1000+ Group Discussion Topics for Interview with Answers

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In favour of brain:

In a war situation, it is an intelligent soldier who can carry out all the complicated instructions hastily and fully understanding them. On the other hand, an unintelligent soldier not only fails to understand such instructions properly and carry them out but also coward in the face of risky situations.

Brain or intelligence is the most important attribute that helps a soldier a win a war Napoleon says, “war is composed of nothing but accidents and a general should never loss of sight of everything to enable him to profit from these accidents. That is the mark of a genius.” So it is. For, an intelligent general alone can make a right and quick assessments of the situation in the battlefield, make the optimum use of his resource and opportunities and deploy his forces accordingly so as to win the war, while an unintelligence one may fight a war or engage in a battle without necessarily planning of winning it.

With the ever growing sophistication of modern arms and military hardware, the role of intelligence is multiplying as never before. Physical strength or faith of soldiers has lost any relevance in modern scientific warfare which can be waged from thousands of miles away from the battle field due to Inter Continental Ballistic Missiles. Therefore, an unintelligent soldier will prove to be just a cannon fodder and cannot make any contribution to the war.

 Modern wars entail the involvement of the masses as well; for, when missiles and rockets are used on a wide scale, they damage populated areas to a great extent. That is why Nehruji said, “There should be no distance be no distance between people generally and the armed services; they are all one, because recruitment to the armed forces is made from the masses”. Hence an intelligent soldier alone can understand the cause and fight because he has proper grasp of the common man and the issues he has to face, whether at home or in an enemy territory. An unintelligent soldier on the other hand cannot understand the context of his services and therefore, cannot do justice with his duties.

It is not correct to think that educated people can make poor soldiers and, hence education is not necessary from them. Rather, education makes them courteous and well behaved. Rather, education makes them courteous and well behaved. It was because Russian soldiers were educated that Stalin could defeat Hitler. Due to their education, they won the friendship of countries through which they passed before reaching. General de Gaulle, fighting for freedom in underground in France was greatly inspired by this conditioning of a soldier and declared. The most advantageous position in life and society is that of an educated soldier.

In Favour of Brawn:

A soldier is not excepted to go into the quality, legality and justification of orders issued to him. He is just to follow them post haste. Therefore, an average brain will do in his case. Wu Tzu, a Chinese philosopher has rightly observed. The value the whole army, a mighty host of a million men is dependent on one man alone, such is the influence of spirit – the spirit of a soldier, not that of a scholar.

No army can fight if its base is not strong, opines Nehru, and strong base can be provided only by sturdy soldiers, not by super brains. For, on the chess board of the battlefield an army is like brainless pawns in the hands of intelligent generals of the High command which in turn follows the instructions of the cabinet in a democracy. It is this subordination of the soldiers to their higher ups that led Sun Tzu to say “A kingdom should not be governed from without, an army should not be directed from within.”

Wars are not always fought on ethical grounds. An intelligent soldier is most likely to think about the ethics or pros and cons of the war and thus fail in his duty to fight promptly and willingly. An unintelligent but bodily tough soldier, on the other hand, can carry out the instructions of the commander without taxing his own mind. A soldier being the servants of the State, must do his duty by the State which acts as per the will of the people in a democracy.

A soldier is helped by brawn or physical strength much more than anything else. Intelligence dulls the edge of warlike qualities. As General K.M. Kariappa the former commander in Chief of India observed. It may sound paradoxical but one community which dislikes wars intensely is the soldier community, not because of the knowledge that the soldier has of utter futility of wars to solve international problems. 

When a soldier is offered to go to war, he has to fight to win the war. Let us always be prepared militarily to ensure that with strength we can have peace. Thus we can reasonably conclude that wars are won by strength, not by intelligence.

While our brave but less intelligent soldiers kept fighting while being guided by the junior officers, several intelligent officers just ran away. Even a general said to be writing a book at that moment of national crisis instead of leading his men from the front. Therefore, only a less intelligent soldier who does not understand the how’s and why’s of war can find glory in dying on the battlefield.

In favour of faith:

More than physical fitness or mental alertness, it is complete faith in the cause for which he fights that enables a soldier to put in his best efforts to win a war with courage and dedication. If he has any doubt about the correctness of whatever he is being asked to do as a soldier he will just fight for mercenary gain and will not do justice to his duty.

A soldier who has innate love for his country, sense of duty and faith in his officers will be convinced that whatever he is doing is for the good of his country. This will encourage him to fight with devotion and courage, for as we know, faith can move mountains.

History is replete with examples where even a small number of poorly equipped soldiers could defeat larger and better equipped battalions. This was possible because they were inspired by noble cause, while the latter had to bite the dust because they were fighting for the sake of money only and knew that it was for another person or country – not their own.

Faith brings about morale in a soldier that spurs him to fight on with courage until he achieves him aim or satisfies his faith.

In 1971, when Pakistan waged a war of aggression against East Pakistan their own Bengali speaking brethren, its soldiers, numbering over 90,000 laid down arms without fighting, because they had no faith in the unholy cause of their unscrupulous generals. Indian soldiers, on the other hand, being convinced of the noble cause of getting independence for Bangladesh by defeating the aggressive Pakistan rulers fought bravely along with Shanti Bahini, the army of local Bengali soldiers and achieved their aim. Therefore, must admit that it is faith alone that helps a soldier most.

How faith can work miracles is exemplified by the Indo-China War of 1962. At that time, though we were not prepared for attack by China, our brave soldiers, inspite of being ill equipped, smaller in numbers, and strategically in a disadvantageous position, did not cower. Why during Kargil conflict in 1999, our jawans repulsed Pakistan’s army without caring for their own lives in that unhospitable terrain.

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