Why War Is Not the Answer: Voices from India-Pakistan Border Villages

“Sarhado par tanaav hai kya? Zara dekho to kahin chunaav hai kya?”

This line says it all.

Once again, as war drums echo between India and Pakistan in 2025, many of us in Punjab find ourselves asking — why always us? Why does our land, our people, and our peace become the first casualty of political conflict?

This blog isn’t about choosing sides.

This blog is about choosing humanity.

What’s Happening Right Now: The Trigger

On May 6, 2025, following a tragic terrorist attack in Pahalgam, Kashmir that killed 26 innocent people — India launched Operation Sindoor, targeting sites in Pakistan and PoK (Pakistan-occupied Kashmir). The military operation was swift, and now Pakistan has responded with a warning of retaliation.

The political noise has grown louder. People across the country are divided — some mourning the lives lost, others calling for bloodshed and revenge. Twitter trends glorify destruction. Hashtags cry for fire.

But what about Punjab?

What about the border villages where the first bullet lands and the first home burns?

Ground Reality: Life at the Indo-Pak Border

Let’s talk about the people no one talks about.

Not the politicians on stage.

Not the social media warriors sipping tea in AC rooms 1000 kilometers away.

We’re talking about the families living in villages like Tarn Taran, Ferozepur, Gurdaspur, Pathankot, and more. They hear fighter jets before the rest of the country hears headlines.

They don’t get to post hashtags. They pack bags.

They leave behind their own homes, farms, livestock — to take shelter in temporary tin sheds and refugee camps, praying the shelling doesn’t find them.

Imagine this:

• You live your whole life in your ancestral home.
• Overnight, you’re forced to leave it behind because someone sitting far away decided a war must be fought.
• And when you return days or weeks later, your house is rubble. Your fields are cratered. Your cattle are gone.

This is the truth of border residents. Every conflict costs them peace, sleep, and stability.

Yet their voices are missing from the national conversation.

Truth Bomb: War is Romanticized by Those Who Don’t Fight It

“All the war-propaganda, all the screaming and lies and hatred, comes invariably from people who are not fighting.”
— George Orwell

Let that quote sink in.

The loudest voices asking for war are often the furthest from it.

It’s easy to support war when you’re:

• In an office chair, not a bunker.
• Holding a phone, not a rifle.
• Drinking tea, not searching for lost loved ones in rubble.

When people in Delhi, Mumbai, or Karachi call for war, the bullets don’t hit them. They hit the jawans, the farmers, the children along the border.

Punjab’s History: A Region That Has Suffered Too Much

Punjab has seen Partition. Punjab has seen multiple wars. Punjab has seen operation after operation — and every time, the price was paid in human lives, culture, and trust.

• In 1947, millions were displaced, and lakhs were killed.
• In 1965, 1971, and 1999, our fields became battlefields.
• In every border skirmish since, our people live with fear, not freedom.

We don’t need more war.

A Message to Leaders on Both Sides

Dear leaders of India and Pakistan,

You have a responsibility greater than pride. You have nuclear weapons — but you also have the power to save lives.

Diplomacy is not weakness.

Dialogue is not surrender.

Peace doesn’t mean forgetting loss — it means choosing not to multiply it.

Use your positions to protect life, not provoke war.

Famous Voices that Echo Our Pain

Here are some powerful quotes that resonate with what Punjab feels today:

“Older men declare war. But it is youth that must fight and die.”
— Herbert Hoover

“In war, truth is the first casualty.”
— Aeschylus

“War does not determine who is right – only who is left.”
— Bertrand Russell

“When the rich wage war, it’s the poor who die.”
— Jean-Paul Sartre

Each of these lines, spoken decades or centuries ago, reflect the reality of the border families today. We don’t want more martyrs. We want fewer funerals.

Real People, Real Pain

You won’t find this on the news.

But if you visit a border village, you’ll see:

• Mothers telling their children to sleep away from windows.
• Fathers digging temporary trenches next to farms.
• Elders praying the temple bell rings again — not the war siren.

These are not fictional stories. These are everyday truths of Punjabis who live in the shadow of uncertainty.

We deserve to live free from fear.

Let’s Break the Cycle

We ask you not to normalize war in the name of nationalism.

• Support the soldier — yes.
• Respect the nation — yes.
• But romanticizing war without understanding its cost is ignorance.

As Punjabis, we are tired of being pawns in this game.

We want to grow wheat, not graves.

We want to hear folk songs, not sirens.

We want our children to carry books, not trauma.

❤️ Choose Peace, Choose Humanity

This is not weakness. This is strength rooted in wisdom.

The world needs more bridges, fewer bombs.

We, the people of Punjab, both in India and Pakistan, are the same by blood. We share language, food, music, poetry — and now, we must share the courage to reject war.

“An eye for an eye will leave the whole world blind.”
— Mahatma Gandhi

Let’s not repeat the same mistakes our ancestors paid for.

What You Can Do Right Now:

• Share this blog if you believe in peace over politics.
• Talk to your friends — especially those glorifying war — and help them understand the human cost.
• Support border families, not just jawans — they are silently suffering.
• Write your own poems, stories, and posts that promote unity, not hatred.