As the world marks the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II in Europe this week, India inches closer to another round of military confrontation with Pakistan. The unfortunate coincidence highlights the enduring tension between India’s global possibilities and its regional constraints in the eight decades since World War II, decolonisation, and Partition.
That tension is higher than ever before. Today, a rising India with ever-expanding potential to shape the international system is drawn once again into a conflict with Pakistan. While Delhi should be celebrating India’s significant contribution to the Allied victory in the war, it is caught in a firefight with a rogue army in the neighbourhood.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s presence at the parade in Moscow to mark the 80th anniversary would have been fitting for the occasion. Many world leaders, including Chinese President Xi Jinping, will be in Moscow to join the Russian people, whose extraordinary sacrifices were crucial in defeating Nazi Germany in 1945.
Russia’s annual Moscow parade on May 9 is a major national event commemorating the Soviet Union’s World War II victory over Nazi Germany. The parade honours the approximately 27 million Soviet citizens who died, reinforcing national identity through a collective memory of suffering, resilience and triumph.
This special anniversary of World War II is also a moment to recall the Indian military contribution to the making of the modern world. In World War I (1914-1918), over 1.3 million Indian soldiers served overseas, fighting in Europe, Africa, and the Middle East, and were pivotal in battles. Nearly 74,000 Indian soldiers died, and many more were wounded. During World War II (1939-1945), India’s contribution was even greater. Over 2.5 million Indians served, making it the largest volunteer force in history. Indian forces fought in North Africa, Italy and Southeast Asia, playing a decisive role in the Allied victory in Burma against Japan. India also became a vital base for Allied operations in Asia. About 87,000 Indian soldiers died, and many received high military honours for bravery.
Unlike his predecessors who sought to delete the contributions of the Indian Army to the Allied victories in the two world wars, Modi put them back into India’s historical memory. During his frequent travels abroad, Modi has made it a point to visit the memorials for Indian soldiers in the two world wars. It is disappointing, then, that India’s presence at the Moscow commemoration this week had to be downgraded.
The 80th anniversary is also a moment to recall an important injustice that befell India. Despite its massive contributions to the Allied victory, India was denied its rightful place in the new global order constructed after the war. India did not find a permanent place in the new global directorate — the United Nations Security Council. China became the only Asian nation that gained this special status.
Worse still, India came out of the war in one piece but two years after the war ended, India was partitioned.
The sources of this double tragedy were rooted in the deep internal divisions of the emerging Indian political class. Mahatma Gandhi, Subhas Chandra Bose and the communists took divergent political approaches to World War II, thereby weakening India’s collective capacity to press for a key role in the post-war international system.
Even more damaging was the deepening Hindu-Muslim divide within the country as the Indian National Congress and the Muslim League battled over India’s post-colonial shape. While Congress stayed away from war mobilisation, the League supported the British and manoeuvred itself into a vantage position to divide the destiny of the Subcontinent.
In 1940, the League passed the Lahore Resolution, which laid the foundation for the creation of Pakistan, and formalised the “Two-Nation Theory” — the premise that Hindus and Muslims were distinct nations requiring separate homelands. It is a theory that continues to resonate today, affirmed most recently by the Pakistan Army Chief, General Asim Munir.
To cut short a long and sad story, the division of the Subcontinent continues to hobble India’s global prospects. Repeated efforts by India to transcend the bitter legacies of Partition have not been successful. Delhi’s challenges in dealing with Islamabad have had a sharper edge since the late 1980s, when Pakistan acquired nuclear weapons and began to pursue cross-border terrorism with impunity.
Successive Indian Prime Ministers were sensible in pursuing a twin-track strategy with Pakistan over the past four decades. One was to deal with the challenge of terror through a mix of political incentives for peace and the threat of use of force. The other was to focus on India’s economic development. While Delhi has failed on the former, it has succeeded enormously on the latter. The Pakistan army that dominates the polity next door, in contrast, remains wedded to terror and shows little interest in bringing prosperity for its people.
With no growth or low growth in the last decade, Pakistan is now the poor cousin of Bangladesh and India. But it is also a violent and aggressive cousin that must be dealt with decisively. The Pahalgam terror attack is a reminder that the old ways of finding common ground with Pakistan have failed. As Delhi explores new ways of tackling the terror machine spawned by the Pakistan army, it can’t afford to take its eyes off the bigger global picture.
The 80th anniversary celebrations in Moscow this week come amid the prospects for a rearrangement of great power relations between the US, Europe, Russia, and China. For an emerging India, which is expected to overtake Japan this year as the world’s fourth largest economy, the current juncture is one of the biggest opportunities since World War II to raise itself in the hierarchy of global power. As US President Donald Trump resets the global commercial order, India is involved in fast and furious negotiations to develop new bilateral trade deals with the US, Europe, and UK. Together, they promise to boost India’s geo-economic salience.
India can’t duck its regional challenge from the Pakistan army’s terror; nor can it abandon the new opportunities beckoning on the global stage. The simultaneous pursuit of both is necessary and will test India’s statecraft. Success in one will reinforce the prospects on the other.
The writer is a distinguished fellow at the Council on Strategic and Defence Research, Delhi, and a contributing editor on international affairs for The Indian Express
