Militarily, India fought Pakistan to little more than a draw this month during their most expansive combat in half a century.
Indian forces managed to punch holes in hangars at sensitive Pakistani air bases and leave craters on runways, although only after losing aircraft in aerial face-offs with its longtime adversary.
But strategically, the battlefield tossup was a clear setback for India. An aspiring diplomatic and economic power, it now finds itself equated with Pakistan, a smaller, weaker country that Indian officials call a rogue sponsor of terrorism.
The four-day clash reminded the world of India’s powerlessness to resolve 78 years of conflict with the troubled nation next door. Any act of confrontation plays into the hands of Pakistan, where friction with India has long been a lifeblood. Outright military victory is nearly impossible, given the threat from both countries’ nuclear arsenals.
“It’s unfortunate that we in India have to waste so much of our time and effort on what is actually a strategic distraction: terror from Pakistan,” said Shivshankar Menon, a former national security adviser in India. “But it’s a fact of life and we might as well manage the problem.”
Just how to do that has perplexed Indian leaders ever since Pakistan and India were cleaved apart in 1947.