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Since India ferociously launched its retaliatory action against Pakistan over Pahalgam terror attack, Operation Sindoor has been a nucleus of all national discourse. It has been reported that India destroyed nine suspected terrorist camps in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. Prime Minister Narendra Modi hailed it as the “biggest and most successful anti-terror operation in India’s history,” adding that it is far from over and that India will continue to exact a heavy price from the sponsors of terrorism.

While the success of Operation Sindoor has been a matter of contention on a global scale, it is its symbolic baptism, the fractured narrative, and BJP’s contradictory stand that makes us question if the intentions were at all genuine or just another spectacle in Modi’s world of performative actions.

The term sindoor (vermilion) needs no explanation for the Indian audience. Often dramatised in Bollywood films and Hindi television serials, it serves as a traditional symbol of Hindu marital identity – one that carries notions of honour which often eclipses a woman’s individual identity. When viewed within a patriarchal framework, the name draws a parallel between the honour of the nation and that of its women – implicitly reducing a woman’s identity to that of a married woman, lacking independent value. It has been stated that the operation was named as a tribute to the women who lost their husbands in the terror attack and to avenge it, two women from different faith – Colonel........

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