Amrit Sharma is a software engineer with one soul purpose in life: to allow love with no boundaries. Sharma, native Indian and entrepreneur, founded IndiaLovesPakistan.com in August 2013 in pursuit his life goal. The India-Pakistan border region of Kashmir is the most militarized border in the world, and has been on the brink of war for decades. Boundless love is not a term widely associated with the relationship between India and Pakistan, but Sharma wants to change this. While many individuals and news outlets choose to focus on fighting and skirmishes in the region, IndiaLovesPakistan.com shows the mutual love and respect shared between Indians and Pakistanis.
Like the idea of boundless love that it is trying to spread, the message section on IndiaLovesPakistan.com is basic. A twitter feed aggregator on a yellow background with three links at the bottom. IndiaLovesPakistan.com pulls tweets that express cross-border appreciation and love for India or Pakistan and displays them in the message section, which is regularly updated. Sharma explained the ultimate goal of IndiaLovesPakistan.com in a Reddit Ask Me Anything he did in mid-August, “We’re seeking to touch hearts, and build connections, that will bring actionable real results on the ground before and after the governments finally get their act together and sort things out on their level.”
IndiaLovesPakistan.com launched in early August and is still working on growing its support base and spreading its message throughout the world. Its short-term goal is to provide a place for Indians and Pakistanis to converse, collaborate, and partner with one another. Aside from making tweets public that would otherwise go unnoticed, IndiaLovesPakistan.com is meant to be a type of digital meeting room that connects anyone who shares the dream of peace between India and Pakistan with likeminded people. Sharma wants individuals on both sides of the border to start viewing each other not as two different sides, but as human beings, what he believes to be the underlying problem the two countries face, “India and Pakistan won’t become friends (lasting peace),” Sharma explains “unless we say hi, respect one another, and treat each other as humans.”
If nothing else, IndiaLovesPakistan.com is inspirationally optimistic. It shows that even without overt government support, the desire to attain peace across the India-Pakistan border is strong. It’s not only up to our policy makers and government officials to initiate peaceful agreements between opposing sides, many times it starts with changing perspective and showing those you might be at odds with respect, decency, and compassion. Expressing your support of a peaceful relationship between India and Pakistan is not limited to the inhabitants of the region anyone can join the conversation by tweeting @indlovespak.
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