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‘Sindoor’ signaled Indian revenge for Pahalgam: Shashi Tharoor in the U.S.
“That ‘sindoor’ had essentially been wiped off the foreheads of the Indian women,” the senior Congress MP said.
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Lalit K Jha - Wed, 04, Jun 2025
- 22:22 EDT
- 138
Shashi Tharoor at the National Press Club. / Lalit K Jha
One of the questions the Indian delegation visiting the US with its message about Operation Sindoor had to tackle was the significance of ‘sindoor’ to the Indian strikes inside Pakistan. It fell on delegation leader and senior Congress MP Shashi Tharoor to answer that in the context of the strikes, “it's no accident that the color of the ‘sindoor’ is that bright of vermilion red, which is not far from the color of blood”.
Tharoor had to stray from diplomacy and geopolitics for a moment to explain to the audience in the National Press Club in Washington D.C. on Jun. 4 about Hindu traditions related to ‘sindoor’.
He said he thought was a “brilliantly chosen name”. He explained: “It is a vermilion mark that is applied to the center of the forehead of married women. In the Hindu tradition, it's widely practiced. Some non-Hindus do it too, but more for decorative purposes. But strictly speaking, ‘sindoor’ is applied at the time of the marriage ceremony and is worn every day thereafter by married women.”
On how it related to the military operations, Tharoor had this to say: “So, we were very conscious that these brutal terrorists who by the way shot men in front of their wives and children, but spared the women. And when the one wife screamed out kill me too, she was told no, you go back and tell them what we've done. That was why the women were spared. It was horrendous, horrendous act. But that ‘sindoor’ had essentially been wiped off the foreheads of the Indian women. We wanted first of all to avenge that act of wiping off the ‘sindoor’.
But why did he allude to blood when referring to the color of ‘sindoor’? Tharoor thought that “blood is in response to what they’ve done”.
Also read: We came to explain, not to ask: Tharoor on India’s global outreach
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