Dharma Yuddha in the Age of Drones: Operation Sindoor as India's Modern Mahabharata

On April 22, 2025, the emerald meadows of Pahalgam— once alive with the laughter of tourists— fell into a haunting silence, disrupted by the sharp echoes of gunfire.

- Dr. Shaunak Roy

In New Delhi, within the secure corridors where military planners pored over satellite images and intelligence briefings, another kind of resonance emerged: the verses of the Bhagavad Gita. This sacred text served as the philosophical backbone of Operation Sindoor— India’s modern-day dharma yuddha.

Echoes of the Mahabharata loomed over India’s strategic deliberations. Krishna’s final peace overture to the Kauravas—seeking just five villages—found its parallel in India’s long-standing efforts to engage diplomatically with Pakistan. Decades of backchannel diplomacy, multilateral negotiations, and unilateral ceasefires were extended in good faith—even as state-sponsored terrorism continued unabated. The Pahalgam massacre, steeped in religious hatred, demanded a response. Yet, in keeping with its pluralistic heritage and the Gita’s vision of transcendent duty, India resisted the temptation for crude retaliation. Operation Sindoor was thus framed not as a vengeful reprisal, but as a dharma yuddha— a righteous war to uphold civilizational balance.

Pakistan’s refusal to rein in terrorist outfits like Lashkar-e-Taiba mirrored Duryodhana’s obstinate declaration: “I shall not yield a needle-point of land.” In the failure of diplomacy, scripture met statecraft. India’s course of action was ultimately shaped by Krishna’s counsel to Arjuna— that duty, not desire, must guide action, and that defending dharma is not a choice, but a cosmic imperative. The invocation of the Gita, however, also raises difficult questions: Can scripture justify the violence of the modern state? Does invoking dharma elevate or obscure the moral complexities of contemporary warfare?

The Gita’s Ethical Labyrinth: Duty, Violence, and Restraint