Does Durandhar Reveal Violence as a Permanent Social Order Rather Than a Crisis?
About Durandhar and Its Intellectual Context
Durandhar is unsettling not because it depicts violence, but because it depicts a society that has made peace with violence. The film does not present brutality as an eruption or a breakdown of order. Instead, it presents violence as the order itself. Through a careful and restrained narrative lens, Durandhar functions less as a political thriller and more as a sociological case study of how perpetual conflict embeds itself into everyday life.
When read alongside S. K. Malik’s The Quranic Concept of War, the film acquires an even sharper clarity. Malik’s thesis argues that war is not an episodic event bounded by declarations or ceasefires, but a continuous condition that persists across both peace and conflict. Preparation is not a prelude to war; it is war. Durandhar renders this premise cinematically by portraying a society where preparation, fear, and coercion are indistinguishable from daily existence.
Violence as Environment, Not Event
In Durandhar, violence is not framed as spectacle. Killings, intimidation, coercion, and armed presence are not treated as moral shocks demanding explanation. They are ambient. Streets, homes, institutions, and political offices are structured around violence rather than periodically disrupted by it. Life unfolds within violence the way it unfolds within climate or geography.
This portrayal aligns precisely with Malik’s insistence that the most decisive phase of conflict is the war of preparation during peace. Violence does not need to erupt dramatically when it has already been normalized. When fear becomes routine, resistance does not need to be crushed; it fails to form. Durandhar shows a society that has absorbed coercion so deeply that violence no longer announces itself.
Children in the film do not encounter brutality as trauma demanding explanation. They grow up inside it. Armed men, sudden deaths, and authoritarian presence are simply part of the landscape. Fear becomes orientation rather than shock. This reflects Malik’s argument that terror must lodge itself in the heart, not merely strike the body. Once internalized early, terror no longer requires constant reinforcement.
Families, Silence, and Adaptation
Durandhar does not portray families as sanctuaries from conflict. Instead, families adapt around violence. Silence becomes a survival skill. Complicity replaces protest. Moral reasoning is displaced by calculations of safety and loyalty. This mirrors Malik’s conception of jihad as total, encompassing private life and social relations rather than being confined to combatants.
When struggle is permanent, families do not oppose it. They reorganize themselves within it. The film shows how fear reshapes domestic life, how conversations narrow, and how ethical boundaries erode not through ideological fervor but through habituation. Violence regulates behavior without requiring justification.
Strengths and Weaknesses of This Social Order
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Predictable control through fear Continuity of external objectives Institutional alignment with coercion |
Moral erosion at the social level Permanent internal instability Generational normalization of terror |
Institutions in Durandhar do not counter violence; they administer it. Authority figures wield force casually, without embarrassment. Governance is not depicted as the antidote to brutality but as one of its channels. Political legitimacy does not restrain violence; it regularizes it. This visualizes Malik’s argument that governance and authority are not alternatives to jihad but instruments within it.
Opportunities and Threats for External Observers
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Clear doctrinal consistency Predictable external orientation Structured understanding of intent |
Misreading chaos as confusion Event-based rather than structural analysis Underestimating preparatory warfare |
Perhaps the film’s most revealing insight is that Pakistan’s recurring internal unrest is not evidence of strategic confusion but of strategic endurance. While internal politics may appear chaotic, the external axis remains fixed: India. Methods, theatres, and phases change, but the objective does not. Continuity of purpose becomes the true measure of success.
The 26/11 attacks in Durandhar are not portrayed as aberrations or tragic excesses. They appear as culmination. Political maneuvering, normalization of violence, institutional complicity, and psychological conditioning all function as groundwork. Disorder provides deniability. Fragmentation diffuses accountability. Instability absorbs scrutiny. Meanwhile, the strategic objective proceeds with remarkable consistency.
This is where Malik’s most provocative claim casts its longest shadow. Terror is not merely a means of war; it is its objective. Violence must be continuous, immersive, and unapologetic to shape society. Durandhar reflects this by refusing spectacle and closure. There is no clean beginning and no satisfying end. Only phases change. Endings are irrelevant in a doctrine where struggle is perpetual.
Why This Matters for India
For India, Durandhar is not merely a film analysis but a strategic mirror. Without engaging seriously with the worldview Malik articulates, India risks mistaking continuity for chaos and doctrine for disorder. Event-based outrage, moral shock, and episodic responses address symptoms, not structure.
To comprehend a neighbor whose violence is ambient rather than accidental, cultivated rather than reactive, India must move beyond episodic analysis. Peace does not signify reconciliation in this framework; it functions as camouflage. Understanding this philosophical structure is not endorsement. It is defensive clarity.
Just as disciplined traders focus on structure rather than noise, strategic clarity demands frameworks rather than reactions. In markets, participants often rely on structured approaches like 👉 Nifty Tip | 👉 BankNifty Tip to avoid emotional decision-making. Strategic thinking in geopolitics requires similar discipline.
Investor Takeaway
Derivative Pro and Nifty Expert Gulshan Khera, CFP®, believes that whether in markets or in geopolitics, misunderstanding structure is the most enduring vulnerability. Durandhar reinforces the importance of recognizing long-cycle frameworks, doctrinal continuity, and preparation phases rather than reacting to surface-level volatility. Clarity, discipline, and structural awareness remain the foundations of sound decision-making. Explore deeper analytical perspectives at Indian-Share-Tips.com, which is a SEBI Registered Advisory Services.
Related Queries on Durandhar and Strategic Doctrine
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