Writing for Peace: ‘Peace’ by Poorva Inamdar

The second Writing for Peace feature, ‘Peace’ by Poorva Inamdar, was originally posted at Words and More (Kids) on December 21, 2011.

‘Peace is the only battle worth waging.’

This saying by Albert Camus is true indeed! Peace cannot be fought for; it can be created, developed and secured in the hearts of the world’s millions! It is, of course, an antethesis of war, a term which mainly describes destruction, hatred and cruelty towards all.

The word peace has many synonyms like friendship, love, armistice, union, unity, pacifism … but none of these is able to capture the integrity and emotion of the word ‘peace’ – the bond, the feeling which  seeps deep inside one’s heart and makes it a holy place.

Peace makes its way to develop a sense of tolerance in international relations, strengthening the truce of belief and understanding between them. The word ‘peace’ gained importance in the early 20th century when great leaders like Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King made it the cornerstone  of their strategy to obtain freedom from slavery and imperialism. Mahatma Gandhi won freedom from British Rule for India on the principles of non-violence and Satyagraha. Martin Luther King fought for justice and equality for Afro-Americans and is one of the greatest heroic leaders in the history of modern American liberalism.

Today the concept of  ’World Peace’ has gained recognition worldwide as part of the efforts by the human race to secure safety and understanding between warring nations.

The initiative for World Peace is  now in the hands of the United Nations which is striving constantly, through both conventional and unconventional methods, to establish peace in this world threatened by terrorism, in order to make this world a better place. The dove with an olive branch in its beak, the symbol of peace that was popularized by world famous artist Pablo Picasso in 1949 has been widely used in the post-World War II peace movement.

However, to really bring about world peace, each of us needs to take this mission to heart and come together to make this world a better and safer place!

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