A year after their brief war in 2025, both India and Pakistan are revving up their war frenzy. The drums of victory are being beaten with nationalistic zeal on both sides. The two nations teem with jingoism, a sense of national pride and fervor, and projections of military might.
Interestingly, both sides are celebrating what they claim as a decisive victory. In Pakistan, Marka-e-Haq (Battle of Truth) commemorations are in full swing, with the government designating May 10 as the “Day of the Battle of Truth” as a national holiday. Ceremonies at military headquarters honor the armed forces’ “courage and competence.” TV channels broadcast marathon transmissions, while nationwide events—rallies, parades, concerts, and wreath-laying ceremonies—pay tribute to military leadership and the success of Operation Solid Wall.
In India, too, the BJP government under Prime Minister Narendra Modi is in full celebratory mode. On the first anniversary, Modi changed his profile picture on X to the official logo of Operation Sindoor—named after a traditional vermillion dye—and urged every Indian to do the same. He posted that India’s armed forces displayed “unparalleled courage, precision, and resolve” and gave a “fitting response” to the perpetrators of the Pahalgam terror attack. Several senior ministers and BJP leaders followed suit. Air Marshal Awadhesh Kumar Bharti addressed press conferences on the anniversary, claiming the destruction of 13 Pakistani aircraft and strikes on 11 airfields, while asserting that India’s objectives were fully achieved.
Whoever the tactical winner or loser of this conflict might have been, the larger question remains: Is this nationalistic fervor and zeal worth celebrating? Regardless of who started the conflict, how many bases were struck with how many missiles, or the number of jets downed, one must ask, this kind of celebration is not a mark of sanity.
The conflict was triggered on April 22, 2025 by a terror attack in Pahalgam, Indian-administered Kashmir, that killed 26 civilians, mostly Hindu tourists. India blamed Pakistan-based militant groups and launched Operation Sindoor on May 7. Pakistan denied involvement and responded with Operation Bunyan-un-Marsoos. Four days of intense fighting followed before a ceasefire.
In India, majoritarian Hindu nationalism and anti-Muslim rhetoric have gained significant ground in recent years. Reports have documented over 1,300 hate speech incidents targeting religious minorities in 2025 alone, with the vast majority directed at Muslims. Some media and social platforms amplify these communal narratives, making rational discussion on Pakistan difficult. This irrationality and rage-bait were particularly visible during last year’s conflict.
At the same time, Pakistan has witnessed its own surge in nationalist fervor. The military’s public image has been strongly elevated, state-aligned media runs intense patriotic coverage, and criticism of the establishment is often curtailed. The question of what Operation Bunyan-un-Marsoos actually achieved—beyond consolidating the military’s grip on the national story—has gone largely unasked in Pakistan’s mainstream discourse. Social media amplifies this on both sides, with keyboard warriors from both countries riled up with anger and hate, busy vilifying each other.
The subcontinent is home to over 1.65 billion people—India with more than 1.4 billion and Pakistan around 240 million. The masses are being fed heavy doses of nationalistic zeal. The “enemy” has been successfully otherized and villainized. The result is a populace distracted from paying attention to more pressing issues.
The real winner in this conflict is the military and nationalist regimes on both sides, who consolidate power through chest-thumping and grand commemorations. In India, the BJP government has used conflict and Hindu nationalism to build political capital for election campaigns. Anti-Pakistan hatred and Islamophobia have been weaponized to fuel strong public sentiments and secure votes. In Pakistan too, the conflict has been skillfully used to build political and diplomatic clout for the military, both at home and abroad, leveraging the crisis for strategic positioning in the region.
In a region plagued by poverty, huge sums of money are poured into defense amid a relentless arms race. Pakistan raised its defense spending by around 20 percent to approximately $9 billion. India’s defense budget for 2025-26 stands at roughly $78 billion , nearly nine to ten times larger with further increases projected.
Poverty remains a stark reality. India has made notable progress, reducing extreme poverty to around 5.3 percent by recent World Bank estimates . Yet that still means roughly 75 million people living on less than $3 a day, with hundreds of millions more living above that narrow line but far below any meaningful standard of dignity. Pakistan struggles more severely, with close to 40 percent of its population living below the national poverty line, compounded by an IMF program that forces cuts in social spending even as the defense budget balloons.
The underlying conflict, especially cross-border terrorism and the Kashmir dispute, can’t be solved overnight. In a realistic world, resolution may take decades. But constantly pushing zero-sum narratives and escalating an arms race between well-armed neighbors is profoundly dangerous.
Both countries are also nuclear powers. Any miscalculation or escalation could prove catastrophic for the region and the world. It is vital to keep channels of dialogue open and actively strive for a peaceful resolution through sustained diplomacy, including Track II dialogues and backchannel engagement.
Recent statements by RSS Secretary General Dattatreya Hosabale—whose organization is the ideological parent of Modi’s BJP—and former Indian army chief General Manoj Naravane are a welcome step in the right direction. Hosabale said there “should always be a window for dialogue” between India and Pakistan, emphasizing people-to-people contacts, while Naravane stressed that Track II diplomacy and civic exchanges remain “very important.” There needs to be more of this.
Hyper-nationalist narratives add fuel to the fire. Sane, rational voices are increasingly rare in South Asia. They must be amplified and supported before it is too late.
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