By Col Prem Bahadur Thapa (Retd)
The misfortune, today, whichever way one looks, is more about chaotic disorders that tend to disrupt and overshadow all achievements of life’s labour that we are occupied with, and the trouble comes unannounced to stun even the even most optimistic believers of ‘peace triumphing over everything else’ … and the struggle to restore normalcy begins anew as if it had never ended. The Twin Towers in New York …2001, Mumbai… 2008, and, now, Moscow … 2024 besides many others. Battle orders have changed for the worse. But who are they? The fingers point towards the suspects but no country wants to own them. And thus, the Kremlin is hitting the suspects with greater rage and many innocents are also getting buried for faults they know not what.
Like many other countries, Russia is facing the brunt again since the First Great War of 1914-1918, followed immediately by the bloody encounters in a civil revolution when the same comrades in arms who had fought side by side earlier, turned against each other with equal savagery forgetting all ties. Go back a little to 1812 and readers may recollect that epic movie titled ‘War and Peace’ based on the devastating Franco-Russian War, both for the victor and the vanquished, written by one of the great authors of the last century. It’s reverberating sounds still echo strongly in the vainglory of battlefields that epitomizes our deepest desire to live life peacefully but is denied by unruly ambitions to attain glory and fame. Perpetual peace is a ‘Holy Grail’ that does not exist and the irony is… though we preach it from every pulpit, we yet immediately sail forth with armies of men and determination to eliminate the supposed detractors. Now that city went up in smoke again (23 March, 2024) and the extremists killed and wounded hundreds of innocent people, happily attending a show in one of their renowned theaters. The message is loud and clear and God help those who are not prepared.
It’s an oft repeated philosophy that says ‘if you want peace, be prepared for war’, and Mao Zedong had openly advocated that ‘power flows from the barrel of a gun’. These bitter truths were not coined by war mongering generals alone but far sighted statesmen like Kautilya from earlier India and Clausewitz from the West, besides many others. King Ashoka, the ruler of the entire Indian subcontinent except a few southern states (268 BC to 232 BC), renounced war when he saw the devastating death and destruction he had caused in the famous battle of Kalinga and embraced Buddhism. But to what avail? His vision of non-violence and peace served none other but the opportunists on the wings and the empire broke apart. In a similar reminder, Tibet, which at one time could never be subjugated by China, fell prey to the Dragon when its devotional ascendancy dictated more attention towards their religious duties, other than guarding the vulnerable frontiers. Thus, someone might justifiably ask, if that be so, why not simply fight the devil, call it war, rather than helplessly decry its terrible fallouts all the time! There is no single answer because the malaise perhaps lies deeper and no amount of wisdom has helped ever. And, therefore, Israelis and Palestinians will not give up their fight, whether it be yesterday or today, despite the clarion call to save their helpless populace. The pity is that their allies appear to support them with arsenal and gun powder ‘and enlarging the conflict’, rather than brokering peace. Thus, it is a constant reminder that none are dissimilarly placed (and the only counsel that one needs to heed is as sermonised by Lord Krishna on the battlefield of Mahabharata).
But despite it all, we have a duty too that one still owes to ‘Sense and Sensibilities’ and those farther away must raise their voices (and their helping hands too) so that the burden of grief can be lessened if not anything else. It would be unpardonable for the sake of the unfortunates if not the perpetrators. Thus, peace missions like the UNO must be resurrected and strengthened as laid down in its Charters and that is saying very little. Many aid workers from inside and outside the country who perished in Gaza must be a reminder that we must still insist rather than fear and desist. Some sanity in this unruly war, and some lives might yet be saved.
But wars, big or small, will keep happening and who knows better than the veterans who often analyse the fruits of their life’s labour while they too battled heavy odds in their ‘duty for their country and their people’. But the irony is that the ‘adversary also thinks likewise’, and the duty gets prolonged to keep nagging at the tails. (But we are giving them back in their own coin whether it is Balakot or Siachen, and that is all that counts). Someone very wisely had said, ‘The past is a source of knowledge and the future is a source of hope’. And if that be so, let’s keep our hopes alive and keep working for it. There is no better way to live.
