What Happens After War? – The Invisible Casualties of War
It is said, “युद्ध ही तो वीर का प्रमाण है” /war is the proof of valor, and to restore peace may be war is must. Be it Mahabharat or be it World Wars’ peace was restored after the war ended. However, what war leaves behind can be described as invisible casualties of war. Shree Krishna in Mahabharat rightly said to Arjun, being Kshatriya you are to fight, not because it is good but to defend Dharma, it is necessary.
The Invisible Casualties of War
We have seen images of children of soldiers, who lose their life fighting, paying their last tribute to their father. We have seen wives of a soldier turning unconscious after getting to know the person who promised to be with her till the end of her life, leave so soon. We have seen mothers of brave warriors lose themselves, completely broken and we have seen the proud fathers of the brave soldiers weeping yet ready to send their other child or grandchildren to defend nation once again. War is brutal, one life is lost and along dies several. Hope you haven’t forgotten this image.
On Memorial Days or in India “Saheed Diwas” we proudly remember the ones who have laid their lives defending our nation. But we forget them once the day is over. Can anyone name 10 brave men who laid their lives defending India? May be few may be able to but majority don’t even care. Majority of us admire actor, actress and consider them to be our role model, we come across the facts of an Army operation only when a movie is made on it. Yes, this is the reality!
Patriotism is not just about carrying a gun and defending the nation on the borders, patriotism also includes honouring the ones who paid their lives to buy peace and happiness for us. Yes, we forget, we forget because those deaths don’t affect us directly, we forget a family that gave its son to defend us, yet we talk about going into war. We are selfish, we never valued our brave men, may be our priorities don’t demand us to value what actually needs to be valued.
Honor is important, defending our nation is the priority of every single soldier. But for a common citizen being a war monger is part of the problem. It is not just the families of soldiers who suffers after war, the invisible casualties of war but the entire society suffers. War leaves behind a fractured society, a society with lack of trust. A soldier knows that the day he decided to join the armed forces, his life was more for nation than for himself or his family. However, the war aftermath is something that a soldier is unaware of.
We lost our 20 brave men defending our borders on 15th June. With 20 brave men, 20 families became the invisible casualty of war. We have lost thousands since we got independence in 1947. God forbid, if a war breaks out, our soldiers will fight with complete valor to make sure we sleep peacefully. When we honour a soldier, don’t forget to honour their families. They are the ones who lose everything. They too make supreme sacrifice. The one who is gone cannot feel, but the one who he lives behind can feel, remember War may not be the solution to a problem, but if Peace is to be restored war is must.
