Subduing the enemy without confrontation, as Sun Tzu’s Art of War teaches, is a tactic India has long used against Pakistan. India’s goal has been to destroy Pakistan and remove Islamabad from the world map, using every means, including misinformation, propaganda, psychological operations, and post-truth politics.
Yet, despite its larger size, India has failed to eradicate Pakistan because of Pakistan’s resilience during crises. History shows Pakistan’s psychological strength and ability to recover stronger each time. India’s propaganda and Pakistan’s resilience are two sides of the same coin. New Delhi uses manipulation and deceit to harm, while Pakistan uses post-truth tactics in self-defence, peace, and goodness.
Post-truth politics refers to decisions where emotions overshadow facts. Vittorio Bufacchi notes that “post-truth is a murky concept, but it should not be confused with a lie,” meaning truth and falsehood blur when emotions rule. As Ambassador Aizaz Ahmed Chaudhry writes, “Fractured past, uncertain future” sums up Indo-Pak relations shaped by Partition wounds, historical grievances, and Modi’s fascist Hindutva doctrine that fuels hatred and ongoing conflict.
During the first Kashmir war in 1947, the radio was the primary medium that was utilised as a tool of warfare. India, through radio, weaponised propaganda against Pakistan by leveraging regional dynamics, political disenfranchisement, and religious sentiments to fuel insurgency by manipulating perceptions.
Moving ahead to 1965, radio broadcasts, newspapers, press photography, and poetry were media utilised for post-truth tactics. While India was busy propagating hate, Pakistan utilised post-truth tactics in a rather positive way to protect the sovereignty of the nation and by offering a hand for peaceful negotiation.
The manifestation of Pakistan’s approach was embodied through the contributions of Faiz Ahmed Faiz and Ahmad Nadeem Qasmi, two great poets who ignited nationalism without inciting hate and without compromising on patriotic values. Hence, striking a balanced approach towards sovereignty and security.
1971 is a perfect example embodying India’s ambition to destroy Pakistan. While Pakistan was dealing with the havoc of internal difficulties, India chimed in, seeing it as a perfect opportunity to exploit Pakistan by attacking the nation in its most vulnerable times, that too psychologically and through propaganda.
The 2025 Indo-Pak flashpoint was less of a military confrontation, more of a geopolitical battlefield of narratives in which war was combated through psychological tactics, post-truth manipulation, and canons of narratives
The disintegration (Pakistan)–liberation (East Pakistan to Bangladesh)–animosity (India) triangle was an archetypal manifestation of inimical divisive psychological operations in which all these three actors ensured the capitalisation of psyops through exploiting fault lines, emotionalism, mobilisation, recruitment in Mukti Bahini, conduct of guerrilla warfare, and selling of nationalistic ideologies against each other.
West Pakistan, however, suffered the most brutal consequences with India’s divisive propaganda against it, creating a trust deficit and further dividing the already polarised society in the name of humanitarian intervention.
Even after dismantling Pakistan, India pursued its ambitions more aggressively. In 1999, the two nuclear powers fought the Kargil War, called “the first Indo-Pak televised war.” Indian media broadcast information and misinformation around the clock, introducing South Asia to a new kind of warfare.
India continues to weaponise Kargil through propaganda and Bollywood films like Shershaah, stirring emotions and hatred against Pakistan. With digitalisation, warfare has shifted from radio and newspapers to social media and the internet.
In the 2016 Uri Attack and Surgical Strikes, both countries used online platforms, trending hashtags, and bots to provoke nationalist emotions and public hostility. Three years later, during the Pulwama–Balakot crisis, media in both countries, especially India, acted as escalatory agents, spreading hate and revenge narratives.
Pakistan countered by denying links to the Pulwama attack and accused India of false propaganda, though its response was less aggressive. India also exploited Pakistan’s internal challenges during the Global War on Terrorism, spreading misinformation through the EU Disinformation Lab and influencing Pakistan’s inclusion in the 2018 FATF Grey List. Yet, Pakistan’s resilience led to its eventual removal from the list.
The 2025 Indo-Pak flashpoint was less of a military confrontation, more of a geopolitical battlefield of narratives in which war was combated through psychological tactics, post-truth manipulation, and canons of narratives. New Delhi and India intensified their retaliation and escalation using digital platforms to influence public perception and international opinion.
In this flashpoint, a surge of misinformation, deepfakes, meme attacks, and coordinated social media campaigns was witnessed. In response to the Pahalgam attack, India launched “Operation Sindhoor”, accompanied by diplomatic outreach, to malign the soft image of Pakistan as a terrorist nation.
Pakistan positioned itself as a victim of India’s ruthless hegemony and responded by launching Operation Bunyan ul Marsoos, emphasising strategic stability and highlighting India’s alleged human rights abuses. During the entire operation, Pakistan refrained from attacking first and kept reaching India for dialogue.
On the other hand, India aggressively propagated the situation, weaponising not only media but also international law by breaching the Indus Waters Treaty. While Pakistan was putting efforts to bring peace psychology to work through dialogue and diplomacy, India chose a rather aggressive path by escalating operations to drone warfare, water warfare, and even lawfare.
From history to now, three main elements define post-truth tactics. Firstly, Islamabad and New Delhi’s relations reflect Dominique Moïsi’s The Geopolitics of Emotion, showing a clash of emotions rooted in historical grievances since Partition.
Secondly, both nations use narrative engineering by shaping history and public opinion, making it hard to find the objective truth and spreading mistrust.
Lastly, India has long applied Sun Tzu’s idea of subduing the enemy without confrontation, using propaganda, fake news, and misinformation to exploit Pakistan’s internal weaknesses.
After 9/11, when Pakistan faced the “do more doctrine” and threats to its sovereignty, India took advantage of its vulnerability to weaken it without direct war. Yet, Pakistan’s approach differs; it never compromises sovereignty and uses post-truth only for security and defence.
Pakistan prefers diplomacy to maintain South Asian peace, while India’s actions stem from hatred, regional dominance, and ego. This aggressiveness risks pushing South Asia towards nuclear disaster and Armageddon.