Joining a neighbourhood
When I first joined the group, I was not sure what to expect - no different from a feeling that you have when, say, you change home and move to a new neighbourhood. Politics can be a toxic topic in most groups - would I find a fractious group on this forum or would the group actually focus on aspects that typically help bind people together? Would I find a group where some members were tempted to use it for political activism or would it be a group that respected each others' views, even if the views were different. Given that this is a digital platform where members are not physically facing one another, it is easy to make comments that one might think twice about when actually face to face with someone else. As Peace-ing It Together has been defined as a digital neighbourhood, the community-like emotions and characteristics are apparent through the engagement of members on the platform. Off the many different community-like emotions and characteristics that bring people together in neighbourhoods, three stood out for me through my observation and participation in Peace-ing It Together - a strong feeling of Oneness, an emotional cord that is Family Roots, and a deep appreciation of shared Heritage.
Oneness
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A strong sense of Oneness represents a degree of interconnectedness which allows us to transcend boundaries, barriers and differences. In such a frame of mind, it is possible to see beauty and niceness in everything - and even in differences, we see similarities. I saw oneness manifest itself in different ways - what drew attention was not that the places of worship were of two different religions but that there was a common wall (coincidentally this was in Kashmir, a region over which India and Pakistan have fought two wars); that in (Muslim) Pakistan, it was acceptable to allow a railway station to retain its non-Muslim identity even though its name could easily have been changed; Amy Singh's wonderfully simple initiative Daak (literally translated to mean letters) to send postcards across the border to express oneness, cross-border love and commonality; or the thoughts of Arif, a Mumbai taxi-driver!
Family Roots
Many of the members on this forum did not belong to the generation that was actually displaced or who fled at Partition. And yet, clearly through family stories and other forms of remembrances from their parents and grandparents, the emotional cord of family roots were very strong. Two of my informants still have family divided both sides of the border and they spoke about the challenges of being able to keep family ties strong across the border and yet how social media has certainly enabled that in more recent times. From stories narrated by my informants and other members on the forum, it was clear that tales of Partition and of family roots being displaced, are still recollected vividly within these families. Whether it is the usage of modern technology such as VR or photographs of ancestral homes along with stories told of these homes or quite simply a video of the Sikh gentleman going back after 70 years to the home and village where he was born, these stories are so powerful in their emotion that they evoked likes and comments from many others on the forum.
Heritage
Messages of shared heritage created a strong sense of belonging within members on the forum. Whether it was the spreading of a social message about a father - daughter relationship (especially given the 'stigma' of the girl-child in certain sections of the community both sides of the border), or the fact that Hindus were able to retain their identity in Muslim-Pakistan, or cultural festivals being held to discuss commonality between the two nations through literature, art and music.....notice also the posts about such festivals held amongst Indians and Pakistanis in Toronto, Washington DC and elsewhere....the Peace-ing It Together forum was full of such messages posted by members. These were communities within communities being brought together on Peace-ing It Together, which served as a large digital neighbourhood.
Other observations
Domicile
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Pak Ind
Within the Peace-ing It Together digital neighbourhood on Facebook, I did not discern vastly differing views or fractious exchanges. My four informants too were fairly similar in their opinions. There was a high degree of commonality irrespective of country of origin and each individual's domicile. I heard and read statements such as "Peace-ing It Together is a space in between India and Pakistan, it is a no-mans land, belonging to both countries"; and "boundaries are man-made but Peace-ing It Together is a boundary-free neighbourhood" and "anchoring ourselves in this neighbourhood community is important because there are segways that we ourselves may not see".....and other similar sentiments.
Country of origin Overseas
Ethnic origin
My four informants
It was not uncommon to see Indians or Pakistanis posting comments and messages about the other but these were not provocative. Rather, it seemed almost as if everyone in this digital neighbourhood was being particularly careful to ensure that the nature of message posted, the choice of words chosen and the tone was one that made everyone feel safe.
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So to summarise, I saw Peace-ing It Together as a large (digital) neighbourhood with its members living across South Asia, Europe and North America (I counted at least 15 different cities, there could have been many more). I saw and experienced strong emotions as documented above but also others, for example a deep love for sports (cricket, hockey and football) and films (Bollywood is popular across the border too!). There were examples of members who had gotten to know one another through this forum and who were enquiring after each other's health given the prevalence of covid. I sensed a freeness of interaction that comes based on trust and shared interests.
And very tellingly, the impact of this digital neighbourhood was seen through the recent induction of Nayanika and Nadia's friends of Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot origins to this forum - that region has also seen a lot of political strife but these inductees will soon introduce others of similar ethnic origin and we'll see this community co-existing with Indians and Pakistanis on this very platform. One large digital neighbourhood with members of different ethnic origins physically residing far and wide but brought together with community-like feelings and a shared purpose - of building bridges of love and peace across (contentious) borders!!