India-Pakistan Peace Caravan – Amn ke Badhte Qadam

India-Pakistan Peace Caravan – Amn ke Badhte Qadam

The Peace Caravan will start simultaneously at Mumbai and Karachi on 28^th July

and reach Wagah-Atari border on 14^th August, 2010

Probably nowhere in the world are people of two countries as emotionally entwined as are the people of India and Pakistan. Political separation and blood-spattered migration of millions has left deep scars on the collective consciousness of the two nations. Post-partition, our tumultuous history has been interspersed with four wars and loss of innumerable innocent lives. Fundamentalist groups ensure that the fires of animosity are kept alive while Kashmir continues to burn, threatening to take the two countries on a course of self-destruction.

And yet even as the heart that might harbour hatred and distrust, upon meeting ‘the other’ surges forth to embrace the ‘enemy’, to offer and reciprocate warmth and friendship. Common people on both sides want peace and normal relations to be established between the two countries. How do we explain this?

Even though geographical boundaries have been forced upon us by historical circumstances, our common customs and traditions, our language, music, food, our values and way of life – continue to bind us together. Even our problems – of poverty and unemployment, of crisis in governance, in health, in education - are the same. On both sides, our people are pushed to the peripheries of poverty by unjust models of economic development. Can we afford this hostility?

So while the two governments make slow and intermittent steps to establish peace, depending on their current political will and strategic exigencies, we feel that if genuine peace and friendship has to be established between the two countries giving a chance to real progress and development, the initiative will have to be taken by the people themselves - by the poor, the women, the tribals, the working masses, by us - who are made most vulnerable by this continuous atmosphere of antagonism and war.

Various such peoples’ initiatives for peace have been witnessed over the last many years, the Indo-Pakistan Delhi to Multan Peace March in 2005 being one of them. In the spirit of sufi saints and poets who spoke of love, Padyatriswalked from Delhi to Multan spreading the message of love and brotherhood in the hope that our governments would recognise that the spirit of give and take, of mutual co-operation and friendship will bring progress and development to our subcontinent and to South Asia.

Witnessing the ongoing blow-hot blow-cold attempts of our governments towards the process of dialogue, we are once again emboldened to take up another joint people to people initiative - the Indo-Pakistan Peace Caravan, Amn ke Badhte Qadam. Peace & development are possible only in an environment of trust & goodwill: this, indeed, is the message of this Peace Caravan. The Peace Caravan is travelling through villages, towns, cities – interacting with people from Mumbai to Wagah, from Karachi to Attari – to build an atmosphere of trust & friendship and to gather our collective strength to pressurise our governments to end hostility.

We understand that our objectives cannot be achieved through just this effort. We also believe that this Peace Caravan is just one element in the many initiatives being taken up by the two peoples. Let us, then, join hands for the sustained creation and development of an environment of trust, goodwill and peace between the two countries – indeed, in South Asia as a whole.

We ask you to lend your commitment to bring in peace and ask our governments to adhere to the following objectives:

1. Movement of people across the borders should be made easier. Normalisation of relations can happen only if people are allowed to freely and easily meet and interact with each other. Restrictions on movement across the border should be eased and in fact the visa-passport regime should be removed. Heeding to the wishes and aspirations of the people of both countries, a mutually agreed upon and monitored open border system should prevail (like in the case of India – Nepal)

2. India and Pakistan must resolve issues with a commitment to unconditional friendship. A solution to all contentious issues should be found peacefully through mutual dialogue. These issues include the issue of Jammu and Kashmir (which, in our view, should be resolved by taking into consideration the wishes and aspirations of the people of Jammu and Kashmir), and the issue of terror-related activities on account of which the people of both countries are suffering. Both countries must end proxy, low intensity wars against each other & restrain their intelligence agencies from fomenting trouble across the border.

3. India and Pakistan should dismantle their atomic-nuclear establishments, destroy landmines and withdraw the army. Real security lies not in the piling of arms and ammunition but in building a relationship based on mutual trust. Besides proving harmful to one’s own citizens, underground landmines and nuclear bombs use up precious financial resources that we can ill-afford. Both countries should stop wasting resources in the name of defence, and use them instead for the eradication of poverty.

India-Pakistan Peace Caravan – Amn ke Badhte Qadam

Mumbai to Attari border [28^th July to 14^th August, 2010]

SCHEDULE & ROUTE

DATE	PLACE	CONTACT
27th July	Mumbai, Gateway of India	Varsha V.V., 09869289453, Kishore Jagtap, 09324514101 Shaikh Hussain , 9869289448 , Feroze Mithiborwala , 9820897517
28th July	Mumbai, Mani Bhawan	Varsha V.V., 09869289453, Kishore Jagtap, 09324514101 Shaikh Hussain , 9869289448 , Feroze Mithiborwala , 9820897517
29th July	Mumbai	Varsha V.V., 09869289453, Kishore Jagtap, 09324514101 Shaikh Hussain , 9869289448 , Feroze Mithiborwala , 9820897517
30th July	Vapi	Jabir Bhai Bhoga, 09913303623
30th July	Valsad	Jabir Bhai Bhoga, 0991330623
31st July	Navsari	Mahesh Kothari, 09879583785
31st July	Surat	Kishore Desai, 09879124650
1st August	Bharuch	Paragji Bapuji, 09426142151
1st August	Vadodara	Hansmukh Patel, 09426321832
2nd August	Kheda	Syed Aleemuddin, 09879466247
2nd August	Ahmedabad	Mahadev Vidrohi, 09428825908, Danish, 09898990409
3rd August	Anand	Rohit Prajapati, 0265 2320399
3rd August	Godhra	Laxmi, 09979422122, Shafi Umerji, 09998243435
4th August	Dahod	Jayanti Bhai, 09426461132
4th August	Ratlam	Rajesh Bairagi, 09425202527
5th August	Nagda	Rajesh Bairagi, 09425202527
5th August	Kota	Gulsher Saheb, 09829146758
6th August	Sawai Madhopur	Abdurazzak, 09829805967
6th August	Gangapur City	Absar Ahmad, 09413051650
7th August	Bayana	Zahid Bhai, 09250148154
7th August	Bharatpur	Abduraheem Saheb, 09250148154
8th - 9th August	Delhi	Bipin Rai, 09999464609, Dhananjay Tripathi, 09312691435, Shah Alam, 09873672153
10th August	Sonepat	Rammohan Rai, 09354926281
10th August	Panipat	Rammohan Rai, 09354926281
11th August	Karnal	Ram Singh, 09416657498
11th August	Ludhiana	Dr. Arun Mitra, 09417000360
12th August	Jalandhar	Ramesh Yadav, 09872318484
12th-14th August	Amritsar	Ramesh Yadav, 09872318484

The karwan will merge with the candle lighting programme at Attari border on the night of 14^th August organized by Sh. Kuldip Nayar. A similar candle lighting event will take place on the Wagah side of border by Pakistani friends.

For information about route (India) please contact Faisal Khan, 09313106745, 09968828230, Varsha 09869289453

Financial contributions in India may be sent in the name of PEACE to A-124/6, Katwaria Sarai, New Delhi-110016.

For information about Peace Carvan, please subscribe to indopakpeacecaravan@yahoogroups.com

Endorsing organizations (till date): Institute for Peace and Secular Studies, Sangat – A South Asian Feminist Network, South Asia Partnership, PEACE, Labour Party, INSAF, CMKP, Centre for Study of Secularism and Society, Peace Keepers, Asha Parivar, Democratic Commission for Human Development, National Alliance of People’s Movements, Punjabi Khoj Ghar, ANHAD, Giyan Foundation, Kriti, Himmat, Seimorgh, Ayodhya ki Awaz, Tehrik-e-Niswan, Swayam, PILER, Phule Ambedkar Vichar Manch, Mass Foundation, Jagori, National Youth Forum, NCDHR, People’s Development Foundation, Sadbhav Mission, ASR, NACDOR, IPSS, Disha, NCJP, COVA, Bulleh Shah Foundation, Dosti Trust, IGSSS, Shahri Adhikar Manch, Women Action Forum, Sungi Development Foundation, Global Gandhi Forum, Mumbai Sarvodaya Mandal, Awami Bharat, SUPRO (Bangladesh), Jana Avakasha (Sri Lanka), Help-O (Sri Lanka)