Some think that the celebration of International Peace Day on 21st September every year is an exercise in futility. Who cares for peace when there is war and conflict all around? When there is no hope for peace, why celebrate such a day and give false hopes to the millions suffering as a result of conflict? We are eternal dreamers and that is why we believe that 21st September brings hope for the world. True that peace requires a longer and sustained commitment and dedicating a day to peace may not make much of difference. But we are here to do our bit for the cause of peace. On this day, we hope that the entire globe atleast makes an attempt to forget their differences and move ahead on the path of reconciliation and trust building. Can we not do this atleast for a day? Can we not promise Mother Earth for a day that we will not kill/harm/each other and instead pledge our lives to her harmony and protection? It should not be that difficult to do it for a day? Peace is a long, arduous journey and a single day may not make much difference to it, cynics will say. But we say that this single day will be a beginning to sowing the seeds of peace in the minds and hearts of young people. This day will let people see each other as 'friends', 'brothers', 'sisters', as people and not as 'enemies'. That is why 21st September is important and we continue to reinstate our faith in peace on this day and every day that comes.
Is there anything like an Ideal Peace Process? Yes and No both because a peace process should be having some essential components and at the same time these may vary over time and circumstances. Here we present a sketches that we believe encompasses our ideas of an "ideal peace process", if anything like that can exist.
1. Trust - Peace process can never take forward without trust, it will lose its way without trust which is like the foundation stone for a peace process.
2. Friendship/People - What could peace be without people? Peace is people and people are peace.
3. Civil Society/Media - Stakeholders with a larger responsibility to guide people and distinguish truth from propaganda
4. State/Government - political will and engagement at the highest level of leadership
5. No to arms/weapons/violence - Multiple stakeholders in this can create public pressure for the leadership to abstain from multiplying hate
6. A South Asian Confederation - Any peace process between India and Pakistan will not succeed if a broader South Asian vision for peace, harmony and cooperation is not its part.
Sehr & Nidhi - Dreamers for India-Pakistan Peace
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