“When water also becomes a weapon: India’s unity robbed”
Today, India is grappling with internal disintegration more than external attacks. Be it the Punjab-Haryana water dispute or the Pahalgam terror attack—an invisible ideological war is hidden behind every crisis. A third front has emerged within the country in the name of caste, religion, language, region, and ideology. This front neither fights with bullets nor with bombs—it silently breaks the unity and consciousness of the country. Until this front is identified, India will keep losing internally even after winning on external fronts.
When it comes to national security, most eyes turn towards the border—the line that separates us from Pakistan or China. But the most dangerous war that India is facing today is neither on the border nor in the bullets of the enemies. That war is going on within India—against our soul, unity, and ideology.
The recent dispute over water between Haryana and Punjab is not just an administrative problem but a serious warning of the instability and regional imbalance of India’s federal structure. When the water level of the Nangal Dam rose, causing floods in Haryana and Punjab refused to take responsibility for it, it was not just one state opposing another. It was the breakdown of the unity on which India stands. On the other hand, the terrorist killing of a Hindu tourist in Pahalgam, Jammu and Kashmir, made it clear that some forces are still trying to divide India on religious grounds, and this effort is being made not only with bullets but also with ideological poison.
India now faces three battlefronts—the military front on the borders, the diplomatic front on the global stage, and the ideological war going on within the country, which I call the ‘half front.’ This half-front is invisible, but the most deadly. It is visible in our universities, media, social media, and sometimes even in our politics. This front divides the country on the basis of ideas, makes people fight in the name of religion, caste, language, and region, and fills the mind of a common Indian with distrust towards the nation.
The people fighting on this front are imposters. These are the people who call the idea of India being divided a revolution, who consider Bharat Mata Ki Jai as communalism, and who look at every terrorist incident through the lens of ‘reaction’ and ‘background.’ For them, the nation is not an emotion but a subject of criticism. When the Indian army displays bravery, they remember human rights. When India achieves scientific achievements, it reminds us of ‘poverty and hunger.’ When India gains respect on the global stage, they start comparing it with ‘dictatorship.’
This ‘ideology’ is slowly entangling the youth in its web. Universities, which should be centers of character building, are now becoming laboratories of anti-national slogans. There was a time when the aim of education was “Sa Vidya Ya Vimuktaye,” i.e., education is that which liberates. But today’s education is confusing the youth by distorting history, dividing freedom fighters into castes, and naming the concept of nation as ‘cultural supremacy.’
Social media has sharpened this half-front. An organized effort is visible on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube, in which India is given tags like ‘Hindu Rashtra,’ ‘Manuvadi rule,’ and ‘anti-minority country.’ These tags not only affect the international image but also confuse a common Indian. A common Muslim starts living in fear, a common Dalit starts feeling isolated, and a common Hindu starts living in guilt.
But this ideological war is not limited to academic debates or social media posts. Its real and dangerous consequences are also emerging. In the Pahalgam incident, a Hindu tourist was killed because he was a ‘Hindu’ by religion. This is not just terrorism but an extreme form of religion-based ideological hatred. This incident indicates that our efforts to transform India’s diversity into unity are still incomplete, and the roots of hatred are very deep.
The role of politics on this half of India’s front is also very suspicious. While leaders have to raise the flag of nationalism to come to power, to get votes they promote discussions that divide the society. Sometimes minority appeasement, sometimes Dalit reservation politics, sometimes regional identity—all these have weakened India’s national identity. Putting the country’s unity at stake for political gain is suicidal, but this is what is happening today.
There is another face of this ideological war—regional battles over water, electricity, resources, and languages. Is it not a matter of concern that two states of the same country—Haryana and Punjab—have started throwing each other into floods and droughts for water? Is it not also a part of the ideological war to create a feeling of ‘hatred towards the other state’ within India? The same is true for languages. Discontent in the South in the name of the imposition of Hindi, Marathi versus Hindi, Bengali versus Assamese—all these are examples of the ‘half war’ waged against the soul of India.
Today, there is a need to take this half of India’s front as seriously as the military conflict on the border. The security of the country is not only through tanks and missiles but also through clarity of thoughts, social harmony, and faith in the nation. We have to understand that there is a difference between ‘criticism of the country’ and ‘anti-nationalism,’ but this difference ends when the purpose of criticism is not improvement but destruction.
To win on this front, India needs not just soldiers but teachers, writers, journalists, poets, activists, and ordinary citizens. We have to reorient our education system towards nation-building. We have to create an ideological front in favor of the nation on social media as well. And most importantly, we have to force politicians not to do politics at the cost of the country.
Those who consider this half-front as the ‘voice of freedom’ must also understand that the first condition of freedom is unity. Without unity, freedom is only an illusion. How long will a nation that cannot identify its internal enemies fight its external enemies?
The real test of India is not in the battlefield but in the classrooms of universities, the pages of the media, the posts on social media, and the debates in Parliament. The test is whether we consider India to be just a piece of land or a living consciousness. This consciousness can survive only when every citizen, every student, every politician, and every writer understands that India’s diversity is its strength, not its weakness.
So now is the time to take this ‘half front’ very seriously. To save the country from breaking apart, we will have to fight with ideas, not tanks. And in this fight, every Indian is a soldier—either in favor of the nation or against the nation.
