From time immemorial, information has played a vital role in preserving the security of the state. In India, a veritable treatise was written on the subject by Chanakya in his Arthashastra, some time between 200-300 BCE. In China, the writings of Sun Tzu, who preceded Chanakya by about two hundred years, also expounded on these principles. The importance of information in statecraft and warfare thus has historical roots.
In the present times, the centrality of communications and information technology in war-fighting capability has led to the concept of Information Warfare (IW), presenting both new opportunities and new vulnerabilities in conflict. IW had three traditional focus areas. These were (a) Denial and protection of information; (b) Exploitation and ability to attack enemy information and data systems. This also embraces Electronic Warfare (EW) and attacks on computer networks and enemy power systems; and (c) Deception by various means, including spoofing, imitation and distortion. To this has now been added the fourth element: The ability to influence attitudes. All activities carried out under IW are called information operations.
Influencing Attitudes
The great Indian scriptural text, the Mahabharata, gives an account of how information influenced the course of the war. On the tenth day of the battle, when Bhishma fell, Dronacharya was made the commander of the armies of King Dhritarashtra. Drona was a mighty warrior with exceptional prowess in the battlefield and the Pandava’s felt that he would be insurmountable in battle. So a ruse was initiated whereby Drona was informed that Ashwatthama had been killed in battle. It was an elephant by the name of Ashwatthama which had been killed, but Ashwatthama was also the name of Drona’s son. When Drona was given the news, he assumed his son had been killed and in his grief stricken state, he became vulnerable and was killed. This was perhaps one of the earliest instances where information was used to influence attitudes and decision making.
The ability to influence attitudes is part of what is termed as psychological operations. While this has been part of warfare since ancient times, as seen by the manner in which Drona was killed, in today’s environment, the overarching spread of communications has made psychological warfare a very potent tool of statecraft. The Chinese strategist Sun Tzu laid emphasis on this aspect of warfare in his famous treatise, The Art of War.
“To fight and conquer in all your battles is not supreme excellence; supreme excellence consists in breaking the enemy’s resistance without fighting”.
The above strategy as expounded by Sun Tzu, aimed to subdue the enemy’s troops without fighting, in capturing their cities without laying siege to them and in overthrowing their kingdom without lengthy operations in the field. Psychological warfare was an important component of such a war fighting philosophy.
Centre of Gravity
Along with information operations of which influencing attitudes is a subset, another term—Centre of Gravity needs to be expounded upon. The concept enumerated by Clausewitz in his theory of war, was “A Centre of Gravity is always found in where the mass is concentrated the most densely, and which presents the most effective target for a blow”. This implied looking for the strongest mass of the enemy and destroying it thus making it easier to subdue the enemy. The emphasis was on determining the critical strength of the enemy. Over the years, an understanding of what constitutes the Centre of Gravity, has undergone a radical change. Today, the Centre of Gravity is viewed not so much as the source of the enemy’s strength, but his critical vulnerabilities. In the present age, the population of a nation is oft conceived as a critical vulnerability to be exploited and information operations are increasingly being targeted against indiscriminate population groups to influence attitudes, perceptions, and behaviour within the country and externally in favour of national goals and objectives during peace-time and in times of conflict. As an example, in the Vietnam War, the centre of gravity was correctly perceived as being US public opinion. The image of the Americans as imperial forces facilitated the fading support for the American war in Vietnam. The Social Media plays an important role towards this end.
Role of US, China and Others in India’s Neighbourhood
Today, influencing attitudes is an important part of the war fighting doctrine of all major powers. The United States seeks to influence the peoples of foreign countries through public diplomacy (PD) efforts. Attempts to influence the home audience is termed as Public Affairs. These activities are carried out by different organisations. Public diplomacy is viewed as often having a long-term perspective that requires working through the exchange of people and ideas to build lasting relationships and understanding the United States and its culture, values, and policies. The tools used are social and cultural and also the exploitation of the media, especially the internet.
Influencing Attitudes is also an important component of Chinese strategic thought. This was first enunciated in the Political Works Regulations 2003, for the Peoples Liberation Army (PLA), and updated in 2010. It addresses the importance of waging the “three warfares” - psychological warfare, public opinion warfare, and legal warfare, committing the PRC to expand the political areas of conflict from the purely military to the more political, with the foundation for the same being laid during peace time. This enables exploitation in war to seek an early end to conflict on favourable terms, and if possible to win without fighting. The Chinese tried this in the India-China face off at Doklam in 2017, where they resorted to threats and coercion, but as India held firm, the Chinese were forced to back down.
Pakistan too employs the usage of psychological warfare to influence attitudes, especially against India as also to promote its interests in Afghanistan. Pakistan’s intelligence agency, the Inter Services Intelligence (ISI), coordinates all such activities. The United Kingdom, Russia, Israel and other powers too, employ their agencies to promote their respective national interests. Of late, the Islamic world, though not a monolith, has also become a major player in the game of influencing attitudes, especially on communal lines. Terrorist groups like al Qaeda, Islamic State (IS) and others also make extensive use of social media to reach a wide audience, which has been made possible by advances in communication technologies.
The Indian Experience
The social media can influences the hearts and minds of a target audience, and cause severe disruption. Low-cost, easily accessible social media tools act as a force multiplier by increasing networking and organising capabilities. The ability to rapidly disseminate graphic images and ideas through applications such as WhatsApp, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, blogs, and many others has put the power to shape narratives in the hands of the individual. This has both positive and negative consequences. While a more open and democratic spread of information is a necessary component to informed decision making, it can also transform into a strategic weapon in the hands of terrorists, insurgent groups, anti social elements or governments engaged in conflict.
India finds herself in a very vulnerable position today. As a young democracy, with a heterogeneous population, the nation is susceptible to divisive forces, which seek to divide the country on caste, communal, linguistic and racial faultiness. Individual misuse of the social media is really not a matter of great concern, though that too can cause fissures in society. The real threat arises when groups, organisations and states conspire to use the social media in an organised and systematic manner to promote a specific narrative against India.
An example of a systematic campaign to vilify the government could be seen in the events of 2015, when the media was agog with news that Churches were being attacked across the country. Much was made of a minor fire which broke out in a church in Dilshad Gardens on 1 December 2014, or the pelting of stones by a couple of people in a drunken brawl in January 2015, a fire which charred a crib in a church in Rohini, and a handful of other such instances. Minor theft in a church in Vasant Kunj was blown up to such an extent that the Home Minister ordered a full scale investigation, when all that had been stolen was a vessel costing no more than Rs 250. Exaggerated claims that all churches were under attack was a well designed media campaign by interested groups to embarrass the government and vitiate the environment before the Delhi elections scheduled for 7 February 2015. In March 2015, a 71 year old was raped in a church in Ranaghat, near the India-Bangladesh border, which falls in Nadia District of West Bengal and this too was attributed to the policies of the Central Government, though subsequent events proved that it was a case of rape and dacoity carried out by criminals from Bangladesh, all of whom were arrested. It was no surprise that after a few months, the entire campaign died down, but a lot of damage had been done to India’s secular credentials.
The social media was also exploited to create a rift between Hindus and Muslims. A barrage of misinformation was let loose that certain Hindu groups were deliberately targeting Muslims for killing of cows. While a few incidents did take place, a case in point being that of Mohammad Akhlaq, who was beaten to death by a mob in September 2015 on suspicions of stealing a cow calf and slaughtering it on the occasion of Eid, much of what has come out in the print, audio visual and social media, has ben exaggerated, pointing to forces at work, intent on destabilising the country. Instances of cow smugglers, firing and killing villagers do not find mention, but villagers protecting their flock come in for harsh treatment. In October 2018, a group of Muslim boys got into a tussle with an adjoining group of Valmikis and in the tussle, an eight year old Muslim boy lost his life. This was made into a case of mob lynching, despite all evidence being available that it was a brawl between kids, aged between 12 to 14 years. Such incidents gain mileage during elections, in order to polarise society and cater to the vote bank of certain political parties. They lose salience when the elections are over, pointing clearly to nefarious designs by certain groups and organisations.
The social media has also been used to aggressively peddle the narrative of attacks on Dalits. While cases of abuse do exist, most cases are random brawls, where one of the victims is later found to be a Dalit. And then the narrative is blown out of proportion. The case of suicide by Rohith Vermula, a PhD candidate in the University of Hyderabad in January 2016 is telling. The Wire headlined the unfortunate suicide as “My Birth is My Fatal Accident: Rohith Vemula's Searing Letter is an Indictment of Social Prejudice”. The BBC picked it up, headlining the event as “Rohith Vemula: The student who died for Dalit rights”. Many others followed suit and the social media had a field day in keeping the issue alive. But in all this, the facts somehow were conveniently forgotten. An investigation into the incident by a one-man judicial enquiry commission setup by the HRD ministry revealed that: “Rohith Vemula was not a Schedule Caste, action by university authorities didn’t trigger his suicide, there was no undue pressure from former HRD minister Smriti Irani or BJP leader Bandaru Dattatreya in the case”. The party in power in the state at this time was the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS), led by KC Rao, which was in opposition to the Centre. Yet, it was the Centre which received the flak for so called anti-Dalit policies. Obviously, there was an attempt to create a caste divide, with ulterior motives.
On an equally insidious note, we had the case of communal riots in Kokrajhar, Assam, becoming a cause for targeting people from Northeast India in Bengaluru and Hyderabad, forcing thousands of them to flee for their lives in 2012. Rumours were spread by word of mouth, text messages (SMS) and social networking sites such as FaceBook, with many students from the Northeast receiving threat messages on their mobile phones. In Mumbai, hoodlums struck at the heart of the nation's pride, when they vandalised the iconic Amar Jawan Jyoti memorial near CST. If an incident in Assam can lead to retaliation in Bangalore, Hyderabad and Mumbai, then it indicates serious flaws in our security structure which are open to exploitation by both external agencies and hostile forces within the country.
The above examples highlight how the mainstream media as well as the social media are being exploited by vested interests to create discord and ill-will within the national polity. By the time the truth comes out, certain prejudices have already been imprinted in the minds of the citizen.
Pakistan has been active in the social media in spreading disinformation and in inciting Kashmiri Muslims. They have an organisation created for the purpose, which is used to create mistrust and fuel fear in the minds of the muslim community on a whole range of issues through planned misinformation and disinformation. The project is led by their inter services intelligence (ISI). While Indian agencies are aware of what Pakistan is doing, countering the same in a world where the media is open and free is proving to be a herculean task.
The Road Ahead
In the effort to shape the information space, the ‘softer’ elements of power, in both public diplomacy and public affairs play the dominant role. Shaping attitudes, both for external and domestic audiences requires a strategic focus and must be carried out at the national level. There is a need for information dominance which perhaps points to the requirement of the Prime Minister also having a National Information Advisor on the lines of the National Security Advisor. Message articulation remains an important function. As Josef Joffe, editor of Die Zeit has written, “Today, the most interesting types of power do not come out of the barrel of a gun’” and that a much bigger payoff can be achieved by “getting others to want what you want”. It must also be understood that influencing attitudes is not a substitute for capability. In advertising terms, the product has to live up to its brand image, otherwise it will lose its credibility.
The social media as a tool is value neutral and could be used by any player. Fake narratives and propaganda unleashed by hostile agencies thus need to be countered in real time. So, what can be done to stem the misuse of the social media and the involvement of external agencies in India’s internal matters? Freedom of the press is a given and no action should ever be contemplated to curb the same. What may appear to be a very benign attempt to curb press freedom, for the very best of motives, will eventually lead to muzzling of the press and should not be resorted to. The media, despite its many weaknesses remains one of the strongest pillars of Indian democracy. In any case, seeing the diversity of the country and the proliferation of media channels, there are self-correct mechanisms within the system.
To prevent subversion of the Indian public by external agencies and by vested interests within the country, the foremost weapon is communication of the truth in real time. Post the abrogation of Article 35A and the provisions of Article 370, a vicious propaganda campaign was unleashed by Pakistan and others, denigrating the Indian action. To counter the lies spread by such agencies, DoorDarshan gave live coverage of the ground situation in Kashmir through daily programmes called “The Kashmir Truth,” and its Hindi version, “Kashmir Ka Sach”. Lies propagated by external agencies on the social media were busted by DoorDarshan, especially when hostile actors used fake images from other parts of the world and passed them off as coming from Kashmir. More such initiatives are the need of the hour.
The spread of fake news in WhatsApp, Face Book and other portals is another cause of concern. While shutting down the App is an option, it would also deprive the millions of bonafide users from using the same. In 2019 itself, Facebook removed over 5.4 billion fake accounts, along with removing millions of hate speech posts. Fake Twitter handles have also been removed through government intervention. WhatsApp has also limited the number of forwards to five entities and this has now been further reduced to one. The receiver now comes to know that the message is forwarded as the same is imprinted in the message. It is a matter for consideration whether the name of the original sender should be in the forward along with the date and time such message originated. This would eliminate a large number of hoax and fake messages.
But perhaps the need of the hour is media literacy to combat the menace of hoax messages. Besides the government, concerned citizens groups as well as popular platforms could help citizens discern between real news and hoaxes. India’s legal structures also need to gear up to the challenge. If offenders are prosecuted in a quick time frame, it would help in creating an appropriate deterrent. Through education and updated cyber laws, citizens would tend to be more responsible and digital literacy across the board would increase. That perhaps, is the best way forward to combat this menace.
For SPMRF
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