Three-Day Celebration for a Lost War?
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In the events that followed the Indian invasion of Pakistan on the 6th of September 1965, the Pakistani soldiers turned the tides by saving Punjab from massive bloodshed and Pakistan from a shameful defeat. However, the war of 1965 overall remained an unsuccessful venture for the Pakistan army.
Unquestionably, our soldiers fought tooth and nail to defend the homeland at various fronts. Thousands embraced martyrdom, and the loss of resources and national morale is incalculable. The war remained indecisive after several days of constant skirmishes between both belligerents. Whereas, the aim of the Pakistan army — to incite an armed insurgence against the Indian government in Kashmir — remained unfulfilled. Strategically, the Pakistani troops (those infiltrated insurgents) in Kashmir could not maintain a foothold when the Indian forces retaliated vigorously. Afterward, Pakistan’s embarrassment in the Tashkent Declaration was another manifestation of Pakistan’s defeat in the domain of diplomacy.
Still, we owe a big tribute to those martyrs and their families who bestowed their lives upon the safety and integrity of the country. In addition to a few popular names which are mentioned again and again in narrations of the 1965’s war as the symbols of bravery, we must also extend our gratitude to those thousands of soldiers who either lost their lives or were seriously wounded, but their names are never spoken. And those people also deserve to be remembered in gratitude who were never part of the war, yet they lost their lives.
Having said that, I am not convinced with the manner in which the War of 1965 is remembered and celebrated in Pakistan.
We organize a three-day festivity to celebrate a war that we never won. TV channels broadcast defense day transmissions and national songs all day. Public offices, streets, and markets are decorated with flags and posters. Defense day ceremonies are arranged in many cities. Social websites get occupied with posts praising the armed forces. People add defense day frames on their profile pictures. And several institutes organize exclusive programs/webinars to highlight the event. Even the educational institutes are also decorated as it happens on the Independence day.
This year, the COVID-19 outbreak and monsoon floods slightly put a cap on these activities; otherwise, last year’s celebrations were much more extravagant as mentioned in the preceding paragraph.
Still, the question is: do we have any good reason for observing this day with such great pomp and show?
As mentioned earlier, the enemy invaded the country on the 6th of September as retaliation to events that preceded. It was halted at various fronts but it didn’t retreat on the same day. We must understand that marking this day as the defense day is just a part of the narrative building, the reality is slightly different. The defense efforts continued for several days after the Indian attack. The battles of Philora and Chawinda, for instance, started after 6th September, though Pakistan remained successful in them.
The disadvantage of such narrative building through media, literature, and huge public ceremonies is that people get the wrong idea about when and what exactly happened in the war of 1965. Then, on the 7th and 8th of September, “Air Force Day” and “Navy Day” are also celebrated as part of this narrative building, and again the same sort of jubilation is seen across the country. Although it promotes nationalism, self-honor, and contempt against the enemy, it also makes the masses blow the trumpets of their chauvinistic army in a rather unreasonable way.
This trend is deliberately being promoted every year as we are not in good terms with India, and the armed forces need the support and gratitude of the masses. It is done to promote disdain for the enemy; to make the people believe that the former is inferior to us in terms of military strength.
This proposition makes sense in the current scenario where our enemy attacked on our jugular vein and we could not do anything besides nurturing objection campaigns against their aggression.
As established earlier, the martyrs of the nation deserve the highest tribute. There is nothing wrong with sparing a moment to remember those who fought for the safety of the nation. But when tribute giving ceremonies turn into discourses of politics, they lose their importance. When chauvinism is promoted under the guise of Defense day celebrations with so much extravagance, I feel like this is actually not being done to praise the martyrs but to glorify the uniform.
