IMF funds for Pakistan???? War Against India or War Against Hindus? Are Hindus Being Left Alone to Fight This Battle?

Poonam Sharma 
As the IMF approved a billion-dollar bailout for Pakistan amidst rising Indo-Pak war tensions, a deep sense of betrayal has spread across sections of Indian society and global observers alike. The irony is stark: at a time when India faces cross-border terrorism, militant infiltration, and a proxy war fueled by Pakistan’s military establishment, global financial institutions—funded by the world’s most powerful nations, including India itself—are pouring resources into a regime that sponsors terror.

The news sparked global outrage, with angry reactions flooding social media: “IMF has blood on its hands” became a viral chant. And rightly so. Every dollar pumped into Pakistan today is not merely for economic recovery or infrastructure rebuilding; it is, arguably, an indirect subsidy to its war machine, its radicalized networks, and its ideological jihad against India.

But the real question that few dare to ask is deeper, sharper, and more unsettling: Is Pakistan waging a war against India—or is this, at its core, a war against Hindus?

Pakistan: A State Built on Religious Separatism

To answer this, we must revisit the very birth of Pakistan. Unlike other national movements founded on language, ethnicity, or shared political ideals, Pakistan was forged on an exclusive religious identity—Islam. The Two-Nation Theory, which justified the partition of India, was not merely a political tool; it was an ideological assertion that Hindus and Muslims could never coexist as equals.

Since 1947, this ideological hostility has shaped Pakistan’s military doctrine, foreign policy, and national psyche. The wars of 1948, 1965, 1971, Kargil, and countless terror attacks are not isolated military confrontations; they are continuations of a civilizational conflict rooted in the rejection of a pluralistic, Hindu-majority India.

When Pakistan trains militants, funds terror groups, or engineers attacks on Hindu temples in Kashmir or elsewhere, it does not see India as just another nation-state—it sees India as Hindu India, an ideological enemy that must be destabilized, humiliated, and bled through a thousand cuts.

The IMF Bailout: Aiding a Terrorist Ecosystem?

With this context, the IMF’s decision to disburse $1 billion raises uncomfortable questions. Pakistan’s military controls vast swathes of its economy, from land holdings to industries to illicit trafficking. Even civilian governments are tethered to the army’s whims. There’s no guarantee—indeed, no meaningful oversight—that IMF funds won’t be diverted to military spending under the guise of “national security” or “disaster relief.”

And who funds the IMF? The United States is the largest contributor, followed by European nations, Japan, and increasingly, India as an emerging economic power. Ironically, India’s own contributions are now being funneled—directly or indirectly—into the coffers of a hostile state.

Why has there been no significant opposition from the international community? Perhaps because the global order, dominated by Western liberal democracies, sees the Indo-Pak conflict through a political, not civilizational, lens. Or perhaps because, as some argue, there is no Hindu-majority bloc powerful enough to assert its narrative in global institutions.

Would such leniency have been extended to a Hindu-majority state sponsoring religious violence? Would the international media, NGOs, and Western think-tanks have remained so silent if the roles were reversed?

A Broader Islamic Solidarity in the Making?

It is naive to think that Pakistan operates in isolation. Over the past decade, Turkey, Qatar, and even sections of Saudi Arabia have extended varying degrees of support—moral, diplomatic, and sometimes material—to Pakistan’s anti-India positions, particularly on Kashmir.

As the Indo-Pak conflict escalates, there’s a looming danger that the war may not remain confined to two nation-states. Radical Islamist networks, emboldened by ideological solidarity, may seek to globalize the conflict under the banner of “Muslim Ummah” versus “Hindu India.” Already, international Islamist organizations have amplified propaganda portraying Kashmir as a site of Muslim persecution.

Will more Islamic countries rally, overtly or covertly, behind Pakistan if war intensifies? Could India face a multipronged threat—military, diplomatic, and ideological—from a coalition of Islamic states and transnational Islamist groups?

The Loneliness of the Hindu Fight

This is where the crux of the matter lies. Beneath the surface of geopolitics is an uncomfortable truth: Hindus are being left to fight this civilizational war alone.

Unlike the Islamic world, which has pan-Islamic institutions like the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) that can mobilize collective outrage, diplomacy, and resources, the Hindu world has no such global platform. Unlike the Christian West, which can unite under NATO or the European Union, Hindu-majority India fights without a civilizational alliance.

Even within India, the secular political establishment is hesitant to frame Pakistan’s hostility as religiously motivated, lest it “communalizes” the discourse. But outside India, Pakistan has no such inhibitions; it openly claims to champion Muslim causes globally, while India remains shackled by diplomatic niceties and ideological discomfort.

In the long run, this asymmetry is dangerous. It leaves Hindus vulnerable to ideological delegitimization on the world stage, where narratives of “Hindu nationalism” are unfairly equated with extremism, while radical Islamism is cloaked in victimhood.

What Should India—and Hindus—Do?

The IMF bailout is not merely a financial transaction; it is a symptom of a larger structural neglect of India’s concerns. If global institutions continue to finance regimes that support terror, India must reassess its participation in these bodies. Should India continue contributing to an IMF that indirectly strengthens its enemies? Should India demand conditionality clauses that bar funding to state sponsors of terror?

More importantly, Hindus worldwide must awaken to the reality that they cannot outsource their civilizational defense to global powers indifferent or ignorant of their existential struggles.

India must strengthen its own military-industrial complex, reduce dependence on global institutions, build strategic partnerships with nations that share its security concerns, and most critically, assert its narrative unapologetically on global platforms.

The war India faces is not just territorial; it is a war of identity, of civilizational existence, of ideological survival. And until Hindus recognize this war for what it truly is, they will remain isolated, misunderstood, and dangerously vulnerable.

The time has come to ask: Is the war Pakistan wages a war against India—or a war against Hindus? And if it’s the latter, will Hindus continue to be left alone to fight it?

Because history has shown, again and again, that when civilizations fail to recognize the ideological nature of their enemies, they risk not just defeat—but annihilation.