Is the right to remain neutral during war a part of white privilege?

The public in countries where the majority is of people of colour see this war differently from countries that are majority white. And there is no better instance of white privilege than to demand that the rest of us have a duty to pick sides in a war between two countries that are both full of white people.

A few days ago, Lithuania, which is a member of the European Union, cancelled its donation of over 4,40,000 vaccine doses to Bangladesh. This happened after the government of Bangladesh, just like the government of India, decided to abstain from voting on the recent UN resolution condemning Russian military action in the Ukraine. Quite a throwback to tribal societies and childhood rivalries with all the civilisational and humanistic proclamations casually abandoned.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine has led to a searing reaction from governments and the public across the western world. Apart from economic sanctions, some of the reactions have been downright absurd.

For instance, there was the orchestra in Canada that cancelled a show by a 20-year-old music prodigy from Russia. Or, the university in Milan that tried to drop the works of Dostoevsky from its literature curriculum.

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Then, there was the orchestra in Britain that decided they would no longer play music by Russian composer Tchaikovsky for celebrating Russia’s successful defence against Napoleon in 1812. Dear Piotr Tchaikovsky, who passed away in 1893, your reign of terror is over.

As a result, the West has been putting tremendous pressure on countries such as India that have chosen to remain neutral during this war. The pressure has been applied through official channels as well as unofficial ones, such as media, think tanks and intellectual circles. They say that we are either with the West, or against the West. And, that as a democracy, it is our moral duty to side with the West.

But this raises a fundamental question. Who has the right to remain neutral in a war?