Counterpoint: Buddha and the blood in Pahalgam

Counterpoint: Buddha and the blood in Pahalgam

By Vivekanand Jha*

The Buddha was particular in prescribing the duty for the defence of sovereignty. Significantly, when Singh Senapati, the general of Magadha, sought to probe the Buddha deeper into several realms, including the war as well as metaphysics, the Buddha was categorical in terms of spelling his vision which, unfortunately as the time passed, stood distorted and misinterpreted to depict the Buddha as a peacenik whose ethereal wisdom was more quixotic than the one based on the touchstone of reality.

When Singh Senapati asked the Buddha what his duty would be as the general of Magadha, when enemies confronted him, the Buddha, in all candour, propounded that his onerous duty, in the wake of being attacked by the enemy, was to fight and win the war. Taken aback by this unexpected prescription, Singh Senapati almost exclaimed, ‘But, my lord, it would be antithetical to your ideology, which is irrevocably premised on peace and non-violence. How come fighting a war, shedding blood by killing people, does not contradict your ideological scruples? The Buddha said, ‘Taking to violence as a counter to the same, should not be construed as violence at all. You are resorting to violence to stop violence; your endeavours in this direction are to confront violence through the force of violence, tantamount to promoting peace and non-violence. Whereas on the other hand, if you run away from the war, letting your enemies run amok, your people and your kingdom, you can never buy peace or propagate non-violence.’

Ostensibly, the Buddha’s prescription invariably explodes the shibboleths as prevalent hitherto; it, in fact, calls for the complete demolition of the myths surrounding peace and non-violence as propagated by the greatest human ever born on earth– one and only, Tathagata Buddha.

Also read: Counterpoint: Buddha’s non-violence versus Gandhi’s pacifism

The rogue Pakistan, the nation which had come into existence through treachery and deceit, has countenanced the very vision of bleeding India by a thousand cuts. The latest of which is the genocide perpetrated against innocent Hindu tourists in Pahalgam, causing a global hue and cry. Worse still, in a brazen exhibition of the humongous crime, which has sent shock waves across the world, was the targeted killing based on religion–the assassins enquired about the religious identity of the people before mercilessly killing them. Adding a further disgrace to the whole episode, the terrorists had asked the victims to read Kalma, and in the wake of their failure to do so, playfully pumped bullets at them.

These brazen acts of savagery blow into smithereens the very modicum of semblance of modernity where human beings are exploring space to discover new horizons for human edification. Further, terrorists and their handlers, the Pakistani Army and Inter Services Intelligence, irreconcilably believed that India, having earned an eternal ‘soft state’ tag, would seldom retaliate with full might; for even if India retaliated, it would be at an insignificant scale.

However, India has of late been trying to transform its image from that of being a ‘ soft state’ into a nation which reacts strongly to terrorists’ actions– Uri, Balakot– were the few precedents the government laid to show the outside world that India is no more a nation of taking the candle march when terrorists bled it by thousand cuts.

India, albeit for the first time ever since India’s independence, has developed the doctrine of  ‘Ghar mein ghush kar marenge‘. This robust resolve of Narendra Modi was openly being challenged when the terrorists, sparing the lives of women, after killing their husbands, condescendingly told one of them who pleaded to be killed alongside her husband,  “Nahin marenge. Tum Modi ko jaake bolo (I won’t kill you. Go tell this to Modi).”

This was mocking the highest authority of the government of India, which thankfully, the Cabinet Committee on Security Affairs (CCSA) took it very seriously, as it all along deserved.

Significantly, the Modi government has acted decisively after the post-Pahalgam terror attack. The Cabinet Committee on Security Affairs’ unprecedented decision to put to abeyance the Indus Waters Treaty of 1960, the shutting of Attari-Wagah Border, along with reducing the diplomatic strength in embassies, will certainly exert pressure upon Pakistan.

However, will the Indian government also conduct the surgical strike, to annihilate the terrorists’ camps, and decimate terrorists operating from Pakistan, is the question being asked in an atmosphere highly surcharged.

With the scenario unfolding, my state of mind stands deeply perturbed as certain inscrutable facts defy all logic and rationale. The bitter fact becomes all the more nuanced when the terrorists sought to kill civilians based on their religion. Ironically, Asim Munir, the rogue Pakistani Army Chief, in the course of his addressing the Pakistani diaspora in recent days, had sought to berate Hindus, his own progenitor, in the vilest of terms. Indubitably, if Munir goes on digging his past, he would disconcertingly discover that he too hailed from a Hindu heritage.

*Author, academician and public intellectual. The published views are personal.