Despite the biting cold, they came in wheelchairs, baby pushcarts and coaches. They came on crutches and on rollerblades. But mostly they walked in their hundreds of thousands. People of every age, every colour and every race swelled the peace march as a sea of humanity converged on Hyde Park.

Signs of every description waved above the peace marchers as the good-humoured crowds made their way slowly to the rally. The most common one was 'Not In My Name', followed closely by 'Don't Attack Iraq'. Others included 'Bomb Blair, Not Baghdad', 'Free Palestine' and 'Tony, Stop Being Bush's Poodle'. My personal favourite was carried by a bearded man proclaiming: 'George Is The Only Bush I Won't go Down On'. Another said simply: 'Down With Things Like This.'

As we marched down Piccadilly, waves of sounds would course through the miles-long procession, much like vocal Mexican waves. Whistles, drums and guitars turned the whole thing into a carnival in which masks, signboards, floats and gaily coloured hats of every description lent a festive air despite the freezing weather and the overcast sky. Every once in a while, a slogan would be chanted and repeated a few times: 'One, two, three, four! We don't want a bloody war!', and 'George Bush, we know you! Your Daddy was a killer too!'

At Hyde Park, we were among the early ones to arrive as coaches were still entering London from all over the UK. Although the rally began at the scheduled time of 2 pm, marchers were still shuffling their way from the starting points of Gower Street and the Embankment. Some did not make it until 7 pm. But everybody wanted to participate and be counted, and despite conflicting estimates of the size of the rally, even the pro-war Daily Telegraph conceded it was the biggest political march in British history.

The consensus is that well over a million people made it to Hyde Park last Saturday, with many of them marching for the first time in their lives. From old men and women barely able to keep up to babies carried on their parents' shoulders, everybody wanted to make a difference through their presence.

The main organizers of the march, the old left-wing Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) and the Muslim Association of Britain (MAB), were themselves taken aback by the tremendous support they received. Their earlier estimate of 500,000 had to be revised on a daily basis as more and more individuals and organizations said they wanted to participate. Some coaches left distant cities at dawn to make it to the rally. But despite the size of the protest, there was no violence and no arrests. It is a tribute to both the marchers and the police that no trouble of any kind broke out.

Rome reported over a million demonstrators, as did Madrid. There were reports of half a million in New York and San Francisco. Smaller marches took place elsewhere and it is estimated that between six and ten million people showed their disapproval of the coming American war against Iraq. But curiously, the biggest rallies were in the West. The Third World in general, and Muslim countries in particular, were surprisingly mute. Or perhaps this is not really much of a surprise. In our part of the world, we tend to blow off steam in our drawing rooms but could not be bothered to take collective action involving time and effort.

Talk to people in Pakistan, and across the political spectrum, there is white-hot rage at the injustice of the impending attack on Iraq. Articles, editorials and letters to the editors of national newspapers reflect this anger. But in terms of activism and collective action, the response to the American threat to Iraq is virtually non-existent. The truth is that we have little tradition of public protest. Every once in a while, there is a convulsion against the leadership and the result is a change in government, but until that critical mass is reached, we tend to remain supine. The reason is that we don't think we can make a difference.

Our apathy is founded in a feeling of helplessness when confronted with the might of the state. It is also a reflection of the failure of our leadership: where political parties should have been giving guidance, they are silent spectators to the unfolding tragedy. The PPP is particularly guilty: despite its proud tradition of opposing repression, it is now a pathetic hostage to the needs of its leaders. The MMA has been largely silenced by getting a slice of the cake.

Edward Said, the voice of the conscience of many of us who oppose American hegemony, said in a recent article "When will we resist?": "We are on the eve of a catastrophe that our political, moral and religious leaders can only denounce a little bit while, behind whispers and winks and closed doors, they make plans to somehow ride out the storm. They think of survival, and perhaps of heaven. But who is in charge of the present, the worldly, the land, the water, the air and the lives dependent on each other for existence?

No one seems to be in charge... Will no one come out into the light of day to express a vision for our future that isn't based on a script written by Donald Rumsfeld and Paul Wolfowitz, those two symbols of vacant power and overweening arrogance? I hope someone is listening".

The sad truth is that nobody is listening. The leaders of nations most directly affected by the events unfolding in and around Iraq are too busy making contingency plans to 'ride out the storm' to bother trying to alter the course of events. Some hope to profit by the tragedy. Nobody wants to lose out, politically or economically. They realize all too well that the Americans are going to be the winning side, and they are determined to scramble on board.

Pakistani leaders are probably regretting their seat on the UN Security Council as this has forced them to take sides: if they vote against the forthcoming resolution calling for war on Iraq, they will incur the wrath of Bush and Co; if they vote for it, Pakistan's mullas are likely to come out on the streets. Luckily for them, they have the option to abstain.

But no such cynicism sullied the idealism of the marchers in London and other cities. For them, it was enough to do something, anything, to halt the American juggernaut.