Besides an obvious showdown between China and US, what makes the India-Pakistan constant and simmering conflict unlike other modern hostilities is the apocalyptic energy that simmers beneath it in the religious tonality given to it from both sides. In the minds of certain strategic elites—military planners, religious ideologues, and digital propagandists—this is more than a clash of interests. It is seen as a battle foretold.
Ghazwa-e-Hind: Prophecy as a Doctrine?
For many Muslim scholars across South Asia and the Middle East, the concept of Ghazwa-e-Hind—an end-times battle in the Indian subcontinent mentioned in some Hadith compilations—has long held symbolic weight. While mainstream Islamic jurisprudence often interprets this metaphorically or cautiously, some segments within Pakistan’s religious-military establishment view it as an eschatological motivation.
During the 1980s, as Pakistan became a staging ground for the CIA-backed jihad against the Soviet Union, whispers of Ghazwa-e-Hind were heard not just in madrasas but also in elite circles of the military. General Zia-ul-Haq’s regime reportedly encouraged narratives that connected the Afghan jihad to a broader religious awakening, framing the fall of the USSR as a divine victory, and hinting that the next front may be to the east. A now-declassified CIA field memo from 1988 mentions Pakistani officers referencing “a prophecy where Islam will rise again from the east” when discussing post-Soviet ambitions. Although officially denied, such religious overlays have historically served as morale catalysts for proxy and irregular fighters. EU internal policy notes from 2002, compiled following regional intelligence-sharing sessions, echoed similar concerns: that “elements within the Pakistani establishment have long blurred doctrinal boundaries to foster a climate where eschatological militancy is tolerated for strategic depth.” These insights reveal not merely military posturing but a layered belief architecture shaping policy and perception alike.
Maha Bharat and Hindutva: India’s Sacred Geopolitics
On the Indian side, Hindutva ideologues within the BJP and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) have often invoked the idea of Akhand Bharat—a mythical unified Hindu realm stretching from Afghanistan to Myanmar. While this is largely dismissed in mainstream Indian politics as ideological nostalgia, its echoes are unmistakable in certain military and political speeches.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s reference to post-ceasefire televised speech and history of playing the religious card for political gains showcases a hint of this. His famous wording of “correcting the wrongs of Partition” along with the BJP manifesto’s implicit nods to reclaiming ancient borders aren’t just electoral rhetoric. They are civilizational claims. In 2023, a viral address by a senior Indian Army general to NDA cadets included references to the “Mahabharat of modern India”—framing future warfare in both territorial and mythological terms.
A policy brief by the Observer Research Foundation, a Delhi-based think tank with close ties to the BJP, suggested in 2024 that India must “reclaim its rightful leadership of South Asia—not just through trade, but through cultural and digital dominance.” The subtext is clear: this is not merely strategy; it is scripture-coded supremacy.
Read More about:
Part 1: Digital Cold War: Pakistan’s Silent Surge (Part-1)
Part 2: India Needs to Choose Between Booming Economy and Ajit Doval
The Sikh, Kashmir and Northern Indian Dissent
But this vision of Hindutva hegemony doesn’t sit well across all of India. In Punjab, Sikh separatist undercurrents are once again visible, especially after the 2023 extrajudicial killing of Khalistan sympathizers abroad, linked to Indian intelligence. Pro-Khalistan digital groups, many based in Canada and the UK, have rapidly gained traction among the diaspora youth. These networks, while historically fractured, have found new cohesion through encrypted platforms, generative propaganda tools, and transnational solidarity with other stateless or occupied peoples. Their digital content often frames the Indian state as a “Brahminical empire,” portraying Sikhs as both victims of cultural erasure and frontline defenders against ideological imperialism.
According to internal memos from Global Affairs Canada (GAC), intercepted narratives from Sikh diaspora channels have begun aligning with broader anti-Hindutva and decolonial campaigns—a convergence that could complicate India’s international messaging.
Nowhere is the internal contradiction of India’s civilizational 5GW strategy more visible than in Kashmir. While New Delhi proclaims constitutional normalcy, the valley remains under quiet militarisation. Demographic engineering efforts, such as altered property laws and redistricting, have provided adversaries, especially Pakistan and China, with a rich propaganda seam. A classified Chinese defence white paper from 2023, leaked via a dissident network in Hong Kong, refers to India’s actions in Kashmir as “slow-motion ethno-hegemonic restructuring”—language that aligns with anti-Hindutva talking points used by Kashmiri activists.
This new generation of Kashmiri resistance, distinct from the insurgents of the 1990s, is tech-savvy, globally networked, and ideologically hybrid. Their discourse intersects with global movements—ranging from Free Palestine to anti-imperial critiques of the Global North. Platforms such as Clubhouse, Discord, and Threads host multilingual forums where discussions link Kashmir’s occupation with Western complicity, surveillance capitalism, and digital authoritarianism. EU-based counterterrorism analysts have acknowledged that these forums, while mostly non-violent, “serve as hubs for ideological cross-pollination, creating a polycentric digital resistance front.”
In Uttar Pradesh, Manipur and Bihar, caste violence, economic stagnation, and growing resentment against central policies have turned some regions into digital tinderboxes—ripe for narrative manipulation by adversarial actors. India’s strategic embrace of 5GW reflects an ambitious effort to blend civilisational narratives with cutting-edge digital statecraft. Yet the internal dissent—driven by religious minorities, sub-national movements, and transnational diasporas—suggests a far more fragmented picture. By blending myth with machine, scripture with cyber, the Indian state has created a potent but unstable narrative infrastructure.
Religion and the Digital Cold War: A Perfect Feedback Loop
This ideological warfare—Hindu mythology vs. Islamic prophecy—is now being coded into the algorithms of the global Digital Cold War. Experts believe that Chinese and Pakistani 5GW units (notably Unit 61398 in PLA cyber command) are believed to be using AI models trained on religious narratives to identify fault lines in Indian society. Strategic disinfo campaigns are tailored to provoke caste unrest, stir communal riots, and create perceptions of state failure.
Indian IT cells and pro-BJP digital warriors are leveraging Israel-origin spyware and Western cyber consultancies to neutralize dissent, censor religious minorities, and elevate Hindutva narratives—even among India’s large Christian and Buddhist populations. US and European digital forensics teams, while allied with India, are becoming increasingly wary of these religious narratives. A leaked 2024 RAND Corporation report advised caution: “Backing an ideologically extreme regime, even against China, may pose long-term ethical and regional stability risks.”
Iran and Turkey, meanwhile, are quietly using Islamic pan-nationalism in digital spaces to criticize India’s treatment of Muslims, hoping to win the South Asian Muslim diaspora away from Saudi-led neutrality.
Ideology is the Trojan Horse of Modern Geopolitics
As tensions between India and Pakistan continue to engulf the region and the globe, this is no longer a battle just about territory or economy—it is a multi-layered confrontation where mythology, prophecy, nationalism, and faith are being used as code in a new type of warfare. This religious layer, hypercharged by digital targeting and transnational propaganda, forms the emotional and cultural subtext of a much larger conflict: the Digital Cold War between US-led liberalism and China-backed authoritarianism. And history has shown that once wars are believed to be foretold, they become harder to contain.
Note: Recent escalation in a never-ending India-Pakistan conflict has re-emerged not merely as a border or water dispute, but as the symbolic front line of a larger, more insidious global contest where data, myth, deafening social buzzing, and AI-driven digital firepower increasingly govern the world. This investigative series by seasoned and decorated Journalist and Researcher Saeed Minhas peels back the layers of rising hostilities between the two nuclear neighbours, exposing how geopolitical ambitions, religious prophecies, cyber warfare, and economic stakes intersect in what Saeed analyses as the first full-spectrum Digital Cold War between China and its allied rivals (US and the Europeans).
This article is compiled from economic intelligence briefs, defense analytics, and diplomatic cables accessed through verified channels.
