The decades-long deployment of hundred and thousands troops
in Occupied Jammu & Kashmir has demoralized the Indian security forces, who have
unleashed a nonstop reign of terror against the innocent people of Kashmir,
especially the youth and women. The cause of demoralization is not only the
failure in crushing the freedom movement, but also the administrative, economic,
social and moral issues relating to the troops’ life in the camps and back at
their respective homes.
Since 1989, when the Kashmiri people accelerated the movement for freedom, the
Indian military and paramilitary have killed tens of thousands of Kashmiris
through ruthless tactics such as extrajudicial killings, rapes and molestations
and use of pallet guns. Despite employing brute tactics like curfew and torture,
rape and arson, illegal detentions and kidnappings, massacre and fake encounter
killings, and despite the recent more than a year-long lockdown, the Kashmiris
have been protesting and fighting for their inalienable right to
self-determination as guaranteed by the UN SC resolutions.
In fact, the ongoing different war between the Indian occupying forces and
Kashmiri freedom fighters is simply a ‘clash of wills’. Military thinkers agree
that though the physical force will determine the type and scale of war, yet it
is the ‘will to fight’ or ‘moral force’ that will determine the outcome of war.
Clausewitz puts it this way, “One might say that the physical force seems little
more than the wooden hilt, while moral factors are the precious metal, the real
weapon”.
In his book, “Fighting Power: German and U.S. Army Performance, 1939-1945”,
Creveld identifies the elements of moral force, whom he calls “fighting power,
the willingness to fight and the readiness, if necessary, to die.” The greater
these elements, the less vulnerable an armed force will be to demoralization.
Moral force, then, is the crucial factor in determining the combat power of any
belligerent.”
The ongoing war between the Indian state terrorists and Kashmiri people proves
that the ‘will to fight’ and ‘moral force’ have been noted more in the latter
who have exerted psychological impact of causing fear, shock, mental depression
and stress, resulting into demoralization of Indian military and paramilitary
troops. Numerous cases of suicide in the Indian troops, opening fire on
themselves or on their colleagues with service rifles and several other tense
reactions have been reported in connection with the Indian security forces in
the controlled territories of Occupied Jammu & Kashmir. Here are some of the
examples:
In the current year, quoting officials, Indian media reported that a Central
Reserve Police Force Inspector M Damodar was critically injured on August 12,
after he shot himself with his service rifle in the Shergari area. A CRPF man on
August 13 committed suicide in Awantipura, Pulwama district. On May 12, two CRPF
personnel committed suicide by shooting themselves in two separate incidents in
Anantnag. The same day, a CRPF ASI Bengali Babu committed suicide by shooting
himself. On March 21, a CRPF man posted in Srinagar committed suicide by
shooting himself. On July 18, following an altercation, a soldier Thapa pumped
five bullets into Major Shikhar Thapa, close to LoC in Uri sector. In May this
year, a soldier committed suicide by shooting himself in the Laam sector along
the LoC. In January this year, a CRPF soldier shot himself while on duty inside
a camp at Tral town in the Pulwama district.
According to Indian media: “In 2018, 80 army personnel committed suicide. In
2017, the number of army men who committed suicide was 75 while in 2016 this
number was 104”. Similarly, in 2013 eight people from the armed forces committed
suicide in J&K and four personnel were killed in fratricide incidents. In 2012,
nine forces personnel committed suicide and one was killed in a fratricide
incident. In 2011, Lt Col Pankaj Jha shot himself, while Maj Sobha Rani, Capt
Sunit Kohli, Lt Sushmita Chatterjee and a number of other officers also did the
same. In recent past, a Major told BBC that “many soldiers are growing
uncomfortable with their role in Kashmir, even fearing that they are effectively
becoming an army of occupation”.
Indian defence analysts and psychologists have indicated various causes of
suicides and fratricides, found in the Indian military, paramilitary troops and
police, stationed in the IOK. They have attributed these trends to “continuous
work under extreme hostile conditions, perpetual threat to life and of course;
the home sickness due to long separation from families.” While other experts
have opined that the growing stress in the Indian armed forces is owing to “low
morale, bad service conditions, low pay and a communication gap with superiors.”
Maj Gen (r) Afsar Karim, who has fought three wars, remarks, “The stress may be
high among soldiers. The army is involved in a tough long running internal
security environment. There is lack of rest. They get angry when they are denied
leave and their officers themselves take time off. It triggers a reaction, while
they are well armed and they take their own lives or those of their colleagues”.
In this connection, the Indian Col SK Sakhuja stated, “Soldiers kill each other
when one of them perceives that they are being harassed by superiors or when
they have heated arguments among themselves.” Indian Parliamentary Standing
Committee on Defence had remarked in its 31st report on “Stress Management in
the Armed Forces” in 2011 that the military establishment is not taking reports
of suicides and fratricides seriously…the “alarming trend is attributable to
increased stress environment leading to psychological imbalance in the
soldiers”. Nevertheless, India has also hired the services of counselors and
stationed psychiatrists close to its troops especially in IOK to combat stress
which has driven many soldiers to kill themselves or fellow soldiers.
Exactly a year after New Delhi announced the abrogation of Article 370 as well
as the bifurcation of state of Jammu & Kashmir into two Union territories, J&K
Lt Governor Girish Chandra Murmu resigned from his post. He discussed the
prevailing security scenario with J&K GOC-in-Chief Northern Command Lt Gen Y K
Joshi. Nonetheless, the tendencies of suicide and fratricide are increasing in
the Indian security forces in IOK, who have been demoralized by fighting a
prolonged war with the freedom fighters. They completely lack ‘will to fight’ or
‘moral force.’