India/Pakistan: NGOs and Activism

There are a number of NGOs in India and Pakistan that are working towards a resolution of the conflicts between the two countries. Efforts of NGOs have intensified after both countries conducted nuclear tests that indicate both India and Pakistan have nuclear weapons. Their efforts were further intensified after an attack on the Indian parliament in December 2001, which India blames Pakistan for, although there has been insufficient evidence and the perpetrators were killed. That has resulted in the mobilization of 750,000 Indian troops on the India/Pakistan border and a comparable number by Pakistan on its side of the border in December and the laying of land mines along the border. Those troops are still there, and the concern has increased because both countries have demonstrated their nuclear capability. Conflict between India and Pakistan began immediately after both became independent in 1947 with fighting over Kashmir, and there have been three wars between India and Pakistan, two of them over Kashmir and one connected with the creation of Bangladesh.

The major NGO organization involving both Indian and Pakistanis working to prevent war and improve relations is the Pakistan India Peoples Forum for Peace and Democracy.

Pakistan India Peoples Forum for Peace and Democracy was founded in 1994. The Indian Chair is Admiral L. Ramdas, the former commander of the Indian navy. The Pakistani Chair is I.A. Rehman. Their web site contains the Lahore Joint statement of September 1994, and the Delhi Declaration of November 1994, Press Statement on behalf of the Indian Section, May 1998, and documents from later conferences and conventions.

The last conference was held in Bangalore in April 2000 and resulted in the Bangalore Declaration. Difficulties between India and Pakistan, which have had over a million soldiers stationed along the border between Pakistan and India since December 2001, seem to have made holding a conference more recently impossible because visas could not be obtained. Nevertheless, contacts continue via E-mail. Candlelight vigils were held in Karachi and New Delhi in December, 2001.

In June 2002, there was a joint statement by the Pakistan India People’s Forum. The India chair, Admiral Ramdas issued more signposts for peace in South Asia.

Hamid Marker, of the Helpline Trust in Karachi, Pakistan, sent us information in December 2001 about Indian demonstrations in both New Delhi and Karachi. He forwarded a December 24, 2001 E-mail from Prakash Louis, the Executive Director of the Indian Social Institute in New Delhi which follows:

People for Peace

At a meeting held on December 22, 2001, in New Delhi peace activists from many civil society organizations met at the Indian Social Institute and resolved the following:

We the people of India want to live in peace with out neighbors just as our neighbors wish to live with us. We do not wish for war, death and destruction. Therefore it is imperative that the war mongering which is gathering steam be immediately curtailed.

At the outset let it be said that the nuclearization of South Asia in the year 1999 was a disastrous step and its consequences are being felt every moment of our lives. We perish in a nuclear holocaust. We wish to unequivocally denounce terrorism wherever in the world it occurs; this condemnation includes state terrorism manifested in terrorism by the police. Citizens are being harassed in the name of security. In this respect, we urge the media to be a watchdog of human rights and the sentinel of peace, and to dissociate itself from the hysteria that vested interests may wish to spread.

At the same time we are fully conscious of the fact that the Government of India is using the current situation to push its authoritarian agenda. We condemn this modus operandi. Instead of viewing every event and incidence as 'law and order problem' or as 'terrorist attack' the ruling establishment should try to go into the root cause of social crisis that is confronting the country.

Given the fact that India, the land of Mahatma Buddha and Mahatma Gandhi, has always had a tradition of keeping its doors open to one and all and also open to dialogue, we condemn the recent move by the government to ban the Samjhauta Express and the Sadhbhavna bus between India and Pakistan. It will cause the greatest harm to common people for whom it meant family reunification. We condemn the government's decision to recall the Indian High Commissioner from Islamabad. This attitude of diplomatic punishment' is not in keeping with the dignity and the tradition of India.

We deplore the fact that in this game of brinksmanship all the real issues have been forgotten; most importantly the issue of Kashmir, and the aspirations of the people of Kashmir. All the moves being contemplated by the government to reduce the daily trauma of the people of Kashmir lie forgotten.

We urge the government to withdraw its sanction against the train and bus to Pakistan and allow the people to people contact to continue. Talks should immediately be resumed at the highest level within the framework of SAARC and efforts should be made to find political not military solutions to outstanding problems. Finally, the silence of the majority is being misinterpreted as popular endorsement to war mongering. We appeal to our sisters and brothers in both countries to speak up for peace and not let the current crisis escalate into a holocaust by default.

It is encouraging to note that there are concerned citizens who "care" and are willing to speak up and voice their apprehensions against war and aggression. In the last Pen for Peace conference in Karachi, intellectuals, writers, poets, artists, academics and journalists adopted a resolution that stated "The disputes between Pakistan and India, like any other world disputes, can never be resolved through "war" and the only alternative is peace. Peace is essential within the country and on the borders for improving the health of the ailing economies, as well as for the welfare of the people."