Psychological warfare is a large part of covert operations, and these include playing the religion card among a number of other activities.  Media including Films and TV dramas as well as music, all of these elements are used successfully to create an impression among the audiences, of how a nation is, what are its nuances, how threatening could it be, how the westernised notion of secularism treats its citizens etc. Pakistan is a sizeable market for the consumption of any narrative built by the Indian cinema, and because Bollywood is run by a mostly state criticising, minority appeasing, focused on vested interests body, we have been unsuccessful in using this tool to our benefit.  There have been a few movies on point, but this channel could be made far more effective if used wisely.

China on the other hand does not share a cultural background with us, so we have to consider other areas to cultivate soft targets and infiltrate.  The most obvious and available option is owning Taiwan.  The country has the same culture as China, and they are just like India and a much less venomous version of Pakistan.  They have the same kind of divided communities who usually are the primary source of intelligence in such situations. They are willing to bring all of their FDI in the vicinity of USD 80 billion, which presently goes to China, into Bharath.  They are also the prime mappers of the Chinese Cyber Grid, which will help immensely in improving our cyber warfare, which is way below desirable level at the moment.  In return, they are asking for a flag and an embassy in Bharath. However, for reasons beyond comprehension, we have restricted ourselves from pursuing this course of action.

In addition to Taiwan, we also have Tibet which should be milked to our benefit.  We have access to the young MPs of Tibet who are part of the Tibetian government in exile in Dharamsala. We should train and militraise them similar to how China is weaponising the Naga and Manipuri rebels.

We seem to have trapped ourselves into a morality straitjacket, which is perhaps alien to our nature, and this has led us to fall into a policy and initiative paralysis.   We have been lulled into a false sense of Ahimsagiri which is completely opposite to our Vedas.  The scripture in these ancient encyclopedias of wisdom instructs us, that we should force as the last resort, but when you do use it, do this in absoluteterms, to destroy the adversary state. It is pertinent that we make efforts to reclaim our Kuttayuddha heritage, and imbibe this notion into our generations to come. According to Sri Bharat Karnad, military training should be made mandatory, specially for anyone who is looking to enroll into any kind of government service, to the extent that military service becomes the basis of entry into all government services.  He says that, in the foremost, this will help us learn to think as a unitary state on continuous basis, a body which is like the Bhartiya concept of Raja or King.  Sri Karnad goes on to stress the importance of strengthening a Modified Quad, which is the face of anti-US stand of Bharath, as he holds that all great powers are their own great friends first and foremost.  He suggests that India should have a lose, non- institutionalised security coalition with Brazil, Russia, and South Africa (BRIS), where the seas can be jointly controlled via Brazil for the Atlantic, Simon Stout – South African naval base, and the Indian Ocean by Bharath.  He insists on the importance of all policy-makers having a basic knowledge of military geography – what geographical terrain can help what military courses, and what capabilities are required to do that.  He mentions that in addition to BRIS, the Modified Quadulateral or  MOD Quad will be the other security coalition including the ASEAN countries which Bharath should form, and thus secure its terrain and presence in the region to confront China.  He says that Bharath already has a  presence in Indonesia and Vietnam and we should immediately put in our forces there.  In this manner, he suggests that Bharath militarise the neighbouring countries surrounding China.

One cannot afford to have scruples around an unscrupulous enemy. Therefore we must pull ourselves out of the inertia of Ahimsa, and actively work towards reclaiming our Kuttayuddha heritage.

DISCLAIMER: The author is solely responsible for the views expressed in this article. The author carries the responsibility for citing and/or licensing of images utilized within the text.