Indus Peace Park India Pakistan is transforming the Attari–Wagah border into a shared space for peace, remembrance, and collaboration.
At the Attari–Wagah border between India and Pakistan, a daily ceremony reflects decades of division, but a Rotarian-led initiative is working to transform this space into a shared international peace park. The Indus Peace Park aims to promote lasting peace, goodwill, and collaboration between the peoples of both nations.
At sunset on the Attari–Wagah border, the ground itself seems to vibrate. Stadiums on both sides heave with chants and drums, flags ripple in the evening light, and soldiers in crested turbans drive their boots into the tarmac in a perfectly choreographed ballet of defiance.
For many visitors, it is their first close look at the line that has divided India and Pakistan for more than seven decades, and at a ritual that compresses pride, pain, and history into a daily performance.
“Imagine if the border was no longer a line of separation, but a canvas for a different story … a place of gathering, friendship, and trust?”
Now imagine a different story at the same border. Just a short distance away, people cross that same frontier not as spectators to rivalry, but as guests in a shared garden. Instead of grandstands, there are trees planted in memory of lost loved ones. Instead of barbed wire catching the light, children from both countries walk together along shaded paths, pausing at a quiet memorial that honours shared history.
This is the evolving vision of the Indus Peace Park.
How the Indus Peace Park vision began
The Indus Peace Park is a Rotarian-led initiative to create an international peace park straddling the border in Punjab between Lahore, Pakistan, and Amritsar, India. Its purpose is both simple and ambitious: to promote lasting peace, goodwill, and collaboration.
The idea was born in 2015 when members of a Canada-US Rotary Friendship Exchange to Pakistan were denied a visit to the Wagah-Attari border due to heightened tensions. One delegate, Kees van der Pol, a Canadian retired high school principal, asked a simple but powerful question about reimagining the border.
That question evolved into a formal project supported by the Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park Association and a global steering committee of Rotarians from India, Pakistan, Canada, the United Kingdom, Kenya, and the United States.
The initiative was officially launched on March 4, 2019, in a Committee Room at the House of Lords in the British Parliament in London.
“From a border that separates, to shared ground.”
The park is envisioned as an “Oasis of Peace,” offering a green space where families, students, and visitors from both countries can gather for reflection, remembrance, and dialogue.
It also serves as a memorial and a promise, honouring those who have lost their lives at the border and recognizing the shared history of the British Indian Army, whose soldiers fought together in both world wars.
As a classroom without walls, the park will allow visitors to learn about shared history, culture, and ecology, and reflect on a time when communities lived and served together rather than apart.
“Peace work is often quiet, unphotogenic, and slow.”
Within the park, a Commonwealth memorial will highlight the shared military heritage of the subcontinent, bringing forward the human stories behind history and emphasizing unity across generations.
Why the Indus Peace Park matters now
The Indus Peace Park responds directly to the long history of conflict and division since the Partition of India and Pakistan in 1947. It offers a new way to commemorate history while creating opportunities for future generations to connect as neighbours rather than strangers.
Rotarians across borders are already building this vision through dialogue, collaboration, and joint initiatives, demonstrating Rotary’s commitment to peacebuilding and conflict prevention.
In the years ahead, visitors may still witness the powerful Wagah-Attari ceremony, but they will also have the opportunity to step into a different space, one rooted in reflection, connection, and shared humanity.
From a line of division to an oasis of peace, the Indus Peace Park invites Rotarians, partners, and communities to imagine new possibilities and help bring them to life.
Next steps for engagement and support
Website links:
https://induspeacepark.org
https://watertonglacierpeacepark.org
If you wish to comment or find out more, please fill out the form below
