Delusion of Military War Since Independence

To wage a war against an enemy state the state must have intellectual power, military might and morale to fight a war but along with that a state must have the capability to decide the place and time of the war these two things ensures the strategic, tactical and operational superiority of a state. Choosing the right time and right place/terrain enables the state to win over their enemy.

            Pakistan and India are in direct confrontation with each other since independence, it has been 7 decades of continuous confrontation in which four full-fledged wars have been fought. In 1971, Indian armed forces infiltrated in East Pakistan and lead the way towards the disintegration of Pakistan and resultingly Bangladesh war formed, several military standoffs and skirmishes have happened between Pakistan and India, continuous deployment of military forces on the Line of Control and in the world’s highest battleground that is Siachen where billions of dollars are being spent each year of both countries, thus resultingly India has engaged Pakistan in continuous war since independence.

It is misunderstood on the part of Pakistani policymakers that India never chose physical fighting of war with Pakistan and will never will in the future. India from the very beginning chose to fight a war against Pakistan on economic terrain by blocking Pakistan’s due share of finances in the Reserve Bank of India, by blocking Pakistan’s water and hurting its economy, by engaging Pakistan in full-fledged wars and pushing Pakistan into a security dilemma by building its arms and nuclear programme, and thus Pakistan en route its economic resources in the arms buildup and excessive military developments rather than to invest in the development of human capital and enhance its huge chunk of youth human capital.

On contrary India fulfilled its military needs by building its international relations with the world powers and building military and civil alliances with the rest of the world and in the meanwhile, India invested its indigenous resources on the development of its human capital which is paying back now to India as India’s bilateral trade with China is more than 100 billion dollars and the IT sector of the world is dependent on the Indian IT sector.

After the Second World War, the world has changed from physical annexation to economic influence. In terms of Pakistan and Indian rivalry, India chose economic terrain to wage a war against Pakistan and has hit Pakistan hard diplomatically, economically by the huge development of its international network of its relations and due to these Pakistan is slowly being isolated economically, diplomatically, and politically and this is the reason why Pakistan’s policymakers are slow in making their minds to decide in favor of Kashmir especially in the current situation after the renouncement of article 370 and 35(a).

            All of this will continue until and unless Pakistan start to take decisions proactively and Pakistan needs to avoid a reactionary approach in decision making process.

Pakistan Zindabaad

Published by

Ashiq e Rasool
Research Scholar of NDU, Islamabad