Two images involving the army did the rounds of social media recently.
The first was the army chief Upendra Dwivedi with the defence minister Rajnath Singh propitiating a deity at a temple near Mhow, where the minister was on an official trip. The army chief was in the traditional devotee attire.
The second was a clip from the Southern Command X handle showing the army commander in a jeep ferrying the new Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis. The jeep is driven by a brigadier, while, a major general in the co-driver’s seat is seen shooing away those coming in the way.
#SouthernCommand, in the lead-up to #ArmyDay2025 is organising a spectacular three-day #KnowYourArmy Mela at RWITC, #Pune from 03 to 05 January, celebrating the might and valor of the #IndianArmy. Inaugurated by the Chief Minister of Maharashtra, Shri Devendra Fadnavis with Lt… pic.twitter.com/05J6NliBE0
— Southern Command INDIAN ARMY (@IaSouthern) January 4, 2025
Trips to Amarnath cave and to the Vaishnodevi shrine being de rigueur, the first is unremarkable.
The second is equally unsurprising. The army commander in question has eminent right-wing pedigree.
Gossip has it that at the last promotional hurdle to three-star rank, a professional competitor commanding a consensus amongst peers as by far the most competent officer of his cohort, was tripped up by an intelligence agency interfering with the process.
Consequently, per grapevine, the proverbial chain of succession list has this general sitting atop it. (Incidentally, the intelligence intervention is for the second time, the first being in the whisper campaign against the sure-shot chief-in-waiting, General Bakshi.)
Signs of professional fidelity taking a tumble are aplenty.
The latest instance is the shoving out the iconic image of the surrender at Dacca from its prime location in the chief’s office annexe.
The painting that has replaced the photograph of the Pakistani Army signing the Instrument of Surrender after the Bangladesh Liberation War. Photo: X/@adgpi
That the painting has found a ‘befitting place’ in the Manekshaw Center appears to be a post-controversy after-thought (the new painting was spotted on 14 December and the old one reinstalled on 16 December).
Dust having settled on the controversy, here one can only wish the painter, an infantry major, well.
Of interest instead is the figure of the Brahmin, central to the painting, waving the army on in Ladakh.
A critic has it that the painting depicts Indian occupation of the Kailash heights, putting the Chinese on notice.
The suggestion is that besides the posturing over four years on the heights, a Chanakyan policy of exhausting the Chinese got them to retract.
The proportion between the figure and the military symbols depicted tells as much.
The Brahmin standing tall, overshadowing all else in the painting is Chanakya.
In the context of the painting, the Brahmin could well be S. Jaishankar and/or Ajit Doval, both brahmins. Kshatriyas in the foreground scurry about as ordered; theirs’ not to reason why.
The policy they are implementing flows from the strategic vision articulated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi: ‘this is not an era of war.’ The latest iteration of policy phrases it thus: ‘Bhavishya yuddha mein nahin, buddha mein hai (The future lies not in war, but in Buddha.).”
In that sense, the painting shows the national security structure and process – the top to down flow of policy-grand strategy-military strategy and the military’s exercise of operational art giving teeth to policy.
The Brahmin can be taken for the brain: the apex of the national security structure, the national security council, serviced by the national security adviser.
The Karm Kshetra (Field of Endeavour) is the Himalayan heights. As in Siachen where the army got comfortable with time, so shall be the case in Ladakh, with high altitude service serving as the new locale for adding stars to epaulettes – quite like Kashmir was till recently.
Concerning however is the army’s perspective on the painting put out by a source:
It (the painting) portrays the Army as a guardian of Dharma, fighting not merely as a defender of the nation but to uphold justice and protect the nation’s values. This inspiration is complemented by the strategic and philosophical wisdom of Chanakya, whose principles guide the Army’s approach to leadership, diplomacy, and warfare (italics added).
That sounds familiar, redolent as it is of the Pakistan army’s one-time self-image as guardians of Pakistan’s ideological frontier. During the period of Islamisation under dictator, Zia ul Haq, the frontier was understood as Islam. The scope ranged from the Islamic Bomb to being defenders of the faith in thrice-partitioned South Asia, beginning with Kashmir. Consensus has it that the Islamist idea has been of little help to Pakistan and its army.
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Missed by the Indian military also is Islamism has been violently rejected by most Muslim states, with militaries putting it down through active combat.
Can a bout of mimesis this this side of the border prove any more useful?
More pertinently, if and since the army cannot autonomously determine what’s righteous, that is to be set for it by the ‘Brahmin’ – the national security apex.
The presence of Garuda and Arjun’s chariot in the backdrop show the values to be defended are to be drawn from ancient Indian philosophy and culture.
That the civilisational extent of ancient Bharat coincides with the Akhand Bharat imaginary is left unsaid. The painting depicts what was once part of the Tibetan near abroad. The religious geography of Bharat can someday go beyond the Kailash range to include the Kailash massif itself. A case has already been made that a statue of the conquering warrior general of a feudal lord grace Ladakh.
Votaries say it would be more appropriate than a recently installed one, with no connection with Ladakh. However, the Chhatrapati’s statue appearing in Ladakh is not mere coincidence. Recall the Chhatrapati had to undergo purifying rituals before being anointed. The surfeit of Kshatriyas in Ladakh must be subtly conditioned.
More troubling is the army’s internalisation of the notion that the wellspring of heritage is only ancient India.
It must register the subversive point in today’s context put out by the United Services Institution at its well-curated Indian military heritage festival that Indian value systems have significant breadth and depth to draw on. Perhaps the syncretic Moghul period needs to await the decolonization train getting to the Durand and Radcliffe lines.
In the interim, selective decolonisation is visible in the removal of the plaque carrying the inspiration for successive generations of army officers: the quote from Field Marshal Birdwood’s inaugural address of the military academy.
The substitute board reads:
The more forgiving you got, the more the Kauravas assumed you were a coward. The glow of modesty lies hidden in the quiver and those the victors can expect his truce and treaty offers to be respected.”
The army’s logistic feat in an energetic adoption of the defensive posture in Ladakh is laudable in itself. But did it get the Chinese scurrying?
The poem itself was quoted first after the non-surgical strike at Balakot, to cover the pussyfooting around then and later after the Pakistani counter strike. Its recurrence makes for an alibi, both signifying and reinforcing self-delusion.
Further, it is in Hindi and without an accompanying translation. This perhaps because the army chief thinks that Hindi is the ‘binding’ language in the army. If so, it oughtn’t to be thus.
Hitherto the regimental language was the internally binding glue. Part of bonds of ethnic and cultural affinity, a shared language enhanced primary group cohesion.
Officers interfaced with outside counterparts in English, ensuring cultural affiliations do not intrude. Professional intercourse should be in English, placing the same disadvantage on all. ‘Professional’ in the Huntington sense is restricted to matters of the officer cadre, the soldiery equated to a trade or craft.
This may not stand the test of the Agnipath scheme. Besides, majority of the officer intake from north-Indian lower middle classes has led to pervasive use of Hindi by default.
Hindi is the trojan horse to open up the army’s innards for the grand reordering by Hindutva, the verities of which have been bought into by the army – such as, it appears, the caste responsibilities represented in the painting.
The problem with Hindutva is that unity will be under a Brahmanical yoke. Brahmanists have weaponised Hindutva and we know Brahmanists are to Hindutva as salafis are to Islamism.
Prime Minister Modi’s latest reference to Buddha and Ashoka is dead give-away on this score. The principal challenge to Brahmanism though the ages has been Buddhism.
It is now up for appropriation. Similarly attempted in regard to Ambedkar, the jury will remain out on the project’s success.
History as guide, a scrum is in the offing. The army would do well to not list over.
Else, the project failing, the army will end up as an ‘army without a country’ – in contrast to a neighbouring ‘army with a country’.
This article was originally published on the author’s Substack account. It has been edited slightly for style.
Ali Ahmed is a strategic analyst.
