Longing for peace in this region

Free Thinker *

These days religious-men, spiritualists, agnostics, atheists, scientists and even fundamentalists talk about "peace". But what exactly it is? Nobody knows. Socrates once said, "if you don't have a word to describe something, then how can you think about it? If we go by the dictionary meaning of 'peace': 1. it is a situation or a period of time in which there is no violence or war;2 the state of being calm and quite; 3 the state of living amicably without feud and argument etc.

Is it about peace in the family or among the ethnic communities or society or in the state or the country? Or are we talking about peace of mind? Or are we murmuring about world peace? Or are we trying to capture an imaginative peace which is eluding from our real world? Yes, it is something idealistic which is to do with tranquility, non-violence, love, sharing, caring, co-existence, brotherhood, sisterhood, humane-humanity etc. Even this conceptualization is enough or not, I am not very sure. It seems lacking.

From the time when we started thinking seriously till today our endeavor is to comprehend and define certain ideas and concepts. For instance, "truth", "peace", "love", "beauty" etc. Many religious-men, philosophers, thinkers, erudite-scholars had spent their entire life to decipher and explain these concepts. But in vein. My 'peace' will be different from your 'peace'.

Your 'beauty' is certainly different from their 'beauty'. Her 'love' is not similar with his 'love'. Your 'truth' is different from my 'truth'. Subjectivity is the major hindrance to objectivity. Humans are very subjective in terms of their understanding of things. Rather other animals are perhaps more objective as they go by instincts, senses and experiences.

Today we are in quest of peace in this part of the world. Some called it Northeast India and others call it Western Southeast Asia and I call it land of Seven Sisters (now Eight). Why there is violence, tension, conflict and underdevelopment in many parts of NE India. No one is interested to go deep into the causes of such a desperate situation.

Blaming one another is the easiest way out, Centre blaming the States and States blaming the Centre, people blaming both and so on. But one thing is sure that something is seriously wrong somewhere. Because we are lagging far behind in the global race in terms of education, employment, healthcare, communication, entertainment and material progress.

Whether the peace talks with the Rebels and Insurgents will restore complete normalcy and bring about the requisite changes and developments in this unfortunate region is yet to be seen. There is also an apprehension that such dialogues and settlements may trigger more instability and violence in this region.

As we have discussed earlier the understanding of the concepts like 'peace' and 'truth' is very subjective. Then the most crucial issue is, how to take a mean of "his peace" and "my peace" and find an amicable and acceptable "our peace"?

"Violence is immoral because it thrives on hatred rather than love. It destroys community and makes brotherhood impossible. It leaves society in monologue rather than dialogue. Violence ends up defeating itself. It creates bitterness in the survivors and brutality in destroyers". These are the words of Martin Luther who was a perennial preacher for peace, harmony and brotherhood.

Let us not build peace on the basis of hatred. It is not enough to say we must not indulge in ethnic violence or enmity. It is necessary to commit and sacrifice for love, harmony and coexistence. We merely concentrate on the aspects of feuds and differences but never try on the positive affirmation of love, understanding and brotherhood.

We must see that peace represents a positive side of human relation that is superior to discords of conflict and hatred. Somehow, we must transform the dynamics of the power struggle and rat race which no one can win forever.

Let us drive home to a positive contest of creativity for the purpose of making peace and prosperity a reality for all in this region. Finally, we must work together at least to achieve the dictionarial meaning of peace.

Peace an neither be unilateral nor bilateral but it must be multilateral. I believe all the concerned are listening to my whisper.