KARACHI, Feb 5: Speakers at a function stressed on Thursday that the peace loving people of India and Pakistan have to force the governments of the two countries to establish peace.

Speaking at the function, organized by Actionaid Pakistan, said that majority of the people of both the sides wanted peace, but the few vocal groups with vested interest were dictating their terms regarding relations between the two neighbouring countries.

They said that over the years the history and the text books in both the countries had been re-written, according to their agenda, to portray the people of the other side as villains.

They said that the school children in India, and probably would be the same in Pakistan, considered the people from the other country as evils, which was due to the doctored history that they had been made to learn through the books.

They suggested that a joint team of historians and social scientists should sit together and review the books of both the countries to rectify the wrong.

They said that young people, who were in their impressionable age, were more vulnerable and could easily be misguided.

A social activist and chief of Actionaid India, Harsh Mandar, speaking on the challenges of democracy and secularism in India, said that his country which believed in ideals like secularism, democracy and socialism at the time of independence had undergone a major change particularly in the past couple of decades.

He said that people of different religions had been living together for centuries in the subcontinent peacefully and respecting each others' beliefs, but things were changing fast.

He said that it was fortunate that people against secularism and supporting communalism were still not in majority, but were strengthening particularly after the Babri Mosque incident.

He said that the electoral victory of the ruling BJP in Gujarat, after the massacre, proved that communalism and anti- secularism forces were getting stronger.

He said that it was alarming that the communal forces had comparatively more support in the urban educated, middle class and intellectuals than the illiterates and poor.

He said that following the Gujarat massacre "Aman pariwar" has been established and at present was working in more than 300 villages in the state to eliminate the hatred and bring back love and peace.

He said that it was also common that while recalling the tragic events of the 1947 partition, people always recalled the victimization and atrocities that their families or people of their religion had suffered, but at the same time conveniently forgot to tell about the victimization and atrocities that had been committed by their people against the people of other religion.

He said that it was necessary that truth was told to the next generation so that it could make up its mind without any prejudice.

He said that the gender inequalities, social justices, child labour were the real issues of both the countries, but were not being resolved.

Pointing out the lack of social injustice, he said that India has food storage that was more than the three years' of buffer stock, yet millions of people remained hungry there.

He said that on the one hand the economy was growing at 8 per cent and on the other over 100,000 people in New Delhi alone did not have roof to live under.

He said that it was important to see what was being produced, how was it produced and for whom it was produced.

A social activist and an actress, Nandita Dass, said that media of both the countries could play an important role in eliminating prejudices and could easily advocate love and peace.

She said that films could also play an important role in spreading the message of tolerance, peace and harmony. She, however, said that political parties would have to play the central role.

She stressed that the peace loving people should break their silence and come out to make their presence felt so that they could influence the decision making process.

She said that unfortunately people in the subcontinent have not learnt from the history and kept on fighting and hating each other. It was necessary that films be made on true history so that the coming generations could know about their real past.

Action aid Pakistan chief Fauzia Saeed and Khalid Ahmad also spoke.

A few scenes of a film of Nandita Dass, based on the backdrop of the 1947 partition, were also screened, whereas few public interest messages for creating awareness regarding education and environment were also shown.