Were we in a war with Pakistan? Depends on who you ask.

The government’s preferred term for the military exchanges with neighbour Pakistan that started May 7 and ended May 10 is “limited conflict”.

This choice of semantics has its advantages. Academic and editor, INDIA’S WORLD, a foreign affairs magazine, Happymon Jacob points out that when you call a conflict a war, it becomes legal phraseology. International bodies get involved, which has all kinds of bilateral and legal implications. “Calling it ‘limited conflict’ makes it easier for the government to navigate things as they deem fit,” says Jacob. According to him, another reason the war tag was avoided is that it would in some respects put the two countries on a par, which India wanted to avoid at any cost.

Then there are the technicalities. Neither the Indian Army, nor the Navy, nor the Air Force, crossed the international........

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