In the vastness and unending dimensions of the gigantic universe, consisting of zillions of galaxies interspersed with myriad number of interstitial bodies like stars, asteroids, and some devastating blackholes accompanied by abyssal silence, we are bestowed with a unique planet called Earth and more precisely “the Mother Earth” comparatively minuscule in size and remotely positioned.
What is more intriguing and fascinating about the Mother Earth is its aptly peculiarities to sustain and nurture the seed of life in diverse forms by subtle conglomeration of entities that it possesses and in turn make it the crème de la crème place, in attempting to comprehend the bounty of Life.
Now the vision of being surrounded by unknown life-less space around us and infinite intervals of heavenly bodies having no signs of life as far as our current knowledge can enchant us to explore, the real emphasis of mankind in particular, should be to resolve the conundrum related to preserving and flourishing the tree of life.
In the pioneer era of human origins’ on the earth, the continued struggle of man paved a way to habitat this planet by his constructive instincts to manipulate and curiously ponder upon everything he knew, his experiences acquired over the period of time passing on to generations thus attributing himself as “king of biological kingdoms”.
Once the worldly life drastically improved, man started living a highly sophisticated life establishing communes around themselves into organised settlements called ‘the Great Civilizations’ around 3100 B.C. With the passage of time, the odyssey of being egalitarian in status now profoundly started vanishing and the miseries based upon the socio-economic status of an individual demarcated the dystopian aura of our newly emerging societies’.
Moreover, the gradual shift of man being a seeker of information to possessor of materialistic things on the basis of his ethnic qualities proved discordant; competing with other ethnic groups caused clash of interest for notably: power, access to resources, or fertile territory and the further implications resulted into the belligerent approaches of native societies to manifest the inborn sense of superiority over the others therefore it resulted into the birth of conflicts.
In the history of human civilizations, battle and wars have had a significant impact. The Hundred Years’ war between England and France(1337-1453), The Pequot war(1634-1638) between the Pequot and Mohegan tribes, The English war(1642-1651), The American Revolution(1775-1783), The American Civil War(1861-1865), Word War I(1914-1918), World War II and the Gulf War. According to The New York Times report, at least 108 million people were killed in wars only in the twentieth century and the overall estimation for the total number of people killed in wars throughout all of human history range from 150 million to 1 billion. Wars are not only responsible for consuming precious human lives, but also the huge economic wealth of the nations like in Gulf war approximately $76 billion dollars, in Vietnam war costed $500 billion dollars and in World War II, almost $3 trillion dollars were squandered.
Amidst era of globalization, the desiderata of a common man irrespective of his geo-political identity is to achieve the real pursuits like the coalesce of cultures, spread of technology and need for higher standards of living and ultimately establish the universal peace but still the war drums are resonating that may escalate to unintentional military bellicose between the nations by their self-centred approaches and policies.
The modern-day full-blown wars cannot commensurate with the wars occurred in the past as many nations possess the deadlier nuclear weapons and when extrapolating the nuclear holocaust, the scenario seems very challenging for the whole humanity en masse. A research publication by William Daugherty and Barbara Levi et al. at Princeton University estimates the fatalities related to nuclear fallout of a single “100-Megaton” bomb can be more than 10 million deaths. At present, there are about 13,410 active bombs in the world of somewhat similar capacity and the amount of destruction that may be caused by these arsenals is far beyond the comprehension.
Subsequently, let’s now contemplate upon the fact that how to stop or avoid the wars? If we analyse the main reason of conflict among the nations then unresolved territorial disputes are on top of the list. When we talk about disputed territories, ‘The Kashmir Dispute’ is classified as the buzzword and regarded as the world’s most worrisome dispute followed by other territorial disputes around the world. A German political scientist Egbert Jahn, referred Kashmir as ‘Nuclear Flashpoint’ and one of the most dangerous centres of conflict in world politics since the founding of the states of Pakistan and India in 1947. Different parts of Kashmir are currently occupied by India, Pakistan and the People’s Republic of China, as each country owns the tag of Nuclear power and the hostile situation always prevail among these nations to gain or control the disputed territory.
Until now, there have been three major wars between India and Pakistan over the state affiliation of Jammu and Kashmir: in 1947-49, 1965, 1999 and Indo-Chinese border war of 1962. Alongside the border disputes, since the partition of British India, the people of Jammu and Kashmir actively demanded the right to self-determination that was also promised by United Nations (UN) Resolution at its interference in 1948. Since then, in various demonstrations of freedom struggle, there are numerous reports of Human rights violations in Jammu and Kashmir resulting into the mass killings, enforced disappearances, torture, rape and sexual abuse to political repression and suppression of freedom of speech by various government backed security personnel and militant groups that have been accused of severe human rights abuses against Kashmiri civilians.
Additionally, the continuous hatred and pandemonium created by Political stakeholders all over the world on the basis of pseudo-patriotism, religion, nationalism and expansionism to remain in power at stake of breaching the universal peace and the large-scale misuse of information technology to flout with the freedom of others are the real challenges for the cessation of hostilities between the nations in 21st century.
The united Nations must show perseverance and conform its principles to cease and save the succeeding generations from the scourge of war, to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights, dignity and worth of human person irrespective of gender, equal rights to small and large nations, provide positive ambiance for international law to be maintained and promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom perspective.
At last, the accentuation based on rational thinking is to work for prosperity and eradicate some real challenges like food security problems, inclusive growth, future of employment and work, health, climate change and so on to restore the biological glory of mankind on earth. As the world witnessed that COVID19 pandemic, the ‘‘common enemy’’ of mankind, a global challenge that can only be solved through global solutions.
Aaqib Javid Dar is a Student of M.Sc. Bioinformatics at Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi.
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