At midnight on 14 August, several hundred Pakistani and Indian peace activists plan to converge at the Wagah-Attari border with candles, placards, and music, to jointly celebrate Pakistan and India's independence days after a gap of about a decade. 

The tradition of a joint celebration began in 1996, following a 1995 visit to Lahore by the late legendary Delhi-based journalist Kuldip Nayar who met with like-minded Pakistanis. They agreed to organise an annual candle-lit vigil at Wagah border to send a message of peace to their respective countries and across the border.

In August 2018, Kulip Nayar literally handed over the baton to the youth group Aaghaz-e-Dosti, flagging them off as they set out for the Attari border from Delhi. He passed away less than 10 days later, on 23 August.

A long gap

The Pakistani activists will join this border gathering after a long gap, as the authorities have been denying permission for several years. Happy that the permission has finally been granted, Imtiaz Alam, Secretary General of the South Asia Free Media Association (SAFMA) says the aim is to "reiterate our position" calling for peace and dialogue.

The tradition of meeting at the border at midnight on 14-15 August had been "discontinued because of our polluted political environment," he told Sapan News. Without speculating on the reasons, he said that the peace activists "are now getting some space" and hoped they will be able to expand on it.

A list of 150 Pakistani activists has been cleared to go to the border. Some 250 people had expressed interest and sent in their details.

From the Indian side, several groups are headed to the border.

They include the Aagaz-e-Dosti (Start of Friendship) contingent, which departed from Delhi to Amritsar on 12 August, after a seminar addressed by luminaries like Shabnam Hashmi of the rights group Anhad, and educationist Dr Syeda Hameed, founder trustee of the Women's Initiative for Peace in South Asia (WIPSA) and the Centre for Dialogue and Reconciliation and a former member of the National Commission for Women and of of the Planning Commission of India

Both are also members of the Pakistan-India People's Forum for Peace and Democracy launched in 1994, and of the Southasia Peace Action Network (Sapan) started in 2021. The most recent resolution by Sapanexpresses solidarity with the people of Bangladesh and calls for peace and stability in the region.

At the kick-off event on Monday, young people who have been working for peace received awards. They included Evita Das, 32, a Delhi-based researcher and practitioner focusing primarily on land, housing, and caste dynamics. She is also the national coordinator, PIPFPD, and heads The People's Commission and Public inquiry committees.

Warriors for peace

As information about the proceedings accompanied by photographs popped into various online groups, veteran peacemonger Lalita Ramdas, another Sapan founder member, shared warm congratulations from herself and her late spouse, Admiral Ramu Ramdas.

Describing him as "that peace warrior who is at peace somewhere not too far away and smiling and encouraging us to keep doing everything possible to normalise relations with our neighbours," she added, "Even in his final few days, in a semi-conscious state, he kept asking me what progress there had been on Pakistan India relations."

Admiral Ramdas was a staunch proponent of India-Pakistan peace and dialogue. In 2004, he was a recipient of the Ramon Magsaysay Award along with prominent journalist I.A. Rehman of Pakistan for “their reaching across a hostile border to nurture a citizen-based consensus for peace between Pakistan and India.”

"He was most impressed with all you had done," Lalita Ramdas added, addressing Evita. "He used to say we need a hundred young people like Evita!!"

Responded with a clenched fist salute symbol, Evita replied: " May this message reach hundreds of young people. On behalf of those we know and those we don't, we send our salam to both of you. From the hundreds and millions of young people sending ishq bhara salam" (love-filled salute).

Peace activist Ram Mohan Rai from Panipat, one of the main organisers of the event, says that "this journey is a respectful salute and humble tribute to all those people who gave their lives to give us the nectar of freedom and also to those who suffered the fire of partition and sacrificed themselves."

It is inspired by peace activists who have passed on, like Kuldip Nayyar, Mohini Giri, Satyapal Grover and Kamla Bhasin. "This was the dream of Didi Nirmala Deshpande ji, the responsibility of realising which is our collective responsibility."

Another jatha (group) of peace activists under the banner of Hind-Pak Dosti Manch and Socialist Party, India, also began a march from Mansa in the Indian Punjab to Attari border, August 9 to 14.

Dr. Sandeep Pandey who heads this group had also led an Indo-Pakistan peace march from New Delhi to Multan in 2005. He was conferred the Ramon Magsaysay Award in 2002 for the emergent leadership category.

Soft borders

They too will converge at the Attari-Wagah border to light candles on the midnight of August 14-15.

"We urge the two governments to resume the peace process," coordinator Harinder Singh Manshahia, vice president Socialist Party India told reporter Neel Kamal of Times of India.

"Just as Kartarpur Sahib has been opened up for Indian citizens, more such corridors should be opened up, but without the requirement of passport and without any fees," he said. "Ultimately we should have a soft border to allow free movement of bona fide citizens and vehicles of the two countries and all issues should be resolved by dialogue”.

A soft border is also the demand of the Southasia Peace Action Network (www.southasiapeace.com) that I co-founded in March 2021, endorsed by over 90 organisations and hundreds of individuals around the region and diaspora.

Manshahia told Kamal that peace activists from both sides want India and Pakistan to give up nuclear weapons, weapons of mass destruction that America dropped over Japan 1945, which have never been used in any war since.

Pakistan and India need to reduce defence expenditures to release valuable resources for overall development of people and to eradicate poverty as more people die of disease than war in both countries, he added.

Saeeda Diep of the Pakistan Institute of Peace and Secular Studies told Sapan News that her organisation is also planning a joint peace conference in December in Lahore.

The friendship of javelin throwers Arshad Nadeem of Pakistan and Neeraj Chopra of India and the large-heartedness and nobility of their mothers has already warmed hearts around the region and the world. Another young athlete also holding up flags of both countries expressed similar sentiments.

When will the governments realise that it is in their own best interests to follow the people to peace?

(The writer is a peace activist and the founder and chief editor of Sapan News)