How to define an Indian

Categories such as pro-army, pro-India are puerile, divisive and ultimately engender violence

I am not pro-army. I’m not anti-army either. I recognise that military power is an essential requirement of the nation state. It is irresponsible to raise militias in charge of national defence (I’m not in favour of vahinis and senas), and so I suppose we must have an army. And then, while we are at it, a navy and an air force.

But other than this recognition of requirement, what does it mean to be pro-army? In a recent interview, printed in this paper, Vanita Kohli-Khandekar took Arnab Goswami to lunch and asked the great man about his ideology. He said: