There’s a warlike spirit in the air. Prime-time warriors evoke a fantasy cartoon-strip machismo and call for India to “finish off” Pakistan. Well-heeled ‘nationalists’ and social media legionaries yell: nuke ’em, bomb them, flatten them. A reverential cult of the army means no questions can ever be asked about videos showing surgical strikes and cross-LoC firing. This is war as spectacle and today’s citizens adore naked displays of power; the more irrational the display, the more mesmerising it is. Rational action would never be a satisfying enough power display.
As temperatures rise on both sides, a group of Indian and Pakistani ‘peacemongers’ has signed a joint resolution urging both governments to take urgent steps to improve relations between the two nuclear-armed Read More
