The epic of Mahabharata conveys a moral lesson. Every war is a futile exercise and even the winners return home in tears. War cannot ensure the delivery of justice and the winners pay heavily for their victory throughout the war and subsequently.
There is no human history without long lessons of wars and countless incidents of skirmishes. Historians and archaeologists have lost count of real wars in human history. Many wars lasted for centuries and ended after the destruction of both the warring sides. The longest war fought by Spanish and Portuguese warriors against the Iberian Islamic rulers, lasted 781 years. There were other centuries-long wars which disintegrated great civilizations. The Roman-Germanic war that lasted more than 700 years completely disintegrated the Roman Empire. History books have several such stories.
One thing common among all the wars was that all the bloodiest wars were for establishing racial, imperial and religious supremacy. The three longest wars that the 20th century witnessed – the First and Second World Wars and the Iran-Iraq war – had either imperial interests or deep racial issues behind them. The rulers’ overconfidence about the military power and anticipation of the easy defeat of the rival took the war for a long time, finally broadening the devastation. The warring forces at the end drew self-destruction.
In democracies, the rulers who won the war lost their power in the elections, while authoritarians like Stalin of the Soviet Union, Mao Zedong of China, Salazar of Portugal and Franco of Spain managed to stay in power. The election defeat of General Charles de Gaulle, who led France successfully against Hilter’s temporary occupation of France, Sir Winston Churchill’s defeat in the British election after the British victory in the Second World War, and the defeat of George Bush after the US victory in the Gulf War are reflections of how people in democracies where they had right to choose their rulers weighed up the merits and benefits of war and the victory in it. A dispassionate analysis would show that all the wars were futile exercises. War never recorded a precise number of deaths, the number of direct or indirect victims, the size of destruction and the dislodgement of poor people. The four-year-long First World War counted the death of 20 million people, half of them soldiers. The six-year-long Second World War officially estimated a death toll of 85 million. The eight-year-long Iran-Iraq war with no winner counted the death of half a million soldiers each on either side with no credible estimate of civilian deaths. Wartime casualty counts were only shams. The world soon forgot all the make-believe claims.
No one did any research to ascertain the gross damages the wars inflicted, setting aside the gross gains of the so-called winners. Rulers worldwide were crazy about wars to exhibit their power and terrify their rivals. Often, the powerful ones also had their drubbings. The long-drawn Anglo-French war witnessed the defeat of the once indefatigable Napoleon. We find more examples of powerful ones’ defeats in wars without looking deep into history. The best example is the heavy loss of the US in Vietnam and Afghanistan in modern political history.
Besides the countless real wars historians spoke about, epics and religious texts also unravel wars that may be fictional or real. But, those wars carried moral messages in the form of poetic justice. Unlike the morals that epics of war tell us, modern wars are blatant games of butchering and destruction to reverse the humans to the Stone Age. Wars are inexplicably costlier beyond the economic cost of stocking weapons and destruction. No one has ever estimated – or say, never ascertainable – the cost of the fighters’ and civilians’ deaths.
The glorious victory of Bharat in the 1971 Indo-Pak war made Bharat gain nothing but lost close to 4000 soldiers and twice the number injured. Bharat lost more or less a similar number of soldiers in all the previous wars once with China and twice with Pakistan. Three victorious wars with Pakistan did not settle Bharat-Pak issues, nor the Sino- Bharat issues.
There were huge losses of military assets. Bharat took good care of the captives, ruthless 93,000 surrounded soldiers under the Geneva Conventions for many months. Army chiefs of Bharat used to visit them to ensure that all prisoners of war got humane treatment. None of the wars settled issues of Bharat.
Israel has been at war with Hamas for two months (barring a week of ceasefire), and Russia with Ukraine since early last year. Hamas may fall, but Ukraine may not fall so quickly because of NATO support. However, in these two cases, winners will also have troubles in some way or the other. Hamas may not be the last enemy of Israelis as Iran is swearing to destroy Israel. Similarly, Russia may not be the last one, as the Ukrainians may hate and curse Russians for their untold sufferings.
The epics of Bharat, which unravel war, give us thinkable lessons while teaching us that every war is a futile exercise. Bharat’s epic of Mahabharata tells us the facts. The war fought in the Kurukshetra between Kauravas and Pandavas lasted for 18 long days. The war defeated untruthfulness and warned the dishonest souls of dire consequences. Nevertheless, the defeat of the dishonest Kauravas did not bring peace to the victorious Pandavas.Yudhishthira, burdened with guilt over the massive destruction, renounced his kingdom and embarked on a spiritual journey. His brothers and Draupadi decided to follow him. During the pilgrimage, the Pandavas faced numerous challenges. One after the other died, leaving Yudhishthira, the eldest of the victorious Pandavas, as the lone survivor. Yudhishtira never knew the loyal dog that accompanied him was Lord Yama in disguise. The winner in a war is never a real winner, as every victory comes after the loss of many innocent lives and profound heartbreaks.
When Yudhishtira reaches the defeated Kaurava’s mother Gandahari for blessing, she wails over the loss of all her sons, leaving not even one to do her last rite. The agony of the Kauravas’ mother more heavily agonised Yudhishtira, though he won the war meaninglessly. Each war fought in human history carries the same meaning.
(Sajikumar is a Mumbai-based author and blogger)
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