After the horrific 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks, India and Pakistan hatred was at its peak. And around the first anniversary of the attacks, jingoistic fundamentalism had brought two of the world's youngest nuclear powers to the brink of a catastrophic confrontation.

It was in this atmosphere that the world's biggest English newspaper, The Times of India joined hands with the biggest media group in Pakistan, the Jang Group in a historic cross-border media partnership to brave the fundamentalists and launch a courageous new people-to-people public relations movement.

Aman ki Asha (The Hope for Peace) harnessed the power of an ancient, common musical, cultural and literary heritage with artistes, musicians, poets, writers and thinkers from Pakistan crossing over to India to perform jointly on a common stage.

Eventually, the overwhelming mass popular response created a community of peace-lovers that would stand defiantly against the blood lust for war. Today Aman ki Asha is the brave voice of a growing peace community on both sides of the border and has even been recognised by governments outside the two countries.

Most importantly, the reopening of talks between the two governments has reaffirmed the power of public relationships over the compulsions of the state.

Contrary to conventional PR strategy for a softer issue like this, we decided to wage peace as jingoistically and blatantly as the perpetrators of hate. The 1st of January saw the courageous slogan ‘Love Pakistan’ on the front page. Subsequent slogans like ‘Sometimes peace deserves a war’ drove in the point even more. As if words were not enough, what followed was a series of heavily advertised music concerts with Pakistani artists bravely joining hands with Indian legends to play to packed Indian crowds. After this, the Poetry and Literature festival was launched with writers, poets, thinkers and journalists from both sides talking to Indian audiences. Lastly, a schools PR programme saw Indian students writing peace messages on handkerchiefs to form a friendship chain that'll actually stretch all the way to children in Pakistan. And today, a Trade & Commerce convention is on the anvil.

The movement sparked off a raging debate on friendship and understanding versus a more populist call for vengeance. But today it has:- Music & screen icons on both sides joining the cause- Massive editorial and media PR worth over US$ 2.5 million- Commended by governments around the world- Cross border Business & Trade Convention on the anvil- Over 40 user - generated videos- Over 150 blogs and over 15,000 dialogues- 5 Facebook communities - 12 large Music Festivals- 4 Poetry and Literature Festivals- ONE RENEWED HOPE FOR PEACE