Introduction: When War Strikes, Humanity Bleeds
In today’s headlines, we witness yet another heartbreaking tragedy — 31 innocent people killed and many injured by Israeli forces while they rushed to receive food aid, amid the deepening starvation in Gaza.
The people of Gaza are starving, sick, and dying as Israeli blockades continue. The entire population of 2.1 million faces a prolonged food crisis, with nearly half a million trapped in catastrophic hunger, acute malnutrition, illness, and death.This is one of the world’s worst hunger crises unfolding in real time.
It shows how war is no longer just about soldiers on the battlefield — it’s a war against humanity itself. Innocent lives, including women, children, and the elderly, are caught in the crossfire. The tragedy is not merely in death, but in the loss of compassion, empathy, and dignity.
Sadly, this is not a new phenomenon. History is littered with examples where humanity was the first casualty of war:
1. The Armenian Genocide by the Ottoman Empire claimed around 1.5 million lives.
2. The Nanjing Massacre during the Sino-Japanese War saw the mass killing of civilians and the horrific exploitation of women as “comfort girls”.
3. The Holocaust under Nazi Germany led to the systematic extermination of 6 million Jews.
4. The atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki killed over 200,000 people instantly, with lasting generations of suffering.
5. During the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War, countless innocents were killed and women were Exploited.
Chemical weapons in Syria, the crises in Yemen, the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war, and Israel-Palestine conflict have all left deep scars — with people displaced, children orphaned, and societies torn apart by hunger, trauma, and despair.
These are not just historical records — they are living reminders of how easily we trample humanity in the pursuit of power, land, or pride.
Dharma vs. Destruction: The Mahabharata’s Moral Lens
Even our epic, the Mahabharata, teaches us that war should always be the last resort. Lord Krishna explored every peaceful option before advising the Pandavas to wage war — only when the most powerful figures had forgotten their Dharma, neglected the welfare of the people, and abandoned all compassion. That war aimed to revive Dharma, not to glorify violence or crush the weak.
Are We Truly Evolved? The Primitive Urge to Dominate.
Today, we may be advanced in science and technology, but our primitive desire to dominate, exploit, and destroy still persists. Wars are often justified in the name of “national security,” but we must ask — is it really about protection, or is it about power? Does any nation have the right to dehumanise the people of another?
Mahatma Gandhi stood firm on the path of non-violence, knowing that war destroys both the victor and the defeated. The winner who exploits the innocent becomes a beast, not a hero. The loser is stripped of dignity, left to merely survive with unhealed trauma.
Security or Superiority — What Are Nations Really Protecting?
Is war really about defending citizens, or about asserting dominance?
Can any war be justified if it takes away food from a child’s hand?
Bring Humanity Back — Before It’s Too Late.
Change begins with every individual. Be compassionate. Be sensitive.
Treat every human being not as a citizen of some nation, but as a fellow human soul.
Do not normalise humanitarian crises or reduce them to numbers and news bytes. War must be the last and rarest of options — and even then, we must never lose our humanity.
We want peace, not wars. War may claim to bring peace — but in truth, it often destroys the soul of society.
Picture is taken from Google Website