The toll it takes on lives, economies, and the very idea of humanity
The recent drumbeats of war, heard across multiple geographies—from Ukraine to Gaza, from the Red Sea to whispered speculations in Asia—remind us that while flags may flutter and nationalistic fervour may rise, the consequences of war are seldom borne by those in power. Instead, they are carried, almost always, by the poorest, the youngest, and the most vulnerable. The idea of war as glory needs dismantling—not only because of its devastating moral implications, but because, in an interconnected world, its costs are more ruinous than ever.
Lives Lost: The Incalculable Cost
The primary, unfiltered cost of war is human life. Civilian casualties, often eclipsing military losses, are not aberrations—they are part of modern warfare’s pattern. In Ukraine, estimates by the United Nations and independent groups suggest hundreds of thousands of lives lost or permanently altered, including children uprooted from their schools and the elderly from their homes. In Gaza, children’s lives are snuffed out by the hour, and hospitals, meant to heal, are turned into battlegrounds.
No national anthem can drown out a mother’s wail. No territorial gain can justify the trauma that scars a generation. In India, our own Partition is a reminder of what engineered divisions and orchestrated violence leave behind—not just geographical wounds, but psychological ones that linger for decades. War normalises death, rationalises displacement, and makes cruelty mundane.
To romanticise it is to betray the very essence of humanity.
Economic Ruin: War as a Regressive Tax on the Poor
Even for those who survive, the economic aftershocks of war are far-reaching and long-lasting. Countries at war or under militarised pressure see spiralling inflation, food and fuel crises, and loss of livelihood. The World Bank estimates that Ukraine’s economy contracted by over 29% in 2022 alone, while Gaza’s economy is being pulverised by blockades and bombardments, with unemployment now above 47%.
Globally, oil prices shoot up, grain corridors are disrupted, and trade routes are destabilised. What this means in real terms is that a family in Jharkhand may find cooking oil more expensive, or a refugee family in Syria may have to go without bread. War anywhere exacerbates hunger everywhere.
Even powerful economies do not emerge unscathed. Military expenditure—often hailed as patriotism with a price tag—draws money away from education, healthcare, and infrastructure. In the United States, while the Pentagon budget swells, debates on public health funding remain paralysed. In India, more money for missiles often means less for midday meals or scholarships. The argument of “defence preparedness” too easily morphs into a bloated and unquestioned arms economy.
Displacement and the Global Refugee Crisis
Another silent consequence of war is displacement. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reports that we now have more than 114 million forcibly displaced people worldwide—the highest in human history. Wars in Syria, Afghanistan, Sudan, and now Ukraine and Gaza have added millions to that figure. And unlike popular assumptions, 76% of them are hosted in low and middle-income countries, not wealthy Western nations.
What does this mean for India and South Asia? It means the long, unending queues of those without paperwork, those labelled as “illegal”, are often victims of policies and wars they had no role in shaping. It means communal tensions at home rise when desperation meets demonisation. Refugees are not numbers; they are consequences of choices made far away, by people who rarely face the fallout.
War’s Psychological Warfare: Trauma and Militarisation of the Mind
A more subtle but corrosive effect of war is the militarisation of thought. It creates a culture of “us vs them”, makes questioning the government “anti-national”, and breeds an environment where debate is drowned out by decibels of jingoism. When war becomes a habit of the mind, peace becomes a threat.
Children growing up in conflict zones draw guns in their notebooks instead of dreams. Citizens begin to equate dissent with disloyalty. Populations become conditioned to accept surveillance, censorship, and state overreach as necessary. War wounds the soul of democracy and its values.
In countries like India, which have maintained a difficult but proud tradition of non-alignment and strategic autonomy, the pressure to militarise language, textbooks, and foreign policy can upend decades of cautious diplomacy and pluralism. War begets not only enemies but enmities.
Climate and Collapse: War as an Environmental Crime
In an era of climate urgency, war is an ecological disaster. Bombing runs and scorched-earth strategies destroy biodiversity, burn crops, poison water supplies, and release carbon emissions at grotesque levels. The war in Ukraine alone is estimated to have released over 120 million tonnes of carbon dioxide in its first year.
The irony is inescapable: while the world gathers at COP summits to negotiate carbon budgets, tanks roll over agricultural fields, burning fuel, destroying food chains, and leaving poisoned earth in their wake.
Conclusion: Peace as Resistance
In a time where global alliances are being reconfigured, where nationalism is packaged and sold with great marketing budgets, resisting the lure of war becomes a moral, economic, and existential necessity. It is not cowardice to choose dialogue over destruction. It is wisdom.
As the late UN Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld once said, “The UN was not created to take mankind to heaven, but to save humanity from hell.” That sentiment must animate global citizens today, who must not be swayed by muscular rhetoric or televised bombast.
India, as the world’s most populous democracy, with its deep civilisational roots in peace and co-existence, must not flirt with the idea of war—whether on our borders or through policies at home that militarise civil life. A future worth fighting for is not built on the graves of innocents, but on the hard, slow work of building bridges.
The time to ask who profits from war and who pays the price is now. Because no one truly wins a war. Not in this century. Not in any…
