“India Lost 120 Aircraft, Pakistan Winning”! How Islamabad Lied During The 1971 War Before “Bitter Facts” Shocked Pak- TRUE or FALSE? (Part 1)
“The only thing that we learn from history is that we learn nothing from history,” is a famous quote by German philosopher Georg Hegel.
In somewhat similar vein, another German philosopher who was contemporary with Hegel – Karl Marx – warned us that “History repeats itself, first as a tragedy, second time as a farce.”
Though written almost two centuries ago, both these quotes ring equally true in today’s world as well, more so in the case of Pakistan. This country seems almost hell bent on repeating its past mistakes to the detriment of its future.
While ‘Narrative Warfare’ has its place in modern hybrid warfare, and can act as a morale booster despite battlefield losses, it can also create a ‘fog of war,’ so blinding that one literally becomes the victim of its own propaganda, and fails to learn critical lessons, until it’s too late and ‘all is lost.’
It’s tragic enough to repeat this mistake once, but it becomes a farce when one insists on repeating this mistake again and again.
As Karl Marx warned us: “History repeats itself, first as a tragedy, second time as a farce.” But as Marx’s fellow countryman and a contemporary of his, Hegel warned us that despite the costs of not learning the correct lessons from history, “the only thing we learn from history,” is that “we learn nothing from history.”
German Invincibility And Two Back-To-Back World War Defeats
Ironically enough, the warnings of Marx and Hegel were not heeded even in their own country, Germany.
Germany was convincingly routed in the First World War. However, instead of soul-searching and learning the right lessons, Germany sought to come to terms with its defeat through myth-making.
Now, this myth-making is remembered as the “Stab-in-the-back” myth. In the aftermath of the humiliating 1918 defeat, an anti-Semitic conspiracy theory was promulgated and widely believed by the German masses.
It sought to make sense of the German defeat by propounding that Germany could never be defeated.
According to this theory (and belief system), Germany was defeated not on the battlefield, but was instead betrayed by certain citizens on the home front – especially Jews, Communists, and revolutionary socialists.
Further, it claimed that the German race is invincible and can never be defeated on the battlefield. The defeat in the First World War has hurt German pride, and this myth of German invincibility and the “Stab-in-the-back” theory helped a defeated people come to terms with their loss.
The “Stab-in-the-back” theory was an integral part of Nazi propaganda. This myth-making, or constructing alternative facts/history, not only led Germany into another defeat, this time even more devastating and humiliating than the first time, but also created conditions for the worst genocide of our times – the mass killings of Jews, Romanians, Poles and Communists at the hands of Nazis.
However, what is surprising is the sway this myth of German invincibility held over the German masses even until the last days of the Second World War, when both the Eastern and Western fronts had collapsed and the Soviet Red Army was knocking on the doors of Berlin.
Germans failed to see the reality until it was too late, and all was lost. The German homeland was now divided into two halves, East Germany and West Germany.
Myth-Making In Pakistani National Psyche And The 1965 War
The myth of German invincibility had striking parallels in the Pakistani national psyche in the 1960s. Over 800 years of history were narrated in a selective manner to suit a particular agenda.
Missing from this selective history in Pakistan was the reality of India at the eve of British invasion in 18th century when most of the Indian hinterland was under Maratha sway and most of the Pakistani Punjab, Multan, Sindh, and Kashmir, right up till the borders of Tibet in the East and Afghanistan in the West was under the Sikh kingdom.
In the first week of June 1965, a high-ranking Pakistan Army officer wrote an article in the Dawn newspaper recommending that the Pakistani strategy should “obviously be to go for a knock-out in the Mohamed Ali Clay style,” a reference to the American boxer, often regarded as the greatest heavyweight boxer of all time.
British Army historian Brian Cloughley writes in his book – A History of the Pakistan Army: Wars and Insurrections – that an official military directive from that time stated, “as a general rule, Hindu morale would not stand more than a couple of hard blows delivered at the right time and place.”
Wars fought 1000 years ago in West Asia were cited as evidence of an impending Pakistan victory. “Hus ke liya hai Pakistan, ladh ke lenge Hindustan” (We achieved Pakistan, laughing, we will take India fighting) was the war cry in Pakistan.
Believing in their absolute invincibility, Pakistan, like Nazi Germany, became a victim of its own propaganda and launched ‘Operation Gibraltar,’ named for a famous Moorish military victory in Medieval Spain. Pakistani war-fighting units were named after legendary warriors of the Islamic past – Suleiman, Salahuddin, and so on.
As it happened, Pakistani plans came to naught. During the 1965 war, even though Pakistan had the element of surprise, India was able to occupy nearly four times more land than Pakistan.
India was able to occupy 1920 sq miles of Pakistani territory, most of it in the fertile plains of Punjab and the strategic Haji Pir Pass in Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir (PoK). In comparison, Pakistan was able to occupy roughly 540 sq miles of Indian territory, most of it in the barren no-man’s lands of Rajasthan, though Pakistan had the advantage in the Chumb sector.
However, as India agreed to establish the status quo ante after the ceasefire, in Pakistan, the 1965 war was always taught and remembered as a victory. This myth-making was considered essential by the Pakistani defense establishment to maintain the morale of the society.
Though, as Marx had warned, this failure to learn from history led to Pakistan’s catastrophic defeat in the 1971 war, the humiliating surrender of 93,000 soldiers, and the loss of the country’s eastern half, which became a separate country in Bangladesh.
1971 War Amid Plethora Of Pakistani Lies
The importance Pakistan has always placed on winning the narrative war, even at the expense of battlefield victories, is best exemplified by a critical analysis of The Dawn’s front pages during the 13-day 1971 war.
The Dawn is widely regarded as Pakistan’s most respected newspaper internationally.
A critical analysis of these front pages from the newspaper’s war days reveals how the Pakistani people were kept in the dark about the actual battlefield situation until it was too late, and everything was lost.
In fact, reading these articles, any person would have believed that Pakistan was headed for a grand victory over India. These newspaper clippings also reveal Pakistan’s mastery of a hybrid ‘Narrative Warfare’ from an early era.
On December 4, 1971, the Dawn reported that “West Pakistan attacked at 7 points”. Then it says, “It’s Now all-out war.” Further, the newspaper reports that in response to the Indian attack, “PAF bombed 7 Indian airfields including Agra.” It created an impression that India was the aggressor.
“The only thing that we learn from history is that we learn nothing from history,” is a famous quote by German philosopher Georg Hegel.
In somewhat similar vein, another German philosopher who was contemporary with Hegel – Karl Marx – warned us that “History repeats itself, first as a tragedy, second time as a farce.”
Though written almost two centuries ago, both these quotes ring equally true in today’s world as well, more so in the case of Pakistan. This country seems almost hell bent on repeating its past mistakes to the detriment of its future.
While ‘Narrative Warfare’ has its place in modern hybrid warfare, and can act as a morale booster despite battlefield losses, it can also create a ‘fog of war,’ so blinding that one literally becomes the victim of its own propaganda, and fails to learn critical lessons, until it’s too late and ‘all is lost.’
It’s tragic enough to repeat this mistake once, but it becomes a farce when one insists on repeating this mistake again and again.
As Karl Marx warned us: “History repeats itself, first as a tragedy, second time as a farce.” But as Marx’s fellow countryman and a contemporary of his, Hegel warned us that despite the costs of not learning the correct lessons from history, “the only thing we learn from history,” is that “we learn nothing from history.”
German Invincibility And Two Back-To-Back World War Defeats
Ironically enough, the warnings of Marx and Hegel were not heeded even in their own country, Germany.
Germany was convincingly routed in the First World War. However, instead of soul-searching and learning the right lessons, Germany sought to come to terms with its defeat through myth-making.
Now, this myth-making is remembered as the “Stab-in-the-back” myth. In the aftermath of the humiliating 1918 defeat, an anti-Semitic conspiracy theory was promulgated and widely believed by the German masses.
It sought to make sense of the German defeat by propounding that Germany could never be defeated.
According to this theory (and belief system), Germany was defeated not on the battlefield, but was instead betrayed by certain citizens on the home front – especially Jews, Communists, and revolutionary socialists.
Further, it claimed that the German race is invincible and can never be defeated on the battlefield. The defeat in the First World War has hurt German pride, and this myth of German invincibility and the “Stab-in-the-back” theory helped a defeated people come to terms with their loss.
The “Stab-in-the-back” theory was an integral part of Nazi propaganda. This myth-making, or constructing alternative facts/history, not only led Germany into another defeat, this time even more devastating and humiliating than the first time, but also created conditions for the worst genocide of our times – the mass killings of Jews, Romanians, Poles and Communists at the hands of Nazis.
However, what is surprising is the sway this myth of German invincibility held over the German masses even until the last days of the Second World War, when both the Eastern and Western fronts had collapsed and the Soviet Red Army was knocking on the doors of Berlin.
Germans failed to see the reality until it was too late, and all was lost. The German homeland was now divided into two halves, East Germany and West Germany.
Myth-Making In Pakistani National Psyche And The 1965 War
The myth of German invincibility had striking parallels in the Pakistani national psyche in the 1960s. Over 800 years of history were narrated in a selective manner to suit a particular agenda.
Missing from this selective history in Pakistan was the reality of India at the eve of British invasion in 18th century when most of the Indian hinterland was under Maratha sway and most of the Pakistani Punjab, Multan, Sindh, and Kashmir, right up till the borders of Tibet in the East and Afghanistan in the West was under the Sikh kingdom.
In the first week of June 1965, a high-ranking Pakistan Army officer wrote an article in the Dawn newspaper recommending that the Pakistani strategy should “obviously be to go for a knock-out in the Mohamed Ali Clay style,” a reference to the American boxer, often regarded as the greatest heavyweight boxer of all time.
British Army historian Brian Cloughley writes in his book – A History of the Pakistan Army: Wars and Insurrections – that an official military directive from that time stated, “as a general rule, Hindu morale would not stand more than a couple of hard blows delivered at the right time and place.”
Wars fought 1000 years ago in West Asia were cited as evidence of an impending Pakistan victory. “Hus ke liya hai Pakistan, ladh ke lenge Hindustan” (We achieved Pakistan, laughing, we will take India fighting) was the war cry in Pakistan.
Believing in their absolute invincibility, Pakistan, like Nazi Germany, became a victim of its own propaganda and launched ‘Operation Gibraltar,’ named for a famous Moorish military victory in Medieval Spain. Pakistani war-fighting units were named after legendary warriors of the Islamic past – Suleiman, Salahuddin, and so on.
As it happened, Pakistani plans came to naught. During the 1965 war, even though Pakistan had the element of surprise, India was able to occupy nearly four times more land than Pakistan.
India was able to occupy 1920 sq miles of Pakistani territory, most of it in the fertile plains of Punjab and the strategic Haji Pir Pass in Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir (PoK). In comparison, Pakistan was able to occupy roughly 540 sq miles of Indian territory, most of it in the barren no-man’s lands of Rajasthan, though Pakistan had the advantage in the Chumb sector.
However, as India agreed to establish the status quo ante after the ceasefire, in Pakistan, the 1965 war was always taught and remembered as a victory. This myth-making was considered essential by the Pakistani defense establishment to maintain the morale of the society.
Though, as Marx had warned, this failure to learn from history led to Pakistan’s catastrophic defeat in the 1971 war, the humiliating surrender of 93,000 soldiers, and the loss of the country’s eastern half, which became a separate country in Bangladesh.
1971 War Amid Plethora Of Pakistani Lies
The importance Pakistan has always placed on winning the narrative war, even at the expense of battlefield victories, is best exemplified by a critical analysis of The Dawn’s front pages during the 13-day 1971 war.
The Dawn is widely regarded as Pakistan’s most respected newspaper internationally.
A critical analysis of these front pages from the newspaper’s war days reveals how the Pakistani people were kept in the dark about the actual battlefield situation until it was too late, and everything was lost.
In fact, reading these articles, any person would have believed that Pakistan was headed for a grand victory over India. These newspaper clippings also reveal Pakistan’s mastery of a hybrid ‘Narrative Warfare’ from an early era.
On December 4, 1971, the Dawn reported that “West Pakistan attacked at 7 points”. Then it says, “It’s Now all-out war.” Further, the newspaper reports that in response to the Indian attack, “PAF bombed 7 Indian airfields including Agra.” It created an impression that India was the aggressor.
3 months ago
