Militarised Narratives and Retaliatory Rhetoric: A Comparative CDA of the 2025 India-Pakistan War

This paper presents a comparative critical discourse analysis (CDA) of official military press conferences by India and Pakistan in the 2025 War. Grounded in Fairclough’s Three-Dimensional Model, Van Dijk’s Ideological Square, and Entman’s Framing Theory, this paper investigates how India and Pakistan construct strategic narratives to justify military retaliation, frame violence as legitimate statecraft, and shape national identity. India’s Ministry of Defence (MoD) uses a discourse of ‘technocratic legalism’ and calibrated restraint, invoking terms such as ‘precision engagement’ and ‘strategic neutrality’ to position its actions within international norms. In contrast, Pakistan’s Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) draws on religious symbolism, emotional affect, and humanitarian appeals, evident in phrases such as “cowardly attack,” “martyrs,” and “befitting reply” to sacralise its military response. Despite divergent rhetorical registers, both discourses exhibit structural symmetry in their use of positive self-representation and negative Othering. Based on a close analysis of one press statement from each side, the findings demonstrate that militarised discourse functions as a performative and ideological apparatus, one that not only reports military action but also moralizes, legitimizes, and narratively embeds it within the larger framework of national defence. This study contributes to scholarship on war communication by illustrating how language becomes central to the geopolitical and ideological management of war. Keywords: Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), Militarised Discourse, Strategic Narratives, Retaliatory Rhetoric, India-Pakistan War 2025, War Communication, Legitimation of Violence