By: Yildiz Subuk, Staff Writer
Content warning: mentions of war, terrorism, and genocide.
Operation Sindoor, a military operation executed on May 7 by the Indian government, disguised murder as a “noble” act. The operation was a response to the catastrophic April 22 terrorist attack that killed 26 civilians in the Indian–occupied Pahalgam in Kashmir. Kashmir is a region in the Indian subcontinent. It is also occupied by Pakistan and China. Disputes over the land have been an ongoing source of tension between India and Pakistan since their partition in 1947. Kashmiris have continually asserted their independence.
The Indian military claimed Operation Sindoor was to dismantle the terrorist groups responsible for the Pahalgam attack, and that it was targeting nine terrorist bases in Pakistan and Pakistani-controlled areas in Kashmir. However, they bombed mosques and killed at least 31 civilians, including children, and injured at least 57. They painted it as a success and celebrated its completion, as if the innocent lives of Pakistanis don’t matter.
The Pahalgam attack struck sadness, anger, and anxiety for what the tension between two nuclear-backed enemies would mean for the future. A war between India and Pakistan would mean countless more deaths, and people were rightfully scared. It is unclear whether the groups responsible for the attack were backed by or connected to Pakistan, though Pakistan denies they were. India hastily struck Pakistan without a neutral investigation, and with carelessness for innocent lives. Conveniently, the high emotions of the Indian population were further appropriated to justify India’s destructive mission.
They bombed mosques and killed at least 31 civilians, including children.
The name of the operation itself carries symbolic value that narrate the operation as a heroic response. Sindoor is a red powder placed on the forehead of married Hindu women. The sindoor is erased once a woman becomes widowed. The traditional practice has been co-opted by the military to signify that this operation was to avenge the women whose husbands were killed in the Pahalgam attack. The video posted on Instagram by the Indian military shows a bowl with the red powder being spilled, resembling blood. The video also dramatizes the Indian army’s military procedure, with the hashtag #JusticeServed.
The Hindustan Times claimed the military dismantled “terror camps,” while The New Indian Express said the story of the operation had successes to it. The Pahalgam attack went after Hindu men, so using Hindu symbolism to launch a retaliation becomes vital when playing on the public’s emotions.
The rhetoric surrounding Operation Sindoor mirrors what Israel used after the October 7 attack in 2023. Israel claimed to be using self defense and targeting Hamas in its attacks. However, they bombed public places where civilians, women, and children were, including mosques, schools, and hospitals. Israel used the attack to their advantage to carry out the ongoing genocide. Many mainstream publications framed the deaths of innocent Palestinians as incidental, deflecting Israel’s responsibility by using language like “caught in the crossfire.” While the power dynamics involved in both issues are separate in that Israel occupies Palestine, both Israel and India depended on a similar violent rhetoric of dehumanization to sweep aside needless murder as self-defense.
India and Israel are both run by right-wing ethno-nationalist extremist parties. India had opposed the creation of the state of Israel, but in recent years, India and Israel have strengthened their ties as Indian Prime Minster Narendra Modi has popularized Hindu Nationalism. Modi was the first Indian Prime Minister to visit Israel, in 2017. It’s clear India’s Bharatiya Janata Party is following their playbook. Operation Sindoor was not conducted as a necessary defense measure, or a noble cause, but as an act of terrorism itself.
