This post proves there are those who want peace on both sides of the border. 

Tensions have been rife between India and Pakistan in the last few days. And as a result, social media has also turned into a battlefield with people from both sides of the border spewing quite a bit of hate online against one another. But amongst the din of hate on social media, there have been a few voices of sanity, reminding everyone that at the end of the day we’re all humans and have more in common than we have differences.

One of these voices belongs to Muralidharan Kesavaraj, who wrote a heartfelt note on Facebook which has resonated with people on both sides of the border.

Muralidharan starts out by telling everyone how much he hated Pakistan. He hated Pakistan and by extension, he hated every Pakistani, though he didn’t know a single one personally. It wasn’t until he moved to Dubai for work that he interacted first-hand with Pakistanis.

A chance interaction with a Pakistani taxi driver lead him to change his entire view of not only Pakistanis but the entire country. He realized that his perceptions of the people and country had been colored by three things; politicians, propagandists, and people. And since it was all fake news and herd mentality, he realized that his view had been distorted.

He then talked about the Pulwama attack, talking about how the media and politicians had played a big role in misrepresenting and sensationalizing the entire incident.

We talked to Muralidharan and here’s what he told us:

“The unfortunate incident at Pulwama is being highly politicized and manipulated by the opportunists to create hatred among India and Pakistan. As a common man, I felt it is my duty to expose the propaganda of media and politicians, so [I] came up with this post, while expecting a lot of abuse, but ended up knowing there are a lot of like-minded people [on] either side of the border.”

Murlidharan draws on his personal experiences to talk about how personal interaction, coupled with unlearning years of instilled hatred helped him see that there is more that we have in common with each other and our differences aren’t factors that can’t be overcome. Moreover, his interaction with a Pakistani cab driver opened up his eyes to this very reality.

Murlidharan makes some very powerful statements in his post. He writes:

“History has proven that most politicians are psychopaths, they crave power. They go to any extremes to grab power and secure it. After a certain point, they become so ruthless, they don’t even mind killing a bunch of people to retain their position and to justify the killings they spread propaganda against the particular race, religion or country. Almost all the wars in history ended up killing millions of people and created economic depressions but only helped in retaining the power of politicians and their arms business. Ultimately, they were the beneficiaries.”

“Secondly, media is the biggest weapon for these politicians to create and destroy perceptions. These propagandists are mostly controlled by politicians and help them in fulfilling their agenda. They claim themselves as nationalists but their nationalism is driven out of hatred.”

“Thirdly, people. People are [sheep], led by foxes sitting at the top and can be easily manipulated. [A] majority [of the] population is innocent and can be made to think in a certain way – how the politicians want them to – with the help of propagandists.”

There is no doubting the fact that his words hold immense weight. However, he went on to cap off his post with an equally powerful message:

“Pakistan and India are children of the same mother. India going to war with Pakistan is as absurd as Punjab going for a war with Haryana or Tamil Nadu going for a war with Kerala. Indians and Pakistanis have more in common than differences, we share the same homeland and we understand each other better than anyone else. A human being killed in a war is a loss for humanity, let it be Indian or Pakistani or Soldier or Civilian. Let’s not lose humanity by getting blinded by nationalism.”

“A war is never won. It is just a game by politicians to make us clowns. Let’s all rise above hate and understand [that] humanity is the ultimate truth!”

You can read the entire post here:

In the end, Muralidharan wanted everyone to rise above hate and practice peace instead. His note is indeed heartfelt. What do you think of Muralidharan’s note? Let us know in the comments below.

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Cover Image Source: Muralidharan Kesavaraj via Facebook.com/dailypakistan.com