Opinion | How Far Can India Really Avoid Other People's Wars? |
Opinion | How Far Can India Really Avoid Other People's Wars?
Updated: Mar 20, 2026 13:28 pm IST Published On Mar 20, 2026 13:26 pm IST Last Updated On Mar 20, 2026 13:28 pm IST
Published On Mar 20, 2026 13:26 pm IST
Last Updated On Mar 20, 2026 13:28 pm IST
"We started this war due to pressure..."
This is how the world got pushed into yet another forever war, impacting everyone in some measure. While the US counterterrorism chief, Joe Kent, holds Israel responsible for the war waged on Iran in his resignation letter, at this stage, it's almost pointless to assign accountability. The ongoing Iran-Israel-US war has quickly acquired the familiar logic of a forever war, where battle victories do not open any credible pathway to political closure. For India, the significance of this war lies less in its battlefield dynamics and more in what it reveals about the costs of entanglement and the discipline required to avoid it.
The conflict's most immediate global consequence has been the disruption of energy flows through the Strait of Hormuz, a chokepoint through which roughly 20% of global petroleum - and nearly half of India's crude imports - transit. Even partial disruption has been enough to send oil prices sharply higher, with knock-on effects across currencies, inflation, and trade balances. India's vulnerability here is........