Chapter 10: Peace-Educational Value of The world wide webh: Dialogue and Confidence Building in Cyberspace—An Analysis of Chowk.com

In this chapter I examine the potential role of cyberspace in deconstructing boundaries of mistrust and misperception in South Asia, especially between the two core nations namely India and Pakistan. I proceed from the assumption that the World Wide Web (WWW) provides a space where people of India and Pakistan can come together and interact reflexively and reflectively outside the space and structures provided to them by the nation-state discourse and the educational discourses (among other discourses) in their respective countries.

Focusing on an interactive Web site chowk.com, I purport to examine three aspects related to the deconstructive potential of cyberspace in South Asia. First I examine the nature and working of the multilogue that is taking place in cyberspace. Second, I examine the role cyberspace can play in negotiations between and in renegotiation of contentious bilateral issues and rival political and cultural identities in South Asia. Finally, I aim to see how peace educators can make use of an initiative like this for peace-educational purposes such as teaching with and about alternative discourses of peacemaking.