Taliban and India

Illustration by Copilot Designer

Two things happened on 14 Oct 2025. One: India rolled out the red carpet for an Afghan delegation led by the Taliban Administration’s Foreign Minister. Two: a young man was forced to wash the feet of a Brahmin and drink that water. This happened in Madhya Pradesh, not too far from where the Taliban leaders were being given regal reception in tune with India’s philosophy of Atithi Devo Bhava (Guest is God).

Afghanistan’s Taliban and India’s RSS (which shaped Modi’s thinking) have much in common. The former seeks to build a state based on its interpretation of Islamic law aiming for a society governed by strict religious codes. The RSS promotes Hindutva, the idea of India as primarily a Hindu nation, where Hindu values form the cultural and political foundation. Both fuse religious identity with national identity, marginalising those who don’t fit their vision of the nation.

The man who was made to wash a Brahmin’s feet and drink that water in Madhya Pradesh was a Hindu, but belonging to a low caste. All that he did was to create a meme, using AI, of Anuj Pandey, the Brahmin, who brewed and sold illicit liquor in the village which has banned liquor altogether. The Brahmin is the real criminal. Yet he and his men, like the Taliban in Afghanistan, punished the young man who was also made to pay a huge fine and apologise for the meme. He was also made to take a pledge that he would hereafter live to serve the Brahmins.

The young man may be lucky. The Taliban would have chopped off his head. One of the first things that the Taliban did after coming to power was roll back many rights. Even education was banned for girls. Many restrictions were imposed on women in work and movement. Human rights violations like extrajudicial killings and repression of dissent are systematically documented in their country.

The Madhya Pradesh incident was not a one-off case. Crimes against the Dalits rose meteorically after Modi assumed to power in 2014. In that very year, 47,064 cases were reported, up from 39,408 in 2013. In 2022, the number rose to 57,582. It rose further to 57,789 in 2023. Many more cases go unreported.  

What I am driving at is that there is nothing unnatural in the regal reception extended to the Taliban by Modi. It is much more than mere diplomacy driven by the maxim that your enemy’s enemy is your partner.

Do we become like our enemies? That’s a question worth pondering in this context. Prolonged anger, hatred, or struggle with an adversary can cause us to internalise their characteristics. When you are constantly focused on an enemy, you begin to think and strategize in ways that mirror their own. This can cause you to adopt their tactics and internalise their traits. We become like our enemies.

Writing an editorial on the two things that happened in India on 10 Oct 2025, Subhash Chandran of the Mathrubhumi weekly concluded that the Taliban leaders would have felt quite at home in India which is on the way to becoming like themselves.

There are 2 kinds of people: those who divide people into 2 kinds and those who don’t. 

 

PS. This post is a part of Blogchatter Half Marathon 2025