Exploring resilience and hardiness with narrative analysis of personal war narratives of war heroes

Pages: 193-199
Gurpreet Kaur Sandhu1 and Col Gurdarshan Singh Sandhu2 (Department of Psychology, Govt. Mohindra College, Patiala, Punjab1 and Retired Colonel Indian Army, Regiment of Artillery2)

The purpose of this study is to explore resilience and hardiness in context of personal experience the war narratives of the War heroes. The war stories of war heroes of Indo Pakistan war of Battle of Kargil (1999); Battle of Longewal (1971); and Battle of Tiger Hill (1999) were investigated with narrative analysis methodology. The narrative approach is a new research paradigm in military sciences which offer conceptual tools to explore fact-based war narratives. The personal experience war narratives of the war heroes were described with Mishler (1995) and Labov and Waletzky (1997) structural model of narrative analysis with emphasis on evaluative interpretations of the personal war experiences. Labov and Waletzky argue that a narrative begins with an orientation, has actions that complicate it and build interest into an apex and finishes with a coda or a resolution section. The constructs of resilience (psychological & physiological), and military hardiness (courage, control, commitment, & challenge) were discussed and illustrated in context of military ethos , military training and warfare. The findings revealed that the war heroes are “men of steel” who fought the wars for their country with extraordinary courage and passion larger than life. Their extraordinary war stories and patriotism for their motherland are incredibly motivational and inspirational.