Peace begins with a smile
The concern of the humankind for peace can be assessed by taking into account the fact that all religions, all religious scriptures and several religious ceremonies are committed to the cause of peace
Vinod Chandrashekhar Dixit
16th May will be celebrated as the International Day of Living Together in Peace. It was officially recognised by the General Assembly of the United Nations in December 2017. Living together in peace is all about accepting differences and having the ability to listen to, recognize, respect and appreciate others, as well as living in a peaceful and united way. Peace and Harmony is the basic requirement of any nation. The citizens of a country feel safe and secure and can prosper only if a peaceful environment is maintained. Ideal peace demands the development of a non-nuclear, war-free, nonviolent peaceful world through conscious global efforts.
The old thinking: “If you want peace be prepared for war” has to be abandoned and replaced by a firm faith in the principle of peace through non-violent means and peaceful international relations based on equality and respect for each other’s territorial integrity and nationhood.
With a new vision, we can collectively generate and convey a profound change to build the society of tomorrow and propose a tool to express, loud and clear, this will to learn better living and doing together. The more numerous we are to choose “living better together”, the more our commitment will change the world. Though the people of our country live peacefully with each other, often the peace is disturbed owing to some political, social, economic and religious factors.
Price rise and unemployment also creates unrest among the people. People often come forward to protest against these issues due to which the normal functioning of the society is disrupted. Equal respect to all the religions is a way of promoting peace and harmony in the country.
The concern of the humankind for peace can be assessed by taking into account the fact that all religions, all religious scriptures and several religious ceremonies are committed to the cause of peace and all these advocate an elimination of war. People belonging to different religions rejoice each other’s company and celebrate all the festivals with equal zeal. In schools, at work places and various other places, people study and work together harmoniously.
Peace means peaceful co-existence among nations, mutual respect for each other’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, sovereign equality of all states, development of friendly cooperation among all nations, and dependence on peaceful means of conflict-resolution.
One elementary way of defining peace has been to say that peace is absence of war. While it was successful in preventing a global war, we have failed to prevent local wars and in fact gave rise to several tensions, stresses, strains and crises in international relations
It is only when each citizen recognizes the dangers of disunity, would there be complete peace and harmony in the country. The Day aims to uphold the desire to live and act together, united in differences and diversity, in order to build a sustainable world of peace, solidarity and harmony.
The purpose of this day is to promote peace through a harmonious living together regardless of nationality, gender, language or religion. Peace and harmony are the building blocks of any society. Only if there is peace and harmony in the country would there be growth and development.
We must remember that the government cannot be held responsible for maintaining peace and harmony in the country. Each one of us should take it as our responsibility to nurture feelings of brotherhood with fellow citizens. In contemporary times, the most urgent and important international objective has been to preserve protect and defend peace against terrorism.
(The writer is based in Ahmadabad and is a regular contributor to ‘Kashmir Vision’)
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