On the surface, a lot of districts in Punjab appear to be quiet and prosperous. Life is well-organized, and the absence of headlines can be equated to harmony in society. However, there is a lot of structural and psychological pressure beneath this calm. Mandi Bahauddin’s success with the diaspora and its description as a “Mini Europe” demonstrates how unsolvable conflicts, immigrant movements, and social pressures influence the lives of a community and an individual.
There are decades of unresolved property, honor, and family feuds in most regions, which have been transmitted over time without any conflict. Such disputes seldom get resolved in any formal way, cases are often not registered, and local institutions do not have the capacity or are under pressure to avoid informal systems. The culture of silence that results is not an indication of peace; it is a survival tactic. Violence, like the recent tragic shooting during a wedding that claimed the lives of many people and injured others, does break this silence sometimes, and official attention is drawn to it, though it hardly becomes a subject of wider consideration in society.
Migration is a psychological and actual way out of families. In Mandi Bahauddin, sending one of its members to another country is not only perceived as a means of economic growth but also as a means of obtaining social status and security. Those unable to obtain such opportunities find themselves in a vulnerable social situation; some of them use illegal, unsafe pathways, commonly called dunki journeys, which have been reported by investigative news stories and police. When educated young people relocate overseas, they tend to break off permanently, abandoning societies where unresolved conflicts and social strains remain unresolved.
These dynamics can be perceived through the prism of peace psychology. It teaches us that it is not just the lack of apparent struggle that would allow us to be at peace with one another, but justice, trust, and emotional safety. With conflicts not resolved, social systems do not mediate in conflict, there are few opportunities for youth, and even apparent peaceful situations are in fact weak negative peace. Disillusionment, silent grief, and mental fatigue appear, which in some cases are expressed in aggression, at other times in solitude and silent desolation. Societies get to understand how to move through an intricate landscape of honor, danger, and survival, and violence patterns get an informal sanction, even though they may not be on paper.
The effects of social and psychological impacts are not limited to families. However, the young people get the lessons of conflict in their blood, as they learn that hard work and education do not necessarily keep them safe or dignified. Migration is not only required but also a status, and the left-behind population is forced to deal with daily life out of fear, lack of opportunity, and rooted expectations. The difference between economic success in foreign countries and domestic insecurity can breed frustration and lack of social cohesion, which can cause cycles where structural forces feed off their psychological effects.
This fact does not belong only to Mandi Bahauddin; however, the example of the district reflects larger tendencies in the whole of Pakistan: unresolved conflicts, poor institutions, social silence, and economic and psychological factors that motivated migration. Violence is a headline only on rare occasions, and the day-to-day stressors, such as the fear of revenge, absence of justice formalities, and demands to perform well in overseas destinations, all influence the communities to live, and the way the youth perceive their future. It is imperative to be aware of these dynamics, not to report sensational reports, but to learn what peace really demands.
To help cope with these challenges, first and foremost, interventions of a social, economic, and psychological nature are necessary. Frustration can be decreased by encouraging young people to participate in conflict-resolution programs and educational campaigns that would educate them about the importance of negotiating, managing emotions, and being responsible citizens to avoid relying on migration as the sole way of solving problems. Enhancing the local mediation structures, such as community councils or panchayats, will offer legal channels of resolving disputes, which will help to curb the use of informal and harmful mediation methods. The incorporation of mental support provides counseling and guidance to the affected families to come to terms with the generational conflict and social stress. Policies that view the needs of communities as a whole or put together economic opportunities, institutional trust, and psychological support can help change fragile negative peace to sustainable positive peace.
Peace psychology makes us remember that true peace cannot be measured by the fact that there are no headlines and there is money coming in. It is quantified by how communities live with dignity, trust, and emotional security. Such states are weak in case structural pressures and unresolved conflicts still exist. The example of Mandi Bahauddin provides some insight into these underlying fissures, showing that seemingly peaceful areas might harbor violence behind the curtain and that being aware of and concerned about such trends is crucial in the process of creating long-lasting social peace.
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Zahra Rahim is a seventh-semester BS Applied Psychology student at the University of Management and Technology. Her academic interests include psychological well-being, social behavior, and the application of psychological insights to everyday life and contemporary issues.