Won on the ground, lost in the narrative: India’s voice must be heard

How India’s victory was buried

In the wake of the recent Pahalgam terror attack and India’s decisive counter-offensive, a stunning success unfolded:

• 9 Pakistani government-sponsored terrorist launchpads were destroyed.
• Hundreds of Pakistani drone attacks were all successfully intercepted.
• Devastating counter-strikes destroyed 8 major Pakistani airbases and severely damaged 8 more, including their vital airstrips.
• Much of this was accomplished using India’s own technology, obliterating Chinese, Turkish, and even American systems.
• Pakistan was compelled to plead for a ceasefire.

All this, without a single Indian military casualty.

Globally renowned defense analysts have hailed it as an unprecedented feat, virtually unheard of in any other conflict, and all within just 3 days.

Yet, the global public has been fed a distorted narrative that is completely at odds with the facts on the ground.

Despite overwhelming evidence, the coordinated information warfare waged by Pakistan and China has repeatedly succeeded in shaping global opinion, while India is left reacting defensively. The West has stood by silently, allowing this misrepresentation to persist.

This is not a one-off. India continues to lose the battle of narratives, whether on military matters, human rights, or Kashmir, which is India’s internal affair.

Why is India unable to shape global narratives?

There are several systemic reasons:

• Global media bias: Most international media outlets are either based in or heavily influenced by Western nations. Their coverage often reflects colonial-era assumptions, their strategic need for a terrorist country to counter their opponents, Pakistan’s nuclear threat bogey, the influence of powerful Islamic nations, and their coordinated propaganda networks.
• Rivals’ narrative machinery: China and Pakistan have invested for decades in sophisticated global propaganda ecosystems, leveraging state-funded media, academic lobbies, influential think tanks, and diaspora networks to systematically push their narratives.
• India’s bureaucratic inertia: Government communication is often slow, cautious, and devoid of the emotional resonance needed to connect with global audiences. And government alone cannot match the speed and agility of decentralized propaganda networks.
• Intellectual capture abroad: Many influential foreign think tanks, academics and NGOs regularly feature voices ideologically biased against India. As Professor Salvatore Babones has extensively documented, this is often the result of left-liberal ideological dominance and geopolitical alignments.[1][2]
• Lack of coordinated civil society action: India’s civil society is rich in talent and patriotism, but lacks a unified, credible platform to present the Indian perspective globally in a consistent manner.
• Uncontested social media propaganda: On platforms like TikTok and Telegram, influential outside India, hostile narratives go virtually unchallenged. While India has banned TikTok and Telegram has limited reach domestically, our diaspora and digital warriors don’t counter these narratives. Our own factual accounts remain grossly underrepresented.

In this asymmetric information war, India must think differently. We don’t need to match adversaries video-for-video, view-for-view on all social media platforms, nor is it practical. Instead, we can amplify the voice of India, especially the English-speaking population, with global access, a thousand-fold, through concerted action; distributed actions won’t suffice.

What if, instead of isolated rebuttals or government press releases (which are often discounted), India responded with a single, powerful voice of its people, outside of the government?

It’s time for ‘the Voice of India’: A civilian narrative platform with global reach

Imagine a non-governmental initiative on a massive scale, aiming for membership in the range of 300 million (30 crore) Indians and diaspora members. This platform, dignified and apolitical in tone, could be called something like ‘The Voice of India’.

Headed by a universally respected figure from civil society, someone like Ms. Sudha Murthy, it could serve as the moral and emotional voice of 1.4 billion Indians (a large majority of us).

This body could possess the following characteristics:

• Voluntary mass membership: Tens of crores of citizens, across states, religions, castes, and languages, should be enrolled. This critical mass alone would signify the voice of India in global public opinion.
• Institutional partnerships: Media houses, universities, citizen groups, industry bodies, and digital platforms could be invited as affiliate partners.
• Weekly global communication: Once a week, a professionally produced, multilingual press release (both text and video) could be issued by the Chairperson, covering matters of global importance from India’s perspective. This content could be distributed widely within India and globally.
• Dynamic civil society diplomacy: The platform could spearhead campaigns, coordinate effectively with Indian diaspora networks, host influential conferences, and engage directly with foreign opinion-makers, all without the constraints of officialdom.
• Massive voice amplification: The weekly bulletins, if carried by all Indian media and social platforms, and many foreign ones that we can get access to, could multiply the message’s reach exponentially.

Such a platform, credible, large-scale, and emotionally resonant, can serve as the truth-teller when adversaries distort facts. Over time, people across the world will come to recognize and expect India’s perspective from this platform before forming opinions.

Had such an entity existed during the Pahalgam episode, the world would have heard India’s voice with authenticity, dignity, and conviction.

Backed by crores of citizens and India’s brightest minds, such a voice would be impossible for the world to ignore, and we would have won the narrative too.

The time has come. Respected retired military officers, honest influencers, industrialists, public-spirited celebrities, and credible digital channels like PGurus, Gunners’ Shot, and others can initiate this movement.

India doesn’t need more outrage; it needs a coordinated NGO platform. A unified civilian response can become the foundation of our next soft power leap, rooted not in officialdom but in the soul of a people who have finally found their authentic voice.

Note:
1. Text in Blue points to additional data on the topic.
2. The views expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily represent or reflect the views of PGurus.

Reference:

[1] West’s Hatred for Hinduism & India: Views of an unbiased Western Sociologist – Apr 3, 2023, PGurus.com

[2] IITs, IIMs should rate nations on social indices – Nov 29, 2022, PGurus.com

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