Propaganda: A new theatre to win
Tags: Jammu Kashmir, Propaganda, UN, India, Pakistan

Propagandas are everywhere and have existed since historical times. Every newspaper, magazine, news channel, radio station, advertisement, or any other type of mass media contains elements of such propaganda. Historically, evidences show usage of such propaganda were in politics and war.

One might be quick to text ‘LOL’ on a Sardarji joke, we can trace back the origination of this stereotype to the British Raj, whose army was comprised of around 60 percent of Sikh soldiers. The British officers were, in general, fearful and anxious of the sheer number and bravery of these Indian soldiers. The official tactic was to demean the Sikhs in the eyes of the other soldiers and the common population in general. In this context, this was the propaganda against soldiers.

One of the first known uses of war propaganda was by Alexander the Great. After being forced to retreat in a battle, Alexander the Great realized that it would be a disadvantage to show that he was weak and had to retreat. He overcame this problem by using propaganda to intimidate the opposing army. Alexander’s army made oversized armour and helmets and left them behind as they retreated. His intent was that the opposing army would be intimidated and not pursue his army because the oversized armour made Alexander’s army look like giants.

India, too has experienced such war propaganda’s with China and Pakistan. A good example of someone’s Big-Daddy; Twitter handles were hacked and in the long duration each handle’s name was changed to some Chinese fake name, unrecognisable profile picture would be uploaded, friends changed and tweets about Anti-India were posted. This was only put to end when Twitter realised this errant behaviour pattern and blocked these accounts. This trend continues on Instagram accounts, wherein the handle name is altered to insults on Hindu Gods, vulgar images are posted with aim of spreading hatred within communities.

Another example where Pakistan was indirectly found doing such funny things after India removing Articles 370 and 35A from it’s Constitution. ISI paid journalists and news channels to turn this story around and hint it towards religious discrimination as this article removal are nothing but efforts towards converting Muslim majority state to a Hindu one. Spread of such propaganda were done on social media by fake WhatsApp/Facebook messages, which our beloved aunties/uncles happily forwarding these messages with an ideology of spreading ‘awareness’.

Yes, people had noticed this. Some went with the flow and unknowingly helped bring social instability, others stayed numb, while some tried to confirm these from authentic articles, news channels, government media broadcasts. Definitely, people can cross-check the authenticity of rumours, question, if not scrutinise the hidden propaganda through local authorities, district collector or commissioner and government agencies. This can also be done by requesting these authorities for clarity, they are bound by law to provide one or maybe more than asked for. On web articles, one could try to find information of author, financiers, producers and location of the company through ‘Contact Us’ or ‘About Us’ sections.

Why Social Media education is needed?

The damage caused by these propaganda takes our Nation years behind plan. More than this, our global image gets a permanent stain. Such stains can be brought up by many when India wants to take a step ahead towards being a leader in groups of nations. So the perfect answer for why not still permanent member of United Nations? We are the world’s largest democracy, regional power, second highest population in the world; we are biggest consumers of goods and services.

Adversaries have had enough of failure and want to take it to next level theatre — Information Warfare. They had enough land fights and failures. Also cost of breeding trigger rats is increasing, thus need for new way to export terror. Here steps in Pakistan’s Green Book 2020 featuring essays by serving officers, scholars and journalists, focuses on the implications of these stains from diverse perspectives and dimensions. One of which is “war into non-kinetic domains” — information/cyber warfare, electronic warfare (EW).

Farzana Shah, a Peshawar-based journalist writes, “A single video clip or picture can change the perception of India, which it has built so painstakingly over the years… Pakistan needs to keep world attention on JK and in order to do that communication links inside the valley must be established… Indian decision of communication blackout in JK was not random, but part of the planning”.

They have succeeded in establishing The Resistance Force (TRF) in the valley with our innocent directionless youths. Found their idea recruitment rally by sending video clips, hate speaches, images, etc. On the other side Indian Army is doing its best with Operation Sadbhavana a.k.a. Operation Goodwill for spreading a good narrative to such youths — giving them a direction. Welfare initiatives under Operation Sadbhavana include infrastructure development, medical care, women and youth empowerment, educational tours and sports tournaments among other initiatives.

We all are soldiers, if Indian Army is doing its best then why not us. This article is dedicated to my fellow citizens, educate ourselves and a polite urge to spread real ‘awareness’.