides support from other governments across the world, including Saudi Arabia, with all of whom New Delhi has been in constructive engagement.

It is one of the most remarkable features of our country — and of us, its citizens — that when calamity strikes, all differences stand paused and the nation thinks and acts as one. This is no ordinary achievement or talent, given our differences are great and greatly agitate us in what may be called democracy’s “normal times”.

And so, it has been in this hour of grief and anger. We have all pledged our solidarity and support, accompanied by spontaneous outpourings of material participation. We are not a wealthy populace, but we are a people rich with giving and sharing instincts. The Union government and the government of Jammu & Kashmir can be sure that India stands rock-solid with them in whatever they need to do at this juncture. Civilian aid for national defence has been, in India, a time-honoured practice and tradition.

Does this amount to acknowledging that we, the people of India, must now be ready for war breaking out between the two countries? Let us know this: Such a possibility is real. Not just because we have been outraged and will not take Pakistan’s jurrat (audacity) in Pahalgam lying down, but because a counter-narrative in Pakistan needs to be heard in real-time. Given the audacity of the Pahalgam attack, Pakistan cannot but go into defensive rhetoric — which often strays into offensive vocabulary. That country knows what it has brought upon itself by brazen acts of omission, if not commission, at the very least. So, any step India takes in terms of military options will be met by matching steps for war.

If things do come to that pass, we, the people of India, must and will say, “So be it, so be it. We will face that ‘match’ and will emerge stronger for it; terrorism won’t be allowed to get away with such a heinous crime.”

There is something very important in this preparedness we must remind ourselves at all times: Readiness for war is one thing, the mongering of war quite another. The exactions of war are always painful, and those of war between two countries with nuclear arsenals can be apocalyptic. India is a nuclear power with a tradition of nuclear wisdom and a history of active advocacies for nuclear restraints and disarmament. Is Pakistan’s record in that direction the same? The history of its nuclear weaponisation speaks for itself.

India can, and will, calibrate its military options with maturity.

As a people, we must not only be part of that maturity but also do something else. Terrorists of the type that Pahalgam saw, given their vileness, are understood to have three aims: First, on-the-spot bloodletting and carnage; second, the spreading of sectarian hate and inflaming of communal passions; and third, provoking a larger conflagration, namely, war.

Totally and unreservedly trusting the government of India to do the right thing with all its might and maturity, we must assist it by saying a roaring “No!” to any communal passions we may harbour, which others may try to stir. “Do your worst,” we must say to terrorism, “and you will pay for every such act. But don’t think for a moment it will poison our lives and our souls with your venom. Your cowardly, face-hidden, murdering of peace, harmony, and trust, we hold in contempt. The narrative of Two Nations may have won a separate nation, but we are not going to allow your narrative of hating nations divide our One Nation, which is home to Hindus, Muslims and Sikh alike. India that is Bharat is a seat of values your fiendish minds can’t comprehend.”

And we must tell ourselves that the blood spilt on the gentle dales of Pahalgam on April 22 — like that spilt on the dew-laden grass of Tees January Marg on January 30 — proclaims our faith in humanity even as it exposes the evil of bullets and bombs targeted at humanity.

We, as India’s civilian force, must offer our unified solidarity to our armed forces, without a drop of blood being allowed to be spilt amongst ourselves by the “second wave of terror”, namely, inflamed communal passions. And while being prepared for the possibility of war, we must do so without allowing terrorism to infect us with their craving for it.

While terrorists and terrorism have, we know, echo chambers galore in Pakistan, that country also has persons with sagacity and maturity enough to despise violence and abhor hatred. Pakistan (and Bangladesh) have been carved out from India. They have much more than a few people and opinion-makers who would be horrified by what happened in Pahalgam. We do not know of them as well as we should. We must hope they will say the same roaring “No!” to the wholesalers and retailers of communalism there. The great Guru Nanak joined the elements in Kartarpur which fate has decreed to lie in Pakistan — we must pray, for the good of humanity on both sides of the Radcliffe Line.

Harking to the call given to us by that great Indian, Lal Bahadur Shastri, we must wish the Indian State every strength and success in meeting this challenge, and say “Jai Jawan, Jai Kisan”, adding to it “Jai Insaan”. Our creed is insaniyat (humanity), we must say to the gutless gun-toters at Pahalgam, not haivaniyat (evil). Once again, “Khabardar, don’t you trifle with India and its insaniyat!”

Gopalkrishna Gandhi, a former administrator, is a student of modern Indian history. The views expressed are personal