Atal Bihari Vajpayee, a former prime minister, visited the Minar-e-Pakistan in Lahore in 1999. It represented the Indian State’s acknowledgement of Pakistan’s sovereignty. Prime Minister Narendra Modi emphasised the enduring attraction of spiritual traditions that uphold the underlying oneness of us all in a letter on December 1, 2022, the day India assumed the G20 leadership. He repeated the proverb ‘Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam,’ which means ‘The world is one family’. However, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, the governing party’s ideological nexus, has persisted in singing a different tune. According to RSS Chief Mohan Bhagwat in April 2022, ‘Akhand Bharat’ may come to pass within the next 10 to 15 years.
The Akhand Bharat argument
Hindutva proponents have conceived Akhand Bharat as a geographical space comprising a subcontinent that identifies itself with Hindu civilisation and cultural homogeneity. The contemporary spine of this argument rides on the notion that with Partition, Bharat (India) has been unfairly and unacceptably divided. So the statement by National Security Advisor Ajit Doval in November 2021, which said that India’s civil society is the new frontier of war, echoes Savarkar’s first phase for the realisation of Akhand Bhartat.
India’s top military leaders have said that if and when orders are given, the Army will be ready to reclaim Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (PoK) from China. Political rhetoric seemed to find military backing even as China posed a military threat on the northern border with India. On the other hand, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh has consistently maintained that it is only a matter of time before PoK is recovered.
Misplaced military threats benefit enemies
Whenever India’s political or military leaders brandish threats during periods of ‘uneasy peace’, Pakistan Army becomes the main beneficiary. This is because such threats strengthen their institutional grip on national security policies and provide oxygen for their power base in national politics. Strategically, India is disadvantaged as it reinforces the Pakistan Army institutionally and further reduces chances for improving relations.
Rajnath Singh’s assertions of ‘taking back PoK’ and ‘Partition on religious lines was a historic mistake’ could be drawing ideological sustenance from the notion of Akhand Bharat. Military institutions must keep ideological concepts at arm’s length and not allow them to enter its portals. But when they echo the Defence Minister, military leaders are susceptible to being party to an ideological concept based on a Hindu superiority construct, which runs afoul of India’s constitutional values.
Akhand Bharat should be no-go territory
The door for Akhand Bharat may have been opened by Prime Minister Modi’s exhortation to commanders of the three Services to enhance indigenisation in the national security system. There is nothing wrong with interest in Kautilya’s Arthashastra, which has been neglected by the Armed Forces for long. The military, as the ultimate sword arm of the State, must endeavour to retain its apolitical character.
The NSA’s statement about war with civil society is perhaps one that appears religious in character. There is room for doubt that the first phase of the Akhand Bharat strategy, which deals with ‘religious foreigners’ like Muslims and Christians, may already be under way. The military, as the ultimate sword arm of the State, must endeavour to retain its apolitical character.
Ideological constructs like Akhand Bharat and keeping them from professional military education should not be difficult for Armed Forces leadership. Any opening, institutionally provided, would mean kowtowing and weakening the apolitical character of the military top brass. The Army cannot afford to lose focus on the threat developing at its Northern Borders. It must not get waylaid by the relentless cacophony of India’s democratic politics.
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