Morals: What Exactly do soldiers fight for?

Indian Army is the world's largest 'voluntary' army. None of the serving and reserve personnel were forcefully drafted. This means that every personnel associated in our defense forces have 'Opted' for service. According to Times of India, The 1.1 million strong Indian Army lost one brave heart every third day in the last 13 years.

According to the data of the Indian army, between the period of January 2005 to December 2017, revealed that total 1,684 men lost their lives in cease fire violations by Pakistan, Anti-terror operations, counter-insurgency operations, offensive tactical missions and peace keeping missions. So, despite not being forced into service, why do the young boys go and get drafted into the Indian army?

Why do boys decide to become men through this line of service? What makes them kill the enemy and what is their exact mindset that makes them lay down their lives and attain martyrdom? I'll try to answer these questions and more through this article. 16 is the minimum age at which a teenager can decide if he wants himself to be a part of the National Defense Academy and pave a way for himself to become a first class Indian army officer. For a teenager, the motives to do so can be plenty. He may be inspired by watching action movies, he may be an army brat who wants to be just like his father, he may want to enjoy the thrills and experience what being in army actually feels like or he can simply be patriotic.

The training in NDA lasts for three years after which cadets further go to IMA (Indian Military Academy) where their training further continues for 18 months before they are given the rank of an officer as a Lieutenant. During this period, it is inevitable that these guys develop friendships that may last on life-long basis. Moreover, developing the sense of brotherhood among these cadets is one of the main objectives of their training and group exercises. Best of friends are made during this time period of training. Cadets are inculcated with a sense of patriotism and selflessness during training. The famous Chetwode motto of IMA, "The safety, honour and welfare of your country come first, always and every time. The honour, welfare and comfort of the men you command come next. Your own ease, comfort and safety come last, always and every time." makes this quite evident.

People who join the army come from various cultural and ethnic backgrounds and the only thing that binds them together is the friendship they develop during their training and a sense of patriotism. However, these are not the only things that make our soldiers be ready to kill or die for our nation.

Questioning the intentions of the army and hurting the dignity of our soldiers has been the recent trend adopted by the people who call themselves 'Liberals'. Most of these people don't have the factual or analytical knowledge of how our army works or what its aims are but point their fingers regardless. From a personal POV, I find these people to be some of the biggest hypocrites. Talk of Human rights can be considered an example. People (pseudo-Liberals) cry about human rights being violated at the hands of the Indian army in Kashmir but forget that the soldiers are Humans too and what the stone-pelters are doing is also a clear violation of human rights of our soldiers. However, this fact doesn't stop these so called liberals to start exploiting the army via false and exaggerated allegations which play a negative role for the nation by bringing down the morale of the soldiers. Many people have accused the Indian army of giving unnecessary benefits to its officers and have called it just another 'Job ' that shouldn't be considered special .

They also criticize the soldiers by alleging that all soldiers join the army just to earn money and satisfy their greed. Most of these allegations come from people who have rich backgrounds and have never even lived among or interacted with real soldiers. Same group of people call terrorists like Burhan Wani, Zakir Musa and Sameer Tiger as nobleman who raised thier voice against tyranny and fought for freedom. They can see past the barbaric behavior of these terrorists and find a 'noble' cause for their brutal and destructive actions but can't appreciate our Army soldiers and judge them by alleging their greed for money. To get the difference right and set the record straight, ill try to put it this way-

"A soldier- Wears the uniform with an intention to save lives of his brothers in arms and his country from enemies and threats.

A terrorist- Wears the uniform with every intention to cause chaos and kill innocents."

A famous quote by Aldous Huxley," The most shocking fact about war is that its victims and its instruments are individual human beings, and that these individual beings are condemned by monstrous conventions of politics to murder or be murdered in quarrels not their own."

People need to get one thing right in their minds- Soldiers don't have a personal rivalry with an enemy. It is correct that they fight, kill and die to protect the dignity and integrity of our nation. But more importantly, a true soldier fights not because he hates what's in front of him, but because he loves what's behind him. A true soldier gets ready to die not because he has a death wish or is suicidal, but because he doesn't want his brother in arms to lay in a coffin. A true soldier gets ready to attain martyrdom because of his love for the nation, his brothers in arms and his family back home.

Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan of NSG (SAG) attained martyrdom in Operation Black tornado during 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks and his last words were, "Don't come up! i'll handle them!". He was courageous and was thinking about the safety of his men in his last moments. There have been countless instances where these bravehearts decided to go to places where they knew they might not return from alive. There have been countless instances where soldiers put their lives on the line to save their buddies whom they loved and decided that they themselves should lay in the graves rather than seeing their buddies do so. At the end of the day, a soldier fights for everything he loves. "My brother to my left, my brother to my right. together we stand, together we fight." sums it up.

"Either I will come back after hoisting the Tricolour (Indian flag), or I will come back wrapped in it, but I will be back for sure."- Capt Vikram Batra

As I finish, I've got only one question for the pseudo-liberals who disrespect our nation's army and its soldiers and even the martyrs by giving baseless arguments and alleging that soldiers fight for the greed of money.To those who say that soldiers dying in the line of duty isn't and shouldn't be considered anything special as its just an occupational hazard, I ask - What do you think is the right price for the life of an Indian Army soldier? Would you be ready to experience this 'Occupational Hazard' if you are paid the same amount as these soldiers? What do you think should be the price for your life?

Human life is priceless and our soldiers are also Human beings. Please stop this disrespectful trend of shaming these brave men...