​What is the Vedic perspective of modern asymmetric warfare?

Answer Podcast

Transcript

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So you are asking about asymmetric wars in history, yeah.
Modern Kshatriya, modern warfare is more about winning or at least not losing, whatever happens. So often nowadays in modern warfare, very little is followed according to proper principles of warfare. So even, what to speak of India, even if you go back 1000 years or a few 100 years, even in Europe, when the wars would be fought, people would have a certain sense of honour when they would fight.
But unfortunately, that sense of honour is very much lost. And now often, wars are fought for many reasons apart from any gain for the people in general. Often wars are fought because the weapon manufacturers want to have their have their business going on.
Often wars are fought because a victory in the war can distract the people’s mind from other bigger problems that are there in society. Wars are fought because the politicians want to gain political capital through the through the martial image that comes from fighting a war. So often the war is fought against someone who is not at all equal in the fight.
When this happens, this is unfortunate. This is not the way war should be fought. But the point is we have to live in the world the way it is.
So when we talk about say asymmetric wars, we have Shivaji Maharaj. He had a very small army as compared to the army of the Mughals at that time. But then he fought.
And then if there is an asymmetric war and if that has to be fought, so that means if we are on the stronger side, it’s not that we use disproportionate force to crush others. But if you are on the weaker side, then we have to have appropriate strategies. So one of the strategies of Shivaji Maharaj was that he instead of fighting on chariot, he would fight with horses.
Although he was a Chhatrapati, he practically never used chariots because the strength of his attack was his speed. And a horse itself can move much faster than a horse that has to drag a chariot along. So there are various things.
So one of the main reasons he could succeed was that because he was so fast in his attack and his retreat after the attacks or his moving from one place to another place to attack. So if there is an asymmetric war to be fought, then there has to be appropriate strategies that have to be adopted. And that’s how there are principles.
But one of the main reasons of Mahabharata is that we should not ourselves violate principles first. But if the opponent is fighting dirty, then we cannot just think that I will stick to principles and then I will be destroyed. It doesn’t matter.
No, if at the ground level, if the opponent is fighting dirty, then we have to do the needful to protect. And the Pandavas could have won and Arjuna had demonstrated that he could have won by any means. If you want to talk about asymmetric wars, Arjuna alone in the Virat battle, that is the greatest example of the asymmetric war.
Arjuna was all alone and the whole Kaurava army was there. And Arjuna, his skill and his prowess was so great that he just defeated all of them. So, if somebody has the skills and prowess to defeat a formidable enemy in an asymmetric war, they can do that.
If not, then if certain strategies are required to fight that war, so our ideals are not meant to make us utopian, you know, unconnected with reality, just imagining that things will be alright. Now, we have ideals and we also need to have practical steps by which we can either live according to the ideals or create a social environment by which we can gradually live according to the ideals. So, there has to be practicality associated with the principles