India and Pakistan both countries gained independence from the British Empire almost on the same day. But ever since their independence both the countries have never seen each other eye to eye. Both the countries have fought 4 major wars and many other small skirmishes that happens regularly at the Line Of Control.
But since the last 2 weeks, the tension between India And Pakistan has been serious high. The tension started to rise on the 14 February, the day on which India lost 40 of its CRPF personnel in a car bomb attack in the Pulwama district of Jammu & Kashmir. According to the investigation, it was found that the attack orchestrated by the Pakistan Based terror group JeM.
This led India to conduct an Air Strike in Pakistan territory and its response Pakistan also tried to infiltrate Indian Air Space to target India’s Military Installations. And this back and forth is the reason we are here today. But this has led many people to speculate what would happen if India and Pakistan were to go at war.
Well to know what would be the outcome of an all-out war, we would have to consider many things. First is the military strength of both countries. Now, no matter what anyone says, it is no secret that India is superior to Pakistan when it comes to Military might. And this the case in almost every aspect. whether we take into technological superiority or numbers or diplomatic relationship, India has an upper hand in most if not in all aspect. And this is due to the better economy and stable government which allows India to spend money consistently and develop it’s military more efficiently, which is not the case with Pakistan.
So, if India and Pakistan were to partake in a conventional war scenario then even though both sides would suffer massive losses, both civilian and military but the outcome would most likely be India’s victory. So then let’s take this conversation to a different kind of war, Nuclear war.
So, what would happen if India and Pakistan were to partake in a Nuclear War scenario? Well, this is something we would never like to find out. This is because many analysts have predicted that if India and Pakistan both were to use their entire nuclear arsenal simultaneous then that would be devastating. And not just only for India and Pakistan, but for the entire world.
India and Pakistan, both countries have an upwards of 100+ nuclear weapons in their arsenal. Most of Pakistan’s nuke delivery mechanism includes short to medium ballistic missiles and short range cruise missiles. Most of India’s nuke delivery mechanism includes Medium to Long Range Ballistic missiles, Medium to Long Range cruise missiles, Air to Ground payloads by SEPECAT Jaguar and Submarine-launched cruise missiles via Nuclear Submarine. And it is very likely that if a nuclear war were to happen then both countries would use their entire nuclear arsenal resulting in mutually assured destruction.
The initial nuclear blast will kill hundreds of thousand people in an instant. But the most amount of deaths wouldn’t be caused by the initial blast. The nuclear fallout and radiation poisoning would be the cause of most amounts of deaths. Nuclear Fallout and Radiation would contaminate most of the rivers and groundwater in both the countries resulting in the lack of drinking water. Rice and Wheat is a major crop in both the countries but that too would be affected by radiation resulting in starvation. And all in all, in the upcoming months of the initial blast is when most of the people would die.
But that’s just not it. Many people fail to consider the ramifications of a small scale nuclear war on the Global Scale. And the reason everyone on this earth would be affected by a nuclear war between India And Pakistan is because of Nuclear Winter. Now you might ask what is nuclear winter. Well according to its definition, A Nuclear winter is the severe and prolonged global climatic cooling effect likely to occur after widespread firestorm following a nuclear war. The material released after a nuclear blast would go up in the atmosphere, blocking the sunlight coming from the earth. And this would disrupt the food cycle of the entire earth in two ways. First lack of sunlight would mean no photosynthesis for plants and Two, lack of sunlight would mean cooler climate. And Both of these would result in the death of natural plants and grain crops, resulting in the disruption of the food cycle.
In a study published by Michael J. Mills in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, he hypothesizes that a nuclear war between Pakistan and India would create a near-global ozone hole, resulting in human health problems and causing environmental damages lasting a decade.
So, like it was said before that it is a good mental exercise to think about “what would happen if a war between India and Pakistan were to occur,” but we should always consider and remember the consequences of such actions if they are ever taken.