Opinion: Why ‘Operation Sindoor’ Surpasses Nomenclature And Establishes Trust
Is being accountable for and answerable to their identity as daughters and women citizens of India, too, "ownership of women"?
Operation Sindoor is India’s response to terrorism and acts of terrorism from a land controlled by the adversary. The response is gendered in spirit and soul.
The terror attack on tourists in Pahalgam, Kashmir, on April 22, was to establish a pattern of fear, and the cunningly cultivated communication of that fear in the common man. The communication was carefully mounted on three words — “Go tell Modi". It was guided by the motive to coldly create fear and communicate fear to a section of the Indian society — through women family members of the victims — all of whom were men. The carriers of the message would be women survivors of the terror attack.
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That India’s retributive action and strike on May 7 would get internalised in a gendered context, was known, and clear, the moment “Go tell Modi" made it to news headlines.
It was, however, beyond everyone’s imagination, that the name of the operation launched by India against Pakistan, would be as boldly red, distinct, divine, feminine, ritualistic, resilient, and symbolic of honour, as “sindoor". As visible on social media and media, those reacting negatively to the naming of this operation after “Sindoor" are Pakistanis, and a section of Indians, who seem to nurture the chain of shaming victims of terror and terrorist acts and denying the victims their own grief and closure.
Beyond nomenclature and regionalised bracketing
The depiction of Operation Sindoor’s announcement in visual material shared by government handles on social media, seemed profoundly disturbing by design. The dry sprinkle of sindoor, when not in a streak, whether is marital bliss, or in a moment of strife, or in worship, stirs, a range of emotions in Hindu women. The dry sprinkling involves a spur of a moment. That moment brings happiness for the woman – or marks the end of it – when reflected in an unfortunate turn of events. Sindoor is an emotion, the carrier of emotion, the measure of emotion. Transposing on the gentle symbol of sindoor, the overwhelming texture of justice against terror through action — for honour, defence and protection — has immortalised the operation in Indian military history.
There should not be any attempt to insert a “North"-“South" connotation, or assigning a region to the name and symbol “Sindoor" or “Sindhura". Vermilion is the extract of Shakti, power, might, and valour invoked in the divine feminine. It is the distilled hue of the Devi’s own demeanour on the battle pit, where she forges ahead with her weaponry to vanquish demons.
Trust That Counts
On the other hand is “Modi". He takes communication directed towards him, at him, seriously, even though he may respond when and how he deems right, appropriate, sufficient. It could be because in Modi’s workings of trust-driven and delivery, trust — “vishwas" draws its energies from communication, of which women are the prime recipients, prompt givers, avid shapers of reciprocation, which is not confined to political dynamics, but has acquired social and cultural connotations.
There is absolutely nothing that would make one believe that the government’s actions following the Pahalgam attack would be devoid of the interplay of “Vishwas ki Dor", a phrase Modi uses to describe the thread of trust running between him and women citizens, in action for justice to women themselves, and profound symbolism.
The ‘Vishwas ki Dor’ is linear in nature, even though its dynamics are looped and complex. Linear, too, is the streak of sindoor, that defines a Hindu married woman steeped in religiosity, or the journey of the Hindu woman worshipping Hanuman synonymous with sindoor, or the Hindu woman celebrating civilisational continuity during Sindoor Khela and ‘visarjan’, or the Hindu woman carrying away a pouch of sindoor — symbolic of the Devi’s own blessings and her own “red" — from one of the Shaktipeeths and numerous Devi temples dotting the landscape of not just India but the Indian subcontinent.
The Red Of Devi, Shakti, Consciousness
Chandi, Kali, Durga, Jwala — her manifestations have guided and propelled the greatest warriors for dharma though the centuries, and continue to in contemporary times and history — soaring in war cries of the Dogra Regiment, the Kumaon Regiment, The Jammu and Kashmir Rifles, and the Gorkha Regiments.
The potent infusion of feminine power in the invocation to the Devi — in battles fought for bringing civilisational sustenance and political balance through military action led traditionally by men, fought by men to the finish, signifies the confluence of male and female energies. The Devi rejoices when Ganesha destroys obstacles and red is the extract of her appetite for delivering justice. Red is the essence of her wrathful determination and vengeance against evil and the inclination for action for the evil’s decimation. She is “Raktavarna".
The feminine and femininity particularised in “Sindoor" in the name “Operation Sindoor", has vermilion, latent and manifest, in the durable connection between evil, the harbinger of evil, of justice and delivering and deliverance of justice against evil. “Sindoor" as adornment and ornamentation may not be part of the daily ritual of women applying it as a symbol of marital bliss, but it is ingrained, embedded and manifest in the religious, cultural and spiritual consciousness of the worshippers of the Devi that chant the Lalitha Sahasranama — the devotional hymn of the 1000 names of Lalitha, where several of the Devi’s names enumerate the presence of red in the consciousness, attributes and qualities of her names.
The dhyana shloka and names of the Devi in the Lalitha Sahasranam denote that her body has the red hue of vermilion; she is red in colour; she is luminous in red garlands and ornaments; tender as the japa flower (the red hibiscus); she is adorned in kumkum on her forehead; she is red; she wears the garment as red as the rising sun. She is Sarvaaruna — entirely red in complexion; and sits on the seat of fire. The Shaktipeethas — from Assam, to Gujarat, from Kashmir to Kanyakumari cover the geographical expanse of the celebration of vermilion, red and Shakti within the political boundaries of India. Hence, ridiculing the significance of sindoor is not only ignorance, but adherence to propaganda that denies the sacred and spiritual any space, unless of sordid cosmetic exploitation, in India’s expression of pride through Hindu symbols during the last 10 years.
A regionalised approach to decoding the name of India’s military operation is capable of disrupting the idea of collective identity of the Hindu woman – whose source of belief, bliss, prosperity, emotional well-being, spiritual sustenance and worship is the Devi and her “vermilion" red itself. And so, it is best avoided and discarded.
‘Feminism’ Against The Feminine
Operation Sindoor has marked the beginning of retributive action to defend and protect Hindus – in their own land. Even though it was not directly intended in these moments of strife between two nuclear powers, Operation Sindoor has paved the way for a cultural counter action to the Left’s dehumanisation of Hindu women — both in their moment of celebration of marital bliss or the feminine regardless of the institution of marriage (on Karvachauth, Teejh, Navratra, Deepawali), as well as the systematic and organised destroying of the same bliss through an act of terror. The government’s courage in naming the strikes on Pakistan ‘Operation Sindoor’ is reflected in choosing a name that’s hauntingly evident in its very absence.
Within hours of the events of Operation Sindoor taking over the news, there were reactions from women across the cultural and ideological reactions. While women from Israel, Afghanistan, America, countries in Europe, expressed their support to the operation and its name, mentioned that the name was “inspiring", women from the Indian Left, from imagined castles erected on cultural depravity, extended their support to the toxic idea of patriarchy they themselves seem to propagate.
Among expressions and indications of cultural and political hypocrisy from women with Leftist ideological inclinations becoming instantly uncomfortable with the name “Sindoor", one post on social media said that the name “reeks of patriarchy", to the extent of identifying the naming of the operation as “ownership of women", “sacralising the institution of marriage" “chastity", “similar Hindutva obsessions". Reasons for ideological discomfort and scorning “Hindutva" for the naming of the operation after sindoor could be many.
All these are excuses for cultural cowardice, and deny the surviving women of the Pahalgam attack, their gendered belief in the sense of justice, which is audible, loud and clear in their soul-churning bites to the media over reaction to Operation Sindoor. In this destructive denial is concealed the belittling of the feminine sovereignty of the Hindu woman, the denial in letting the bereaved and traumatised grieve and find an outlet to grief in India’s actions on May 7. India has never attacked any adversary. It has defended and has the right to defend. The red of sindoor is a reminder that pacifism, always, is not the answer.
The Left’s scorn for, deep disdain for and discomfort with the celebration of Karvachauth (in particular)– where married Hindu women fast for their husband’s well being, the marital bond and related prosperity, is well known. Bindi, bangles and sindoor, prime elements of ornamentation associated with the sacred, worship and the Devi, are looked down upon, and subjected to ridicule, on Karvachauth. Hindu traditions observed by women being targeted politically, and being appropriated culturally, would serve as the first stage of the ripping away of the concept of family itself. The burden of this exercise is proudly taken by the Left – in the different realms of society, social media and social spheres.
It was natural, thus, that the first strike from India against the Pahalgam attack being given the nomenclature that is gendered and celebratory for the feminine, in nature, form and use, used for attacking Pakistan, would be met with negativity.
Conveniently, when sindoor is separated from the sacred, and used as a mere accessory in fashion shows and fashion photoshoots, by men, postured as an expression of “inclusivity" and “pride", one of the excessively exploited causes of the Left, no pamphleteering and sloganeering with phrases such as “ownership of women", “sacralising the institution of marriage" “chastity", occurs within the Left. Outrage on such is for another day.
As of now, to projections of such unprincipled and forked tendencies, there are questions.
Why is the cause of women widowed by acts of barbarity, taken up by a PM Modi in a courageous stance shown through the symbolic nomenclature of “sindoor" — associated with “reek" or “stench" of patriarchy?
Why is taking ownership of responsibility towards women who have been widowed, being demeaned and being addressed in a derogatory tone?
Why is the nomenclature of this armed operation not met with poetry of valour and fragrance of a revolution, the kind that the Left often wants to see or support in Indian cities and universities — as a passionate initial reaction?
Considering sindoor is one of the durable symbols of the bond between the husband and wife defines the operation, if you look closely, the victims of terror — all men — have been defined by a symbol of a relationship that is defined by the presence of a woman as the partner. Does this not indicate the “ownership" of the men who are no more, by a patriarch and patriarchy — instead of the perceived “ownership of women"?
Is owning responsibility for retribution against a terror attack, where men were “killed with head shots from a close range", an act in “ownership of women"?
Are women, who witnessed the most barbaric act of terrorism that resulted in the loss of their husbands and dear ones, not daughters, citizens and women of India?
Is being accountable for and answerable to their identity as daughters and women citizens of India, too, “ownership of women"?
Within less than 48 hours, “Operation Sindoor", in no dimension, has proven to be plain nomenclature.
“Operation Sindoor" has opened the wide window to a renewed and stark view of the political outpourings of the “half" in the Two and a Half Front" that Late General Bipin Rawat warned about. The “half" refers to the internal conflict that India faces, along with the reference to Pakistan and China. Negative reactions to the name “Operations Sindoor" will have takers in people who have opposed the presence of Indian Armed Forces in Kashmir, the abrogation of Article 370 and India’s actions in the fight against Naxalites, their sympathisers and supporters.
The male artiste-activist, who is known for making foreign strife severely personal, seemed to have suddenly tumbled towards the rabbit hole of “pacifism" — when it came to India defending Bharat. If such artists had creative courage in art, they would gather followers of their ideas, and perform, for the cause of Operation Sindoor. The former anchor who was seen imprecating news channels as “godi media" for running news tickers in reportage on Operation Sindoor; the mighty Bollywood actors who stay mum on Operation Sindoor after faking the act of putting sindoor in films for decades; and “feminists" who level baseless accusations on the Indian government of using women to wage a war, and similar. Those who have a problem with the “tilak" would never join the rousing of “sindoor".
Communication is a catalyst of trust, even when entrenched in deviously planned devastation, acutely harrowing events, deplorable, painful and unfortunate in nature. Interviews of women relatives of the victims of the Pahalgam terror attack reveal that the Modi government has the trust of these citizens supporting any action in defence that follows Operation Sindoor. This trust is important for the Indian Armed Forces, the government, and Modi. This alone should matter and indicates that ‘Operation Sindoor’ is more than mere op nomenclature. Kashmir is the land of Shiva and Shakti. The dash of vermilion will remain its humble reminder.
Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect News18’s views.
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