After deadly raid, India is steering a course of caution

MUMBAI, India — Following a raid that killed 18 Indian soldiers at an army base in Kashmir, some commentators bayed for a thundering retaliatory strike against neighbor and rival Pakistan.

A “jaw for a tooth,” said one member of the governing Bharatiya Janata Party. “Wipe off Pakistan from the world’s map” with a nuclear strike, said another.

Yet Prime Minister Narendra Modi has steered a course of caution, disappointing hawks in his party who blame Pakistan-based militants for the Sept. 18 attack but pleasing those who feared another destabilizing conflict in South Asia.

In a speech over the weekend, Mr. Modi challenged nuclear-armed Pakistan — with which India has fought three wars since 1947 — to battle poverty and unemployment instead. At the United Nations General Assembly, he and his deputies called on the world community to isolate Pakistan and other nations that “export terrorists.”

The diplomatic approach has surprised observers who expected Mr. Modi to take a tougher line against Pakistan and the Islamist militant groups that regularly strike India from across the border, allegedly with the support of the Pakistani intelligence establishment.

The Indian leader spent decades in a hard-line Hindu nationalist organization before entering politics. After the Pakistani-based militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba killed more than 160 people in Mumbai in 2008, Mr. Modi criticized the government at the time for failing to strike back.

But as prime minister since 2014, Mr. Modi has hewed to India’s decades-old policy of “strategic restraint,” opting not to deploy one of the world’s largest military arsenals even when directly provoked.

Some analysts say that India’s reticence to use force has largely served it well.

While China’s military rise has caused jitters across the world, India over the past decade has been the world’s No. 1 importer of military hardware and has built a growing defense relationship with the United States.

Its pacifist image helped secure a 2008 agreement on civil nuclear cooperation with the U.S. that cemented India’s status as a nuclear power.

When India has displayed aggression, the results have disappointed.

In 2002, following a deadly attack on the parliament building in New Delhi that was blamed on Pakistani militants, India deployed half a million troops along the border. While outright war was averted, nearly 800 Indian soldiers lost their lives, many in mine-laying operations.