PEACE AND CONFLICT STUDIES: Introduction and Rationale


source:THE HIMALAYAN BEACON [BEACON ONLINE]

BY DR SATYABRAT SINHA

(Dr Sinha teaches in the Department of Peace and Conflict Studies and Management, Sikkim University, Gangtok)

When I tell people that I teach Peace and Conflict Studies, it evokes an all knowing reaction punctuated by an exclamation. At a social occasion, someone retorted, so you teach religion, I could only react passively not knowing the basis of judgment. The anecdote is to essentially suggest that most have little idea of the discipline of Peace Studies, Conflict Resolution or as the department at Sikkim University is called Peace and Conflict Studies. Though, living in dangerous times and in our specific location in South Asia, everyone is generally unaware of the essence of the words Peace and Conflict. For many the idea of Peace is internal, philosophical, the peace of mind, for others, it means absence of violence or war. Beyond which unfortunately there appears to be little knowledge on what the discipline might be engaged with. The essay you are reading is an effort towards addressing that knowledge gap and creating awareness about the discipline. Peace and Conflict Studies is now taught at the Masters level in many Universities worldwide and six Universities across India.

A cursory look at statistics would emphasize the dire need for a discipline which would actively make Peace its business. In the period, 1945-1989, after the Second World War and the end of the cold war, there were over 21.8 million war deaths out of which 85% were civilians, people like you and your neighbour, people who are not combatants, not trained to fight or kill. In the preceding period of the two world wars, 1914-1945, often termed the bloodiest century, the civilian deaths were at 50%. So increasingly and despite the ‘Peace’ of the Cold War, we have had a dramatic increase in civilian deaths due to violent conflicts. It would also be pertinent to remember that death is but a fraction of the people injured, maimed, of material damage to civilian economy and the further damage to health and life in direct and delayed ways. These figures are not meant to scare you; rather they are intended to drive home the seriousness of the situation. Further, majority of conflicts today are in the global, East and South, in our part of the world.

It is here that Peace and Conflict Studies (PCS) finds its place. PCS is an inter-disciplinary effort at the prevention, de-escalation and resolution of conflict by peaceful means. In other words, Conflict Resolution attempts to minimize violence in a conflict, overcome antagonisms between adversaries and find outcomes and settlements acceptable to all and which are enduring.

The normative basis of the discipline states that Peace is a natural condition and the prime force of human behavior while war is an aberration. Peace is defined as ‘not violence’. Then, what is violence? We all seem to have an understanding of violence, expression of force whether, physical or verbal. Violence is defined in two ways, direct violence and indirect violence. Direct or overt violence is the visible act of violence when a policeman hits at a protester, when two people are involved in a physical fight.

Indirect violence may not be visible and may be masked in the way society is organized as in through economic inequalities, caste and racial discrimination in which the development potential of an individual is denied. Indirect violence is further of two types, Structural Violence and Cultural Violence. Structural violence is that which limits, prohibits an individual from achieving their potential. Malnutrition, injustice, discrimination, lack of access to education and economic opportunity are examples of structural violence. If a person has the potential to grow up to be a football player and cannot due to preventable reasons like poverty or a preventable disease, it is termed structural violence. Cultural Violence is indirect violence, discrimination and injustice inflicted on a person on the bases of cultural assumptions, color, caste, tribe, race or religion.

Peace is, therefore, defined by the insights drawn from the above understanding of violence. One definition of Peace drawing from direct violence is that peace is the absence of violence or war, this has been termed negative peace. The other definition is that Peace, is of course, the absence of violence or war but also the presence of justice, equality and opportunity, wherein each individual can seek to achieve his ambition, this is called positive Peace. The two definitions flow out of the experiences amalgamated by world society. There have been instances when certain societies were not violent nor at war but due to indirect violence of either the structural or cultural sorts, such societies were denying the rights of individuals from realizing their potential, the apartheid regime in South Africa and caste discrimination in India are two examples.

Now, we will look at the meaning of Conflict. Conflict, is ambiguous and it means different things in different contexts, a debate, a disagreement, an argument, a battle or a state of unrest, turmoil or chaos. Conflict is also a word which is used to characterize situations in different social settings from inner emotional turmoil, psychological processes of individuals to relationships within and between groups, states or cultures. But what can be observed is that conflict usually has a negative connotation, it means the opposite of cooperation, harmony, accord or peace. We also associate conflict with violence and many also use it to mean violence. Conflict is seen as destructive, undesirable and a social aberration to be avoided, contained or eliminated.

From the Peace Studies perspective, this is a rather narrow, one dimensional account of conflict and also unhelpful. It does not allow us to distinguish between different levels of conflicts, its various forms or the many causes involved, nor does it help us think clearly about it. To resolve conflicts, we need to first understand them. Conflict is a multi-dimensional social phenomenon and it is an integral feature of human existence. Conflict is also essential to history, social change and transformation; an example would be the banner of revolt unfurled by the Indian National Congress demanding freedom from British rule. Conflict is also an everyday occurrence, a disagreement, incompatibility of goals, it is natural and unavoidable. The aims of Peace Studies are to find ways to express conflict behavior constructively, essentially through non-violent means. So we define Conflict as arising when parties disagree about the distribution of resources and act on the basis of these perceived incompatibilities.

We will now, briefly, examine the origins and growth of the discipline to inform ourselves better. Peace Studies as a discipline traces its origins to the start of student clubs opposing the civil war in mid-19th century United States. In these early years, both in Northern Europe and North America, periods of wars resulted, in the students pushing colleges to pay attention to the problems caused by war and Peace movements grew out of these efforts. The first department was established in 1948 by the Brethern Chruch in Manchester College, Indiana, United States. In the subsequent years, the two World Wars, Cold War, the threat of nuclear annihilation and the Vietnam War all helped generate the push in the development of Peace Studies.

The historical details and the conceptual clarifications are meant to induce an interest in the discipline. So what then is the relevance of Peace Studies in our lives today, in our Darjeeling- Sikkim region in the 21st century? This would be the right moment to assert that the concern of Peace Studies is everything which involves the question of Peace, just like all aspects related to material welfare lie in the realm of economics. From the means and methods to resolving existing conflicts, identifying and preventing future conflicts, in order to promote a more humane and rational approach to what is an inherent social phenomenon.

In Sikkim, the fractious issue of the hydel projects and its impact on the environment, the episodic communal polarization, the concerns of the survival of cultural identities in the context of increasing economic growth and migration, these are all concerns which can be addressed in a creative nonviolent manner if one is trained in Peace and Conflict techniques and methods. Sikkim’s peace provides a context for generating creative interventions in the conflicts of the vicinity, in Gorkhaland and the Naxal areas, across the national border in Nepal and in many other emerging issue areas like the exploitation of natural resources and its impact on the economy and livelihood for people.

Peace Studies believes that Peace is the correct way and towards such ends it focuses on conflicts- individuals, groups and nations in order to understand and then provide prescriptions for its amelioration. The Department of Peace and Conflict Studies, Sikkim University, offers a two year Masters program and six years Research Program (M.Phil/PhD) in Peace and Conflict Studies. The Masters program organized over four semester’s offers intensive classroom teaching and field studies in the tools of the discipline and over various areas such as Gender, Media, North East India, South Asia, Environment, Development and Globalization. Our methods of instruction are interactive and technology driven, the University provides many opportunities for the students to widen their scope and horizon of thinking through visiting academics from India and abroad, workshops on local conflicts, weekly documentary/movies and talk shows by various experts on their respective fields.

The employment opportunities that would be available to a student with a Peace and Conflict Studies degree are multiple and exciting. The intensive course work will help build skills and the awareness that the academic program will inculcate in the student, will make him/her a value added recruit for any organization working in the political/socio-economic arena. The career options range from civil and state services, journalism, publishing, research, teaching, corporation/consultancies, International Organisations and the NGO sectors. The program strives to educate and sensitize to bring about a difference to the world through any professional path the student may pursue.