Path to Peace

Everything begins in the minds of men. War and peace, love and hatred, sorrow and happiness, doubt and conviction-all begin in the hearts of men. Healing the hurt should be the beginning of the process of finding alternatives to violence. It should be clear to all that violence is only a means-misguided though it maybe, to an end not the beginning or an end itself. If we observe and analyse, violent conflict is the fragmenting of the whole into separate isolated pieces; it is the breaking of the circle. On the other hand, Peace is wholeness. Peace can be understood as a circle with dynamic qualities of inclusiveness, equity, and harmony. So, Peace is not only the absence of violence conflict, it is the life force of interconnectedness. For establishing peace in the real sense, we need to sustain peace. For sustaining and achieving peace, the need for peace education is felt more and more. As a step towards educating towards peace, we need to understand the qualities of peace which are also as the conditions necessary to achieve and sustain peace. They are:

  1. Recognition and affirmation of our common humanity
  2. High synergy (win-win) social structure based in inclusiveness, sharing, connectedness, and cooperativeness among people and with nature.
  3. Cultural harmony through restorative ( rather than retributive) justice, equity, truth-telling,
  4. Parity of rights of education, health and welfare, full information and open communication.
  5. True democracy, free of coercion, bound to full disclosure and based on each person’s being heard fully and represented equally
  6. Safety
  7. Inner peace connected with the mystery and source of all life.

Over the past couple of decades focus have been made on economic restructuring for promoting an economically and competitive citizens by the people in general and government establishments at the global level. As a result of which many states, countries, and communities in its fight for share for resources and capital, violence and conflicts have increased. In areas where marginalized people/communities live, the situations are worse. What do we need to do in these kinds of situations? Here, inclusion of Peace education for peaceful living in harmonious co-existence would be the right step. We need to evolve ourselves as human being, as a person who understands the importance of respecting human rights, who is prepared to work cooperatively to end poverty, to improve health and well being of men, women and children, to reclaim and protect the environment, and to affect peaceful co-existence among individuals, peoples and states.

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