There are two kinds of people in the world. Smart people and foolish people.
Smart people are realistic; they understand the world. Smart people want war. Foolish people are unrealistic and are anti-war. Smart people say we must go to war after a terror attack.
Why? So that terrorists or the state sponsoring them don't dare to do it again. So that they understand: if you kill one of ours, we will kill four of yours.
Each time, smart people announce the beginning of history.
The Grief That Demands War
It is the beginning of history because when they say this, you're not supposed to ask: don't we keep going to war? Why doesn't this stop them? Stupid people ask a lot of questions, it is an incorrigible trait. Only prisons and death stop these questions, and sometimes not even that.
"They" perpetrated a terror attack on us. Killed our people. Our people suffered. Women were widowed. Children lost their fathers. Mothers deprived of their sons. This is bad. Our people suffering is bad. We must go to war.
Medium-grade foolish people say will more of our people die, lose partners, children, and parents if we go to war, and if yes, why are we causing ourselves the same pain that those we despise have caused us?
Extreme-grade foolish people are worse. They say if suffering is bad, if it is heart wrenching to look in the eyes of a child who has lost her father, if the pain of a newlywed woman can split the sky, if only monsters do such things, why do we want to be monsters? When we see a wailing child or bride, should we pause our response until we ask their nationality—feel glee if it's Pakistani, and grief if it's an Indian. If yes, how different will be from the terrorists in Pahalgam?
How Smart People Silence the Foolish
Smart people say they want to go to war because they find the grief of widowed Indian women unbearable. Smart people attack those very women when they say foolish things, such as "please don't attack Indian Muslims or Kashmiris."
Smart people tell us that Asim Munir is a madman. They tell us that Pakistan is a state premised on radical fundamentalism. They tell us in official government press conferences, not once, but twice, that Pakistan wants to create a communal divide between Indians.
Foolish people enthusiastically nod. Their foolishness persists. They ask: since Asim Munir is a madman, why do we want to become Asim Munir? If Pakistan wants to create a communal divide between Indians, what are our plans for those who foment communalism inside India?
Did the Indian government not know that this is what India's enemies want? If it knew, why did the politicians who did the same prosper and those who opposed it suffer? Why don’t our actions stand in direct contrast to those our government says are our enemies? Why did people go around lynching and beating Indian Muslims after the Pahalgam terror attack? Why didn't the Prime Minister appeal for peace? Why did the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) Chhattisgarh unit put out a post that increased communal hatred?
Asim Munir is also a smart person. He says Hindus and Muslims are different and he claims to speak for Muslims. Which is why the shelling perpetrated by his army kills Muslim children.
More death. More suffering. Nuclear war. This is the solution, smart people tell us.
Foolish people insist history is old and they point to the rest of the world. When has this helped? This Indian young boy is a foolish person. Unlike Munir he says all people in all countries, even in Pakistan, should be able to live in peace.
The Fool Who Faced an Empire
Smart people think Hitler had the right ideas. Hitler shot himself dead in a bunker, shocked that he wasn't the genius he thought he was.
The West first looked away from, celebrated, and then fought Hitler. Hitler must be fought for the greater good of humanity, they said. It hadn't been long since World War I—described as the "war to end all wars"—had ended, that a new war had begun.
Foolish people also fancy a man who was shot dead. He thought that the way to beat Hitler was an obviously foolish one: non-violent protest. The greatest fool to ever have been born. Non-violent protest against Hitler's armies? What a joke. Evil, even. The world started by fighting an evil, one which they thought will end humanity. It finished with the Atom Bomb. It hopes to soon use AI in war.
When asked in an interview if the atom bomb had not rendered non-violence meaningless, Mahatma Gandhi said:
“No. It is the only thing the atom bomb cannot destroy. I did not move a muscle when I first heard that the atom bomb had wiped out Hiroshima. On the contrary, I said to myself, ‘Unless now the world adopts non-violence, it will spell certain suicide for mankind.' In other words, while a politics dedicated to the preservation of life had proven its hollowness by placing humanity itself under threat, the morality of non-violence had made such life possible by disregarding it altogether."
Devji, Faisal;. The Impossible Indian (Function). Kindle Edition.
The greatest fool would walk up to violent mobs and they would lay down their arms. He took down the greatest empire in the world. His name is now taken with reverence across the world. A smart man shot him dead. The world doesn't remember or care about that man.
Are You Not Tired?
Smart people have watched Shaurya. They share dialogues of the character played by Kay Kay Menon, who says a billion Indians owe their freedom to men like him.
(It is not, it is thanks to the democracy that Indians have given to themselves and fought to preserve. It is that democracy which Kay Kay Menon's character must defer to. If that wasn't the case, we would have Musharraf and Munir, not Nehru and Modi.)
Foolish people have also watched Shaurya. They share a clip from the same movie, one which has a poem written by Jaideep Verma and recited by Shahrukh Khan.
"Shaurya, shayad ek hausla, shayad ek himmat... humare bahut andar...
Mazhab ke banaye daayare todkar kisi ka haath thaam lene ki himmat!
Goliyon ke betahaasha shor ko apni khaamoshi se chunauti de paane ki himmat!
Marrti-maarti is duniya mein nihathe datte rehne ki himmat!
Shaurya, aane wale kal ki khaatir...
Apne hisse ki kaaynaat ko aaj bacha lene ki himmat...!"
They quote a very long poem called parchaaiyaan by Sahir Ludhianvi, which recounts in vivid detail what happens when war comes home.
"Bahut dino se hai yeh mashghala siyasat ka, ki jab jawaan ho bachche to qatl ho jaayein."
Smart people, the adults in the room, say, "He did it first." Smart people on the other side say, no no, he did it first. A list comes out. 2008. 1998. 1971. 1965. 1947. Some smarter people go even prior.
Foolish people listen to this very, very, very long list, very carefully. And then they ask smart people on both sides: Aren't you tired? Why aren't you tired? You're so smart, why aren't you tired?
(The author is a lawyer and research consultant based in Mumbai. This is an opinion piece, and the views expressed are the author’s own. The Quint neither endorses nor is responsible for them.)