When Sindoor Became a Weapon: India’s Answer to Jihadi Brutality

What’s in a name?

I would say- a lot. Flag of a nation for which a soldier gives his life is a piece of cloth- any cloth, Khadi, cotton, silk or linen- It is colored with three colors and called a tricolor, more popularly a “TIRANGA”. It can be a printed paper, a small 6” by 4” or 20 feet by 16 feet cotton flag on a tall mast. Size and texture do not matter.


When it goes up - flag hoisting – people rise and uniformed fraternity salutes. Can someone say all this is bunkum or stupid? You dare not. Americans take pride in Stars and Stripes the Britishers in its Union Jack- is the whole world foolish? Far from it. Americans fly it proudly in front of their homes, the officials have it in every office- a soldier wears it on his sleeve. When a soldier loses his life on the battle field his coffin is covered with the national flag- the highest honor. This is the power of symbolism.

A Hindu woman wears a Bindi on the forehead, wears ‘jhumkas’ as an apparel.

A married Hindu women applies Sindoor which is traditionally worn by married Hindu women as a symbol of marriage and marital status.

It is applied in the "maang" (the parting of the hair) and also on the forehead. The line of sindoor in the maang is a visual symbol of marriage and is considered auspicious.

Operation Sindoor

This operation- a military response- to the brutal murder of 26 Hindu men in front of their wives by Pakistani Jihadis will go down in the annals of history as a historic retribution. These men were shot because they were Hindus and were murdered in front of their wives by Muslim Jihadi men. What else could have been a more appropriate name for this operation except ‘Sindoor’? Anyone?

This is the least our political and military leadership could do- teach a damn lesson to Pakistan- and we did.
If someone calls it politics then so be it- the nation cares two hoots. ‘Woh kya janey ek chutki Sindoor ki keemat’. If some one says that government, the military, especially the PM is taking credit for it- who cares?

"एक चुटकी सिंदूर की कीमत तुम क्या जानो! ईश्वर का आशीर्वाद होता है एक चुटकी सिंदूर, सुहागन के सर का ताज होता है एक चुटकी सिंदूर, हर औरत का ख्वाब होता है एक चुटकी सिंदूर!"

Those who are mocking this name are insulting fifty crore Hindu women living in India and millions living abroad- they will pay for it one way or the other.

A gutsy action

We did pussy footing for decades on- 26/11 was a huge attack on our nation in Mumbai where in all, at least 174 people, including 20 security force personnel and 26 foreign nationals, were killed. More than 300 people were injured. Nine of the 10 terrorists were killed, and one was arrested.

Why didn’t the Indian leadership act and teach them a lesson? ‘No guts’ is the two word answer. Guts and glory can go together at a huge cost called ‘Risk’. No military operation of the scale of ‘Sindoor’ can be guaranteed as a success- far from it. The go ahead is given by the CEO of the nation in our case the PM despite being fully briefed about the risk factor. He has to stick his neck out- which he did. In this case there was a ‘nuke dagger’ being touted by the Pakis- for decades.

Can you imagine the kind of stress a man has to go through while thinking of giving a go ahead? unimaginable.
One also factors in the losses one would suffer- no pain no gain. Even if Cassius Clay fought a boxing bout he sure would have endured a few punches. It cannot be that you slam ten punches and the opponent doesn’t even get you once.

Modi ne kar ke to dikhaya. Agar yeh fail hota to kya hota?

Enough is more than enough- time to pay back these critics

"Mark your man" is a British football (soccer) term meaning to assign a defender to closely follow a specific opposing player, usually to limit their offensive opportunities.

It is time to mark the enemy within. Courts and systems are already overloaded. People must call out the bluff. Let the nation become a shield of activism against these ‘slimy paid activists’ who think they can vomit anything and nation and the whole world should take it lying down.

If freedom of expression is for them then the nation reserves the right to its own freedom of expression. Who is the nation? We the nation.

Its time to put ‘sindoor’ on their faces- especially the foreheads- Sindoor ki Holi. You don’t blacken their faces- just sindoor their faces.

Mera sindoor tere mathey- my Sindoor, your forehead.

‘Postmodernism surely requires an even greater grasp of symbolism, as it's increasingly an art of gesture alone.’ - Andrew Eldritch