For those soldiers who have made supreme sacrifices for the country in the line of duty, the Indian Army has advised its formations to refrain from using the word “martyrs” and has suggested 11 words or substitutes.
Defence and security establishment sources said the word “martyr” refers to an individual who suffers death as punishment for witnessing and refusing to renounce a religion or person who suffers much or is killed due to their religious and political beliefs.
As per the circular of the Indian Army headquarters, soldiers who have made supreme sacrifice for the country should be refer to any term such as Killed-in-Action, laid down their lives, supreme sacrifice for the nation, fallen heroes, Indian Amry Braves and Fallen soldiers, Battle casualty, bravehearts, braves whom we lost, Veergati/Veergati Prapt, and Veer.
In an article titled, “Military has no Martyrs”, Lt Gen Satish Dua, former Corps Commander in Kashmir, and former Chief of Integrated Defence Staff, and Major Navdeep Singh, a lawyer at the Punjab & Haryana High Court, where in, they noted that the term martyr is used “wherein the person himself or herself willingly submits to death for political careers.”
