Grouping together for change


Grouping together for change

Early in the morning on January 1, 2010, Prayaag Kasundra, an information technology (IT) graduate in Ahmedabad read an unprecedented front page advertisement in the Times of India.

“LOVE PAKISTAN”, it declared, heralding the launch of Aman ki Asha, a joint initiative by two powerful media houses of Pakistan and India, the Jang Group and The Times of India (TOI). A joint editorial on the front page explained how Aman ki Asha (Destination: Peace) aims to look beyond the confines of a 62-year-old political boundary to the primal bonds that connect the peoples of both countries.

Kasundra was fired up. “I felt this was a wonderful movement,” he wrote in an email to Aman ki Asha, explaining how he created a Facebook group to support the initiative and spread the word.

“I was actually waiting for something like this to happen for a long time,” he added. Given the constant political tensions and political resentments towards each other “I thought it would never happen”.

Far away in Melbourne, Australia, Terence Pinto, a chartered accountant from Rawalpindi also read about this initiative on Jan 1, 2010, on The News website. He too decided to make a Facebook group for Aman ki Asha to support the initiative.

“I was interested in this initiative, as I have always believed that peace is the only way forward for both Pakistan and India,” he said in an email to Aman ki Asha. “I was impressed by the joint statement of the editors of The Times of India and Jang Group as it expressed many thoughts which I also shared.”

Since the Facebook group set up by Kasundra already existed, Pinto joined it. He is now now one of the co-administrators of the group.

Within weeks, the number of members was in the thousands. It crossed the ten thousand mark by the third month.

Other co-administrators are Zain Hasan (based in Karachi) and Vijaya Majumder (an airlines employee in Kolkata).

Following contact with the ‘real’ Aman ki Asha, the Facebook Group has become semi-official and added a co-administrator from the media initiative.

Due to a few offensive postings on the Group wall, the administrators had by then already enforced restrictions, like making the group ‘closed’ — those who want to join need an administrator’s approval. Those posting offensive comments are blocked. Fortunately such individuals are far outnumbered by those who approach the issue with open minds and hearts.

“People say I’m Hindu, but I believe my religion is Humanism,” wrote Vijaya. In a message to Aman ki Asha, explaining that she joined this group because “I want peace in both the countries. Love and friendship is the first and last step of every honest relationship. And if we can spread Love to everyone, our wishes and dream will be fulfilled very soon.”

The youngest co-administrator, Zain Hasan, is a 21 year old student doing full-time aerospace aircraft apprenticeship with an airline and is a part-time university student (international relations). He also teaches part time in a community school on weekends.

He has uploaded short videos that he made during the media and civil society interaction with Pakistani and Indian anchors and editors, organised as part of Aman ki Asha’s ‘Talking Peace’ event (April 6-7, 2010, Karachi).

“India and Pakistan share so much in common, but we continue to focus on our differences,” says Pinto. “I feel that the silent majority of both the countries need to speak up about their desire to live in peace and harmony. For this to happen, the media in both countries can play its due role by speaking the language of love.

“Media in both countries should raise awareness about the need for peace and the benefits that would flow from it to both India and Pakistan. This awareness would make the true voice of the people to be heard. Consequently, the governments of both countries would realise that their policies towards each other need to be based on public opinion. Accordingly, the governments would be forced to have an asha for aman and follow the will of their peoples.”

Meanwhile, the Facebook fan page called Aman ki Asha remains unofficial. Its administrators have yet to respond to the official request to either change the name of the page, or add an Aman ki Asha person as co-administrator.




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