What India can learn from Sun Tzu’s ‘Art of War’ as tensions with Pakistan rise

India has hit back after the Pahalgam terrorist strike of April 22. As this column goes to press, there are reports of at least nine targets hit across the border in the wee hours of May 7. Quite significantly, India’s manoeuvre has been named “Operation Sindoor.” Sindoor refers to the vermillion mark on a married women’s forehead, which was wiped out tragically when their husbands were gunned down in front of their eyes.

What next? I hope there is little or no escalation of hostilities between the two sub-continental nuclear-armed powers, which were one country before August 1947. As I argued in my last column, war, in any civilised society, is the option of last resort. The costs of war are too high for countries such as India and Pakistan, which have a long way to go to improve the basic living conditions of their large populations. Those who are baying for blood on both sides of the border are sure to rue the deadly costs of war when they themselves or their own near and dear ones are hurt.