InfoWar Against India and the Need for a Strategic InfoWar Organization 

• A study report identifies ways in which the Chinese intelligence services and the Chinese government have entrenched themselves in various Indian sectors from the entertainment industry to academia.
• Pro-Pakistan terrorist groups have weaponized social media platforms such as Facebook, Telegram and Instagram to wage a psychological war in Jammu and Kashmir by radicalizing sections of the youth.
• India has adopted a strategy of deterrence and defence rather than proactiveness and pre-emption, through programmes such as ‘ Satyamav Jayate’ to counter disinformation and increase digital literacy.
• India needs to establish an Information Warfare organization that reports to the CDS and must be staffed with writers, singers, musicians, content creators, historians, social media experts, hackers, theological experts, geostrategic experts along with  Indian armed forces personnel. 

The term Information Warfare encompasses the use of propaganda, cyberattacks, disinformation, and influence operations to erode trust in institutions, alter public sentiment, and derail national progress. During the Cold War Information Warfare was executed through familiar tools like radio broadcasts and covert leaks. However, in the 21^st century, the execution of Information Warfare is far more complex, with algorithms, social media platforms, and pliable media houses weaponized to push agendas.

In the 21^st century where data is the new oil and perception shapes reality, Information Warfare has emerged as the modern-day battlefield for global superpowers. While traditional wars are fought with tanks and missiles, this new warfare is executed through digital tools, media manipulation, and psychological operations. The purpose of Information Warfare is to undermine governments, discredit economies, and destabilize societies. 

China’s Information Warfare against India 

Also known as Integrated Network Electronic Warfare ( INEW ), China employs wide-ranging electronic and network-centric warfare techniques, including cyberattacks and espionage, to deter and disrupt enemy capabilities. China has established control and is monitoring all digital social media platforms using San Zhong Zhanfa, a three-pronged strategy for public opinion/media, psychological warfare, and legal warfare.  Initially implemented in South East Asia it is now actively targeted against India. This strategy includes using print and social media, exerting soft power influence through scholarships and investments, influencing opinions within the country, and spreading hate propaganda. 

The 76-page Study Report titled ‘Mapping Chinese Footprints and Influence Operation in India ’ released by the Law and Society Alliance think tank on September 3 2021 identifies the widespread use of Information Warfare by China against India. The report covers a range of topics and identifies key elements and ways in which the Chinese intelligence services and the Chinese Communist Party government have entrenched themselves in various Indian sectors from the entertainment industry to academia. The report also touches upon how through a combination of financial investments, as seen in the entertainment industry, to propaganda in the socio-politico realm through Confucius Institutes, China is using every trick in its playbook to make inroads into the Indian economy and society to try and create discord within the Indian society with regards to China’s actions and motives. 

Legal Warfare is used by China to “ bully ”border countries to falsely claim a disputed territory as its own and claim territorial rights in adjacent areas. An example of China’s Information Warfare against India was seen during the 2020 clash between Indian and Chinese soldiers in Ladakh’s Galwan region. China was eager to draw attention to the nearly twenty Indian soldiers who died in the conflict in 2020 in Galwan, something India had already acknowledged in public. Chinese state media also released images of purportedly captured Indian soldiers. At the same time, the Chinese media was reluctant to emphasise the full extent of Chinese military casualties.  It wasn’t until several months later that Chinese state media acknowledged that China had also experienced military casualties and formally acknowledged the deaths of four Chinese soldiers in the Galwan clash because acknowledging other numbers would have undermined the official Chinese state narrative of Chinese military superiority relative to its Asian neighbours. 

Two Indian vaccine manufacturers, Bharat Biotech and the Serum Institute of India (SII) , had their IT systems breached by Chinese state-backed hackers, according to a March 2021 report from the  Singapore-based cyber security threat intelligence platform  CyFirma. Chinese hackers targeting of SII is significant when examining the reach of its vaccine, Oxford-AstraZenica/ Covishield which was used in 183 countries, as against almost half the reach of China’s flagship of Sinopharm vaccine (used in 90 countries). Therefore, it can be expected that China will broaden the scope of its Indian targets for commercial cyber espionage reasons to include sectors like services where India has barred Chinese investments. 

Pakistan’s Information Warfare against India 

In Jammu and Kashmir, Pakistan’s use of Information Warfare dates back to the late 1980s and early 1990s when anti-India and pro-Pakistan elements communicated with Kashmiri society through local newspapers, leaflets, mosque announcements on loudspeakers, elimination of pro-India and moderate voices, sloganeering and shutting down of cinema halls by dubbing them as un-Islamic. While such tactics by pro-Pakistan terrorist groups have continued even today, digital media platforms for radicalisation by pro-Pakistan terrorist groups are an emerging threat. Social media platforms such as Facebook, Telegram and Instagram have been weaponized by pro-Pakistan terrorist groups to wage a psychological war against the Indian state in Jammu and Kashmir by radicalizing sections of the youth in Jammu and Kashmir.

Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs website has a separate section called ‘ Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir ’, which contains heavily edited and misleading media portraying the Indian army as a threat to the Kashmiri population. 

Pakistan’s anti-India propaganda increased following India’s decision to abrogate Article 370 in August 2019. The Pakistani Army’s Inter-Services Public Relations Agency ( ISPR ) uses various social media handles and think tank reports to spread propaganda against India. The Pakistani media, too, has compared Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi with the Nazi leader Adolf Hitler and claimed that the condition of Indian Muslims was similar to the persecution of Jews in Germany and Nazi-occupied Europe in the 1940’s. To advance this narrative, Pakistan has leveraged various events in India. For instance, the Delhi riots in late February 2020 saw massive tweet traffic from accounts linked to Pakistan, with hashtags like  # Hinduterrorism and # RSSKilling Muslims. In addition, there was an active sharing of fabricated and edited media reports on various social media platforms belonging to different countries and timelines, claiming to be from India. 

Countermeasures by the Indian Government 

 The Information Warfare onslaught by China and Pakistan has posed a formidable challenge to India in balancing factual information dissemination with national security concerns. So far, India has adopted a strategy of deterrence and defence rather than proactiveness and pre-emption.  India has taken preventive measures through programmes such as ‘ Satyamav Jayate ’, Pradhan Mantri Gramin Digital Saksharta Abhiyan, and National Digital Literacy Mission to counter disinformation and increase digital literacy. During the COVID-19 Pandemic, the Indian government established a WhatsApp chatbot and a fact-checking unit under the Press Information Bureau. On the Information Warfare front, the Indian army created the position of Director General Information Warfare in 2020 to monitor propaganda from China and Pakistan. However, these initiatives aim to serve as fact-checks rather than the larger objective of dominating the war of narratives. 

However, these measures are mainly defensive in nature and the Indian government will need to adopt a coordinated and comprehensive approach involving all ministries to combat the Information Warfare waged by Pakistan and China which seeks to undermine the Indian government, discredit the Indian economy and destabilize Indian society. It is in this context that the Indian government needs to establish a Strategic Information Warfare organisation that will carry out offensive Information Warfare operations against China and Pakistan. 

The Need for a Strategic Information Warfare Organization 

India needs to establish an Information Warfare organization that reports to the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS). This Information Warfare organization should be staffed not only by Indian armed forces personnel but should also include writers, singers, musicians, content creators, historians, social media experts, hackers, theological experts, geostrategic experts and a host of other talent that exists outside the Indian armed forces and bureaucracy. Indian intelligence agencies must support this Information Warfare organization in the planning and conduct of its operations. The scale and scope of this organization must be large enough to enable it to conduct strategic Information Warfare operations of an offensive nature against China and Pakistan. 

This Information Warfare organization will be tasked to create narratives through videos, songs, stories, blogs, vlogs, articles, documentaries, and social media accounts and will also serve as a feeder to the mainstream media. It will also function through Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and other social media platforms. It will create content that will seek to exploit a country’s ethnic faultlines such as providing propaganda support to public protests and separatist movements in restive regions of Pakistan (Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa) and China (Tibet, Xinjiang). Another crucial task of this Information Warfare organization will be to develop offensive cyber warfare capabilities that can target the critical digital infrastructures of economic, political and military institutions in China and Pakistan. This Information Warfare organization must also develop the capabilities to utilize new technologies like artificial intelligence to disseminate pro–Indian narratives abroad in friendly countries which can help enhance the Indian government’s ability to achieve India’s foreign policy objectives. 

The Indian government must allocate funds to this Information Warfare organization to develop capabilities to conduct psychological operations, electronic warfare and cyberwarfare. In the cyber domain, India needs to develop a solid manufacturing base as part of the government’s Atmanirbhar Bharat scheme to create indigenously manufactured technologies for its security needs and digital infrastructure which is essential as imported technology, especially those imported from China are vulnerable to being hacked.  

References:

• _{Ahuja, S; & Diwan, S (2023). India’s two-front information war. Retrieved from  https://www.orfonline.org/expert-speak/indias-two-front-information-war}
• _{Anand, A (2020). Imran Khan party wing showed Delhi riots as anti-Muslim, spread fake news: Delhi police. Retrieved from  https://theprint.in/india/imran-khan-party-student-wing-showed-delhi-riots-as-anti-muslim-spread-fake-news-report/376224/}
• _{Ashok, D (2024). The Hybrid Nature of the Russia-Ukraine War and its Lessons for India. In Das, B & Singh, U (Eds.), Russia – Ukraine War: Strategic Conundrum (pp.67-73 ). Pentagon Press} 
• _{Bagchi, I (2017). Doklam standoff: China playing out its ‘Three Warfares ’ strategy against India. Retrieved from https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/china-playing-out-its-three-warfares-strategy-against-india/articleshow/60036197.cms}
• _{Bhatt, P (2018). Building effective counterterror narratives in Kashmir. Retrieved from https://www.orfonline.org/expert-speak/44307-building-effective-counterterror-narratives-in-kashmir}
• _{Buchanan, B (2020). The Hacker and the State: Cyber Attacks and the New Normal of Geopolitics. Harvard University Press}
• _{Business Standard (2020).  Delhi Riots 2020. Retrieved from https://www.business-standard.com/about/what-is-delhi-riots-2020}
• _{Dwivedi, A. (2019). Modern Information Warfare: Operations, Doctrine and Force Structures. Pentagon Press}
• _{Jain, J; & Rath, S (2020). Information Warfare: Why India needs to give Pak propaganda machinery a taste of its own medicine. Retrieved from https://www.dailyo.in/politics/india-pakistan-information-warfare-open-source-intelligence-ispr-isi-raw-33542}
• _{Khelkar, P (2017). Is China trying to win a war without fighting it? Dragon’s tactics of warfare decoded. Retrieved from https://www.indiatoday.in/world/story/china-india-bhutan-doklam-standoff-war-three-warfare-tactics-1028337-2017-08-07}
• _{Kinjal (2020). Old images from Syria, and Bangladesh shared as Delhi riots. Retrieved from  https://www.altnews.in/old-images-from-syria-bangladesh-shared-as-delhi-riots/?utm_source=website&utm_medium=social-media&utm_campaign=newpost}
• _{Kurlantzick, J (2023). China’s Influence Activities in India. Retrieved from https://www.cfr.org/blog/chinas-influence-activities-india}
• _{Law and Society Alliance (2021). Mapping Chinese Footprints and Influence Operations in India. Retrieved from https://tibet.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/MAPPING-CHINESE-FOOTPRINTS-AND-INFLUENCE-OPERATIONS-IN-INDIA2.pdf}
• _{Patil, S (2022). Securing India in the Cyber Era. Routledge}
• _{Raska, M (2015). China and the ‘Three Warfares’. Retrieved from https://thediplomat.com/2015/12/hybrid-warfare-with-chinese-characteristics-2/}
• _{Sharma, D (2010). Integrated Network Electronic Warfare: China’s New Concept of Information Warfare. Retrieved from https://www.idsa.in/system/files/jds_4_2_dsharma.pdf}
• _{Sharma, V (2022). Information warfare against India- the China angle. Retrieved from https://www.wionews.com/opinions-blogs/information-warfare-against-india-the-china-angle-515617}
• _{Singh, S; & Venkatanarayanan, A (2021). The Art of Conjuring Alternate Realities: How Information Warfare Shapes Your World. HarperCollins India} 
• _{Sood, V (2020). The Ultimate Goal: A Former R&AW Chief Deconstructs How Nations Construct Narratives. Harper India} 
• _{Suri, R (2024). Information warfare: The new global battlefield and India’s challenge. Retrieved from https://www.globalorder.live/post/information-warfare-the-new-global-battlefield-and-india-s-challenge}

Dhruv Ashok

Dhruv Ashok is a PhD research scholar from Christ (Deemed to be University), Bangalore. He writes on current affairs and international politics. His areas of interest include conflict resolution and historical narratives. Views expressed are the author’s own.