Invest in Peace, Peace Will Grow

Peace Series-9

By Mathew Mattam

Peace is often spoken about as an aspiration, a slogan, or a distant dream. Yet, in societies scarred by violence, conflict, and mistrust, peace is not merely a dream—it is an urgent necessity. Deben Bachaspatiyam, in his thought-provoking essay “Invest in Peace, Peace Will Grow”, challenges us to rethink how societies allocate resources, define security, and build sustainable futures. His central argument is simple but profound: if humanity can invest heavily in war, security, and conflict, it can also invest deliberately in peace.

Like countless drops of water that eventually form a mighty ocean, Deben argues that even the smallest contribution towards peace can create transformative social change. The world today spends trillions on military establishments, policing, and security systems. Governments justify such expenditures as necessary for protection and stability. Yet, despite increasing investments in security, conflicts continue, inequalities deepen, and communities remain divided. This paradox raises an important question: why do societies invest so much in managing violence and so little in preventing it?

According to Deben, violence is not an intrinsic human condition. Peace is humanity’s natural need, while violence is often a learned behavior nurtured by injustice, exclusion, fear, and competition. When individuals or communities are denied dignity, rights, and opportunities, tensions emerge. These tensions, if left unresolved, can escalate into cycles of conflict that persist across generations.

History repeatedly demonstrates that wars rarely create lasting peace. Military victories may silence guns temporarily, but they seldom heal wounds or address the root causes of conflict. The defeated often carry memories of injustice, humiliation, and loss, creating fertile ground for future confrontations. Violence may destroy lives, infrastructure, and economies, but it also destroys trust—the most essential ingredient of peace.

Peace Beyond the Absence of Violence

One of the most important ideas highlighted by Deben is the distinction between negative peace and positive peace. Drawing inspiration from peace scholar Johan Galtung, he explains that negative peace simply means the absence of open violence. Positive peace, however, goes much further. It represents a society where justice, equality, dignity, and opportunities are available to all.

A city may appear peaceful because there are no riots or armed conflicts, yet if large sections of its population suffer discrimination, poverty, or exclusion, genuine peace remains absent. True peace is not silence enforced by fear. It is the presence of fairness, participation, and mutual respect.

Democracy, ideally, should provide a framework for achieving such peace. However, Deben points out that modern democracies often prioritize state security over people’s security. Governments invest heavily in defence, policing, and surveillance while allocating limited resources to peace education, dialogue, reconciliation, and social cohesion. As a result, the gap between the state’s understanding of peace and the people’s experience of peace continues to widen.

The Economics of Peace

Perhaps the most innovative aspect of Deben’s proposal is his economic approach to peacebuilding. He argues that peace is not merely a moral choice—it is also an economic and political choice.

Modern economies are driven by intense competition. Individuals compete for education, jobs, promotions, wealth, and social status. While competition can drive innovation, excessive competition often generates inequality, frustration, and social fragmentation. Wealth accumulates in the hands of a few while many struggle to meet basic needs. Such inequalities become breeding grounds for unrest.

Deben proposes that societies should consciously create a “peace economy” based on equality, cooperation, collaboration, and human development. Instead of measuring success solely through economic growth, societies should evaluate how effectively they promote justice, inclusion, and social harmony.

From War Budgets to Peace Budgets

The author introduces a bold concept: siphoning resources from the “war basket” to the “peace basket.”

Using Manipur as an example, he illustrates the enormous financial cost of prolonged conflict. Maintaining armed forces, security personnel, logistics, weapons, and operations consumes vast public resources. Beyond these financial costs are immeasurable human costs—loss of life, trauma, displacement, broken families, and disrupted futures.

Imagine if even a fraction of these resources were redirected toward peace education, conflict resolution training, community dialogue, youth leadership, and reconciliation programs. The return on investment could be extraordinary. Every rupee spent preventing conflict could save many more rupees otherwise spent managing violence.

The People’s Peace Fund

At the heart of Deben’s vision lies the idea of a People’s Peace Fund. He proposes a remarkably simple model: if every citizen contributes just one rupee a day for peace, communities can generate substantial resources for peacebuilding.

The idea is not merely about collecting money. It is about creating ownership of peace. When people invest in peace, they become stakeholders in protecting it. Communities can use these funds to train young people in conflict resolution, support dialogue platforms, promote inter-community understanding, and nurture future peace leaders.

For a state like Manipur, which has witnessed decades of ethnic and political tensions, such a fund could help build grassroots capacities for peaceful coexistence. Young people could be trained in mediation, negotiation, and nonviolent problem-solving. Schools and colleges could integrate peace education into their activities. Community leaders could be equipped to address tensions before they escalate into violence.

Choosing Peace

Ultimately, Deben Bachaspatiyam’s message is both practical and hopeful. Peace is not something that governments alone can deliver. Nor is it a condition that emerges automatically when violence ends. Peace requires conscious investment—of resources, time, effort, and collective will.

The world has become highly skilled at preparing for war. It is time to become equally skilled at preparing for peace.

Every society faces a choice. It can continue investing primarily in conflict management, or it can invest in conflict prevention. It can spend resources responding to violence, or it can spend resources cultivating justice, understanding, and cooperation.

Peace, as Deben reminds us, is not merely the absence of war. It is a deliberate act of building a society where every person has the opportunity to live with dignity, security, and hope. And like the drops of water that form an ocean, every small investment in peace has the power to create a more harmonious world for generations to come.