Pedestrians walk past a digital broadcast in Mumbai announcing the start of a military offensive named “Operation Sindoor” on Wednesday. Photo: INDRANIL MUKHERJEE / AFP
India launched missile strikes on nine sites in Pakistan and Pakistan-administered Kashmir early Wednesday morning in a campaign titled “Operation Sindoor”.
Two days of subsequent fighting between the nuclear-armed neighbours have killed nearly four dozen people.
India’s offensive followed a terrorist attack in Indian-administered Kashmir that killed 26 people last month.
India said Pakistan-based Islamist militants were responsible for the attack, but Pakistan has denied involvement.
But what lies behind the name given to the military operation?
Sindoor is the Hindi word for vermilion, a red powder that is a traditional marker of the marital status of Hindu women. It is usually worn in the parting of a woman’s hair.
According to custom, the powder is wiped off and never applied again if a Hindu woman is widowed.
In Hinduism, the red colour of vermilion is a symbol of fertility, love and prosperity. It’s also believed to protect the family.
According to legend, Hindu Goddess Parvati, wife of Lord Shiva, wore vermilion as a symbol of piety and affection towards her husband.
It is believed that Hindu women in the Indian subcontinent have been wearing sindoor for thousands of years, with excavated female figurines from prehistoric times depicting the ritual.
Some ancient Indian texts also reference the application of sindoor.
For a country as large and diverse as India, it is difficult to generalise anything.
The ritual remains widespread in some Hindu communities, while not so much in others.
Some women apply it every day, some only when attending family functions and religious rituals, and some never apply it.
But regardless of how often sindoor is applied, many married Hindu women hold onto an emotional attachment to the application of the powder.
Some are critical of the expectation for married Hindu women to wear Sindoor, claiming it pushes them lower in the social gender hierarchy.
They view sindoor as a symbol of patriarchal control and gender inequality.
While women are expected to wear symbols that indicate marital status, there is no such expectation of married Hindu men.
The name is an apparent reference to the widows left by the Pahalgam terrorist attacks in April that killed 26 men, most of them Hindu.
Some have interpreted the name to be vengeance for the women who were widowed because of the attack.
Taking the symbolism further, the Indian Army announced the military offensive with a grim social media image that depicts spilled vermilion resembling spattered blood.
“Justice is served,” read a message in the social media post that accompanied the image.
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