Eqra Foundation

Grateful to see conversations like these emerging around peacebuilding in India and the importance of grounding global frameworks within local realities.

Thank you to Ms Bulbul Prakash for bringing attention to these important questions and for highlighting the invisible labor of grassroots peacebuilding.

Read the full article here: https://blog.prif.org/2025/11/24/whose-peace-which-security-decolonizing-the-women-peace-and-security-agenda-in-india/

Violence is not only physical.

We often imagine violence as hitting, shouting, war, blood. But violence can also be:

• Words that shame.
• Rules that exclude.
• Beliefs that limit.
• Systems that silently decide who matters and who doesn’t.

Violence is any action, word, rule, or belief that causes harm and stops people from reaching their full potential.

Sometimes it looks like:

– A girl being told not to study too much because “her real home is her husband’s house.”

– A student being asked their caste before being offered friendship, housing, or marriage, and then being excluded, humiliated, or considered “less than.”

– A family refusing to rent their house to someone because of their religion, assuming they are dangerous, impure, or “not one of us.”

– A child constantly being told they are “not good enough,” until they shrink themselves to survive.

Not all violence leaves bruises. Some of it leaves silence, shame, or generations believing they deserve less.

If we want peace, we must learn to recognize violence in all its forms: physical, emotional, mental, and structural because peace begins when dignity becomes non-negotiable.

Day 1 of our ‘Peace in Action’ training focuses on building foundational understanding of conflict and peace. Through experiential activities, we explore:

Conflict: Conflict is a natural & inevitable part of human interaction. It is not inherently negative; rather, it signals differences in needs, values, or perceptions that can become opportunities for learning and growth when handled constructively.

Perception: How we interpret situations shapes how we respond to them. Different people may perceive the same event differently based on experiences, beliefs, and emotions.

Violence: Violence includes actions, words, rules, or beliefs that harm people or prevent them from reaching their full potential.

Levels of Violence: Violence can be direct (visible harm), structural (systems that create inequality or injustice), or cultural (beliefs and norms that justify violence).

Peace: Peace is not just the absence of direct violence. Negative peace is the absence of direct violence, while positive peace includes justice, fairness, and conditions that allow everyone to live with dignity.

Ways to Ensure Peace: Peace can be nurtured through peacekeeping (stopping ongoing violence), peacemaking (dialogue, negotiation, and mediation), and peacebuilding (transforming structures, relationships, and attitudes).

Together, these ideas help participants move from understanding conflict as a problem to seeing it as a space for transformation and peaceful action.