Operation Sindoor has strengthened Brand Modi, especially in the constituency that matters most to his party: women. Widely touted and perceived as an expression of Nari Shakti (woman power), the operation has, in fact, been framed in manifestly patriarchal terms.
The punitive bombing of terror bases in Pakistan was dubbed Operation Sindoor for obvious reasons. As the widow of a Pahalgam victim said, the codename gave her a sense of “personal connect” with the operation. After the strikes, several of the bereaved women told reporters they felt more at peace because justice had been served. The whole exercise was framed as the chaste Indian wife avenging the brutal erasure of her sindoor—a modern-day Kannagi setting an entire city on fire for the wrongful death of her husband.
The flip side of this narrative is the reduction of the woman’s identity to her marital and post-marital status, the loving wife and the aggrieved widow, and the state emerging as protector in place of the husband. The faux empowerment of the avenging widows has been called out by feminists, who point out that the bereaved women were foregrounded to add emotional hype to the operation.
Semiotically speaking, sindoor is a touchy subject. Whatever its origins, as a symbol of power or fertility or passion, it is exclusive to the married woman, a patriarchal stamp of territoriality that marks the woman as the property of a man, forbidden to other men. Yet, powerful women have been known to wear it, either as railroad tracks down a middle parting or a discreet dot at the hairline. Much like the hijab, wearing sindoor is pitched as cultural assertion and empowerment, i.e., an independent choice. Given that it is often a coercive practice, this is a false argument. It brings to mind Caryl Churchill’s seminal play ‘Top Girls’, in which women internalise rather than challenge patriarchal norms in order to survive or thrive in a male-dominated space.
If Prime Minister Narendra Modi has successfully managed to dovetail a seemingly anti-feminist symbol with women’s empowerment, it’s because he has walked the talk. From the very start of his tenure in 2014, he has shown a strong commitment towards women. Provision of housing, cooking fuel and drinking water has eased the lives of rural women. Added to this was a push towards financial empowerment through schemes like ‘lakhpati didi’ and ‘drone didi’. Women also have a significant share in central schemes like the Atal Pension Yojana, MUDRA loans, PM Suraksha Bima Yojana and so on.
Simultaneously, the Modi government took credible steps to narrow the gender gap by encouraging women to enter male-dominated fields such as aviation, STEMM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics, and Medicine) and the armed forces. Women now account for 15 per cent of the commercial pilots in the country, against a global average of less than 10 per cent.
To motivate schoolgirls to choose STEMM, the Vigyan Jyoti scheme was launched. In 2024, women accounted for 43 per cent of enrolment in STEMM courses, perhaps the highest proportion in the world. Taking note of the gap between the number of women graduates and their presence in the STEMM workforce, the GATI and WISE-KIRAN schemes have sought to increase women’s participation in science and technology and R&D programmes. Modi made it a point to celebrate women space scientists involved in the Chandrayaan 3.0 mission and handed over his X account to women scientists on International Women’s Day.
The visibility of women in the armed forces has increased dramatically during Modi’s tenure. Women were inducted into combat roles in the Indian Air Force (IAF) in 2015, with Mohana Singh, Bhawna Kanth and Avni Chaturvedi making history as the first women fighter pilots. Sainik Schools were thrown open to girls in 2019-20, as was the National Defence Academy (NDA) in 2021. From 2019, women soldiers were inducted into the army military corps. In 2020, the Supreme Court ruled that women were entitled to permanent commissions and command positions at par with male officers in the army. Women officers were commissioned into artillery regiments in 2023, and Republic Day 2024 featured an all-women tri-services contingent.
The choice of Wing Commander Vyomika Singh and Colonel Sofia Qureshi as the public face of Operation Sindoor was sheer genius. The dignity, understated power and forthright approach with which they conducted the media briefings turned them into overnight icons. Many a little girl will now grow up with the ambition of joining the armed forces (and thanks to recent policy changes, she can).
Operation Sindoor has served its purpose by establishing beyond doubt that India will not compromise on terrorism and has the muscle to enforce that stand. It has brought comfort to the families of the Pahalgam victims. Next time, maybe call it Operation Parashakti.
Bhavdeep Kang is a senior journalist with 35 years of experience in working with major newspapers and magazines. She is now an independent writer
