Politics Personal Statement Example 22

Give me the money that has been spent in war and I will clothe every man, woman, and child in an attire of which kings and queens will be proud. I will build a schoolhouse in every valley over the whole earth. I will crown every hillside with a place of worship consecrated to peace. -Charles Sumner.

The future of the world belongs to peace and reconstruction of the broken human spirit. It belongs to those who fight the black dog of violence, to remind the world of the light of day, not to those who are destroying our race through a misconstrued sense of Utopia that will only serve to handicap the future of humanity.

We as a people need to act responsibly to frame the destiny of our future. War is the downfall of humanity.

On the 6th of December 1992, Hindu extremist groups demolished a historically and communally significant mosque in Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh, India; the day I turned four. My birth date from then on has come to be known as ‘Black Friday’.

The resulting riots and subsequent unrest led me to wonder about us as a race and made me acutely aware of the constant conflict that was part of our existence.

Rather than suddenly discovering this flaw in the system, politics and socio-cultural reality was something that I was sensitized to right from the beginning, something that I, like my parents formed very strong opinions on, very early.

I began to wonder how we as a race could be so callous towards our own species albeit perceived to be different from us based on caste, colour, religion, race etc.

This conflict with the human psyche led me to the topic of my research paper ‘The Suspension of Humanity in War with reference to the Holocaust and Partition Violence in India’. In this paper I skimmed the surface of the strategies used for the destruction and annihilation of two vastly different demographics.

I began my research paper as a mission to understand why we as a race are so destructive, to understand the dynamics of war, dictatorship and freedom, but as I progressed, I realized that I was more concerned about the victims, their stories and their (poorly managed) rehabilitation.

Although this realization did not change the direction of my research paper, it altered the course I wanted to take in life. When I began my research paper I assumed that I knew the worst part of both the disasters, but the sheer magnitude of these two horrendous events in Human History caught me completely off-guard.

The indiscriminate genocide, I expected but the manner in which it was carried out, the extent of precision and planning was a lot more than I thought I would have to deal with. Numerous times through my research I wanted to quit because I did not want to accept that that level of inhumaneness was possible.

Today though, I am glad that I fought my way through it as it made me a stronger person and helped realise what I want to do in life. It shifted my focus from Politics, War Studies and Governance to Rehabilitation, Conflict Response, Recovery and Reconstruction.

Finding a way to ease human suffering took precedence over studying the politics and policy making of the perpetrators. I realised that I wanted to be on the ground helping those who were suffering the trauma instead of being the one looking for a solution to an event that had already destroyed life and wrecked the spirit.

Career-wise I would like to find a position within an organisation of international repute, such as the UN, in a role that would put me in direct contact assisting those who are affected or dislodged due to war, civil disharmony or natural disasters.

I look to education as a foundation on which I would like to build my life and affect change around me. I believe that your institution and the course that I am applying to will help me strengthen that foundation and drive me to strive harder towards my goal in being a tiny bit responsible for the betterment of us, the Human Race.