Voices Of Sanity Are Lost In The Shrieks Of War Cries

By Sumit Paul, New Age Islam

10 May 2025

Ya Khuda, Nikaal De Tu Har Dil Se Nafrat Ka Naam

Kya Itna Mushkil Hai Tere Vaaste Ye Kaam ?

(Oh god, pluck this hatred out of every heart / Is this so difficult a task for you?)  

Dr Navroze Kotwal, A Bombay-based renowned dental surgeon and Urdu poet

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War has broken out because there're marauding morons on both sides, clamouring for war and bloodshed. Sane voices condemning war are few and far between. Over-enthusiastic and euphoric social media is replete with war-related news 24X7. TV anchors and defence 'experts' (many of them being ex-Servicemen) are re-enacting war scenes in the studio, creating a mayhem. It seems as if a carnival is going on. Indians have this tendency to go gaga over all issues. Most of us have enough time to indulge in utterly useless pastimes like IPL jamboree.

Now war is our latest pastime. A country's character is judged by the mental maturity of its people. Hardly a few people are condemning the ongoing war. Whoever I meet and interact with, talks of Aar-Paar Ki Jang (a full-fledged, decisive war) because they're not at the receiving end. Nor is anyone from their families fighting on the front.

Behavioural psychologists have found a very peculiar human tendency. Ensconced in the safe and secure environs and fully protected from all directions, we actually enjoy horror and all that's horrific to our senses. That's why, we love to watch a horror movie at home with others, knowing that the ghost/s cannot harm us. The eerie and simulated feeling of fear in a protected set-up invariably gives us a kick. The same happens when we watch violent scenes and the images of war on the screen. 'This gory fate will not befall us' is an assurance that gives us a perverted kind of vicarious pleasure. Sitting on the fence and enjoying bloodshed is deeply ingrained in the psyche of humans because we've a sadistic streak. We may talk of being evolved. But we're not.

Here I'm not pontificating or condescending. I'm also one of the unevolved humans desecrating the world. We still feel elated when soldiers fight and die. This shows that violence is inveterate in all of us. It's not a sermon or a homily. That in the 21st-Century, many countries are fighting their respective wars is a sign that the lofty idea of permanent peace is a chimera. It's perpetually elusive. We're least bothered about the economy, that'll soon be in shambles, after the war. All we want is: Dushman Ka Safaya (Elimination of the enemies).

Lastly, I'll be lynched by the over-patriotic Indians if I write that India is destroying terrorist camps in Pakistan but the four terrorists, who killed 26 innocent tourists at Pahalgam on April 22, are still at large!

Nationalism, which's but a sophisticated form of tribalism, is killing the country. It's a mad scramble to prove as to who's a greater patriot and the most loyal Indian. Utter madness is going on. But who cares? Voices of sanity are always lost and buried in the shrieks and screams of war cries. Evolution seems to have bypassed most of us. 

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A regular columnist for New Age Islam, Sumit Paul is a researcher in comparative religions, with special reference to Islam. He has contributed articles to the world's premier publications in several languages including Persian.

URL:   https://www.newageislam.com/current-affairs/voices-sanity-shrieks-war-cries/d/135493

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