Staff Reporter
DIMAPUR, APRIL 30
Peace is once again the focus of discussion by a local organization – the People’s Forum for Peace (PFP) of Dimapur during a workshop on Saturday here at Hotel Acacia.
The workshop in collaboration with another motivational group- Peace Channel, focused on the theme ‘networking for peace to transform the world.’
According to Professor KP Avikasit, a retired professor of Nagaland University, peace has many connotations. He called upon the community to ‘walk together and not alone towards attaining peace.’
Quoting ‘Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam” (‘the world is one family’), a Sanskrit phrase which was a concept instituted by India, Professor Avikasit explained that although the phrase denotes a family, “we keep on fighting in the name of class, caste, creed, religion etc.”
Correlating the phrase to the concept of unity at home and family, the scholar said, peace starts at home and “if we, as individuals, are comfortable with ourselves, we will be comfortable with others too which will be a start for initiating peace.”
Referencing the workshop’s theme ‘Networking for peace to transform the world,’ Professor Avikasit said that technology ‘destroyed the boundaries among countries who proclaimed themselves into sharing a cold relation.’
“We have to create an identity to be a world citizen and before transforming the world we should transform ourselves. It is not about what you know but who you know,” the professor said. “There is no reason to how we cannot change the world and contextualized peace as a state of ‘harmony, silence of guns and absence of wars.”
He also observed, “Society is cynical toward politics, a field most opine to a ‘dirty game meant only for dirty people when we are the ones who encourage such games to be played along.” In that argument, he said, cynicism is ‘most dangerous’ to peace. Peace cannot be kept by force as it can only be achieved by understanding and to do this “we must start from the family which will connect to the society, then the nation and ultimately to the world,” Avikasit said.
Acting President of Dimapur Muslim Council, Md. Ahidur Rehman, also a speaker of the workshop spoke on the crimes committed by members of the Muslim community in the past and the solutions brought about to stop such menaces through the efforts of the community.
It is crucial to have a proper network among communities to bring about ‘understandable peace and if we are at peace with good network then there can be transformation,’ Rehman said.
Starting his presentation with an exercise illustrating the different views of people, editor of The Morung Express, Dr. Akum Longchari said that the human understands the world differently in their own perspective.
Emphasizing on the topic, Longchari said that individuals should take a step further beyond just networking with one another within a society. The society today is confused with ‘one truth or many truths,’ according to own perception. The biggest challenge to the Naga society is organizations being confined only within its circle in spite of having so many other organizations, he said.
‘While everyone is busy working for own’s organizations, only few are actually working for re-construction of the society.’ He also opined that the society continues to struggle with peace as not many were working on ‘reconstruction’ in spite of developmental changes.
Citing the example of a traditional hearth with three stones, the learned scholar contextualized peace as a pot placed in the fire with three equal stones: resolution, reconciliation, and reconstruction are the three stones without which the society will collapse, he said.
Dr. Longchari was also of the view that the society is confused as to whether ‘truth of power’ rules or the ‘power of truth’ rules. He said, it is not just the flow of relation or interpretation but it is the idea that brings the people together.
