The Delhi blasts, claiming 60 lives as of the last count, and occurring just before the festivities of Diwali and Eid, has shaken the India. Already, reports in India are pointing fingers at ISI or other Pakistan-based organizations though official reports have not made any accusations.

The synchronicity of the blasts implied that they were pre-planned as part of a terror attack in Delhi. Stories of grim death and pain have been interspersed by stories heroism and humanity – of a bus driver noticing a bag, moving the bus to a remote place, getting passengers out and dying in the process, of students near the blasts rushing to help, of support by the Delhi administration.

A certain human character of Delhi has presented itself in this process – a character that is proactive in taking care of each other, and of keeping its human side. That, perhaps, is identified by the slogan in Delhi that says ‘We will not bend’. I take it to mean that we, defined by our humanity, will not bend.

As the administration goes through identifying the perpetrators of these crimes, it is as important that the peace process that has now gained much momentum not stop based on suspicion or owing to actions of small groups with special interests. Such acts of terrorism, irrespective of the identity of perpetrators, are not the results of peace – they are symptoms of inequities, of power structures that can incite humans to engage in such inhuman acts.

The process of peace, the turning off of hatred and de-escalation of military economies will shut down funds and emotions that empower these groups to fund and gather personnel for such activities. These acts of terror are primarily to incite larger civic society into steps based on fear, to provoke domestic pressure to end the peace process. The end of the peace process will rejuvenate militarization bringing back arms to fundamentalist groups – that is their goal.

One of the components of the peace process between India and Pakistan, for example, is to increase people to people interaction and the end of militarized zones. When neighbours can visit parts of India and Pakistan freely, jehadi camps will be difficult to hide – geographically as well as politically. In addition, with increased interactions, it will be more difficult to raise the currency of fear.

Stability is a critical manifestation of a strong relationship between international communities characterized by its continuity under such instances. The relationship between India and Pakistan, mired by posturing, suspicion and incidences, has not had the luxury of stability. In the recent past, though, both countries have gone through a few years of sustained confidence building.

Increasingly, people to people interactions have been attempted to strengthen relationships at the grass roots level. The aim of this latter process is to strengthen protocols so that people can know each other – that we do not need our governments to tell us that ‘they’ are good or bad. We can know ‘them’ and decide for our selves. It is this process that needs to continue, irrespective of suspicion that we have traditionally engendered and that very easily comes back.

This next decade, I believe, will make a critical point in the histories of these two nations – a point defined by increasing understanding that can only be based on trust built by grass roots processes of knowing each other or a point where our past suspicions will cause us to turn back again. The former will take us, perhaps, to a time when it will be difficult for any governmental or other interested agency to rise to power based on hatred towards ‘them’, or we will go back to the nineties, or even earlier.

In any case, what will happen depends on how we, as peoples, react to such instances. How we handle these times of test – as two communities – will define where our peoples will go in this century. How we handle these tests will depend on how those committed to peace in both countries continue to help connect our people, continue to increase our commitment to peace.

Related Links
Decentralization Key to South Asia Peace
Pakistani Peacenik writes on Visit to India
Kids Teleconf Decides: We Can Be Friends
Pakistani, Indian Peace Activists Fast at Rajghat