Modi government needs to do much more than it has done for Lebanon

As the most active leader of the Global South since last year’s G20 Summit, and as the biggest democracy in the world, it should matter to New Delhi that Lebanon is under attack once again.

After sending millions of tonnes of newsprint to printing presses since the October 7 attacks last year triggered a war in West Asia, the conflict in Lebanon remains a footnote in news coverage in India. Globally too, television crews descended on Beirut in hordes only after Israel assassinated Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah. Sadly, they will soon be gone unless south Lebanon becomes the chief source of Arab retaliation, hurting Israel significantly. 

The deteriorating situation in Lebanon ought to be of grave concern to Indians, much more than it has been since Israel last month stepped up its attacks on that country. The lives of 903 Indian soldiers are at risk in southern Lebanon from hostilities which have spilled over from the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel. They belong to the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), for which India has been a troop-contributing country since 1998. Currently these soldiers come from the 9 Kumaon Infantry Battalion Group. 

This week, Israel asked the UNIFIL to withdraw from the demilitarised zone on its border with Lebanon. The UN has refused — with support from India included — agreeing only to marginally relocate from a position where Israel has set up a firing range against Hezbollah. Ireland, which has one-third of India’s troop strength in the UNIFIL has come out strongly against Israel’s demand. Ireland’s President Michael Higgins said in an October 7 commemoration statement that Israel’s demand to the UNIFIL was “outrageous.” India’s inaction, given that the lives of its troops are at risk, is puzzling.

As the most active leader of the Global South since last year’s G20 Summit, and as the biggest democracy in the world, it should matter to New Delhi — considerably more than it is — that Lebanon is under attack once again. Lebanon and Israel are the only democracies in West Asia. The Narendra Modi government has risen in sympathy with Israel after the Hamas attack a year ago. It ought to do significantly more than it has done — if anything — for the Lebanese people who are suffering the most, second only to Gazans, from the fallout of October 7. This week, Lebanon’s Ambassador to India, Rabie Narsh, went public with the view that India is a “credible mediator” because of its good relations with both his country and Israel. “India is well-positioned to play a vital role in de-escalating the conflict,” Narsh said.

Unlike most countries, where memorials to famous Indians like Mahatma Gandhi and Rabindranath Tagore are confined to big cities, goodwill for India is pervasive in Lebanon. This author was once surprised to stumble on a sports complex in a mid-sized village called Kawkaba in South Lebanon named after Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. A Mahatma Gandhi Park is frequented daily by residents in a small town, Ebel El Saqi, also in South Lebanon. The American University of Beirut (AUB) once ranked among the best centres of learning anywhere. In its ‘Hall of Fame’, the only world leader whose three photographs are on display is Jawaharlal Nehru. It is an indication of the importance Nehru gave to Lebanon that he visited that country in 1956 and 1960. Beirut was then known as the ‘Paris of the East’. 

Lebanon’s diverse population includes about a quarter million Druze, whose best-known leader, Kamal Jumblatt, was a Gandhian. When Lebanon’s civil war — one of many since independence — ended in 1976, Jumblatt announced his intention to retire from public life and relocate to India. He had often visited India earlier and immersed himself in meditation. But before Jumblatt could realise his intention, he was assassinated, a victim of Lebanon’s endemic violence. The Druze do not consider themselves as Muslims, but accept Arabic language and culture as integral to their identity. 

The latest conflict with Israel may spell the end of trade between India and Lebanon, which the Indian embassy in Beirut estimated was at $595 million in the financial year 2022-2023. That figure does not include thriving re-exports through Lebanon which largely goes unrecorded as bilateral business. In recent years of peace, Indian-origin businessmen from Africa have used Lebanon as an entrepot bringing in all types of goods from South Asia, from used cars to second-hand machinery for re-export to Africa. The India-Middle East-Europe Corridor was formally conceived last year, but an India-Lebanon-Africa unofficial trade corridor has been thriving for a long time. History is a guide to light at the end of this tunnel because Lebanon has repeatedly risen from ashes. When the current conflict is over, the future may be no different from such past.

(K P Nayar has extensively covered West Asia and reported from Washington as a foreign correspondent for 15 years.)

Disclaimer: The views expressed here are the author's own. They do not necessarily reflect the views of DH.