Aman ki Asha builds bridges through peace advocates

The only way to remove suspicion of the two countries is to start dialogue process.
On January 1, 2010, our readers woke up with a dove and a message of peace between India and Pakistan on the front page of The Times of India. The readers of Jang and the News in Pakistan also woke up to the same message. That was when Aman ki Asha, a campaign co-authored by TOI and The Jang group, which is Pakistan’s largest media house, was born.The birth was received with enthusiasm and skepticism. To cry for peace so soon after the horrible November 26, 2008 terror attack in Mumbai was delusional, some said. Others called it romantic.
But Aman ki Asha is healthy and doing fine. Peace hasn’t broken out nor are solutions to Kashmir or Siachen signed and sealed. Peace talks have faltered and the rhetoric has often turned shrill. But the community of those yearning for peace has become a stronger and closely knit constituency connecting Lahore, Karachi, Delhi, Mumbai, London and Dubai.
As musicians strummed for peace and balladeers sang for tearing down barriers in both countries during the last three years, both TOI and Jang were overwhelmed by the response. Letters and messages poured in and NGOs, diplomats and peace activists wrote in asking to come aboard Aman ki Asha. After Pakistani Sufi singers Abida Parveen and Rahat Fateh Ali Khan set audiences afire in Delhi and Mumbai, scholars and editors criss-crossed the border, discussing ways to circumvent firewalls of hostility and goad governments to restart the peace dialogue and ease travel and trade curbs.
Aman ki Asha hasn’t been able to strip the straitjacket that envelops India-Pakistan relations. Nor has it been able remove stereotypes about Pakistan and Pakistani society. It did not help that the few rounds of meetings between the foreign ministers faltered and peace talks spluttered to a halt again. Aman ki Asha has however kept alive the constituency for peace, pointing out that terror isn’t the only prism through which Pakistan can be seen and that people of Pakistan, who share habits and families with many in northern India, are paying as heavy a price for their government’s misadventures.
"Trade for peace" is the new catchphrase defining the emerging relationship between India and Pakistan – a relationship historically so troubled that, when not actually at war, they have been engaged in a virtual cold war. But the winds of change are now blowing in a more positive phase in bilateral relations.
According to polls, conducted before and after the launch, Aman ki Asha has improved Indians’ and Pakistanis’ perceptions about each other. The campaign strengthens, and is strengthened by, the non-government organisations that have been laying the groundwork for years. It also energises people on both sides of the border to work for the peace agenda. Other media does cover these efforts, but the Aman ki Asha campaign caught the public imagination as never before, giving both governments the confidence to move towards improving relations. And it has provided the business community with a much-needed platform.
There is a growing realisation that war between the two nuclear-armed neighbours is not an option. Countries that engage in mutual trade and investment don’t go to war. TOI and Jang will carry on this journey, hoping that many more will sign up on the project for peace.

(Artistes Arif Lohar and Parvathy Baul performing at an 'Aman Ki Asha' concert in Hyderabad on January 22, 2010. Photographer -- P Rammoorthy, TOI)

(Playback singer Javed Ali (right) and Pakistani composer Ali Zafar performing to a packed house in Navi Mumbai on January 5, 2013. Photographer – Tejal Kudtarkar, TOI)