Monday, September 15, 2008

Violence - Its Goals

Let us study what violence really is, why we become violent, and what we achieve by that. Violence really means unlawful exercise of physical force, or may be even verbal abuses. Now, let us analyze why we become violent – mostly it has been seen that we become violent when we do not get what we want, or what we demand, whether our demand is right or wrong is a different matter. May be, in this context it can be said that, at least sometimes, we do get excited and resort to violence without having enough reason or provocation. However, it is equally true that, sometimes, there really is no other way to present our demands.
Sometimes I feel that violence may be justified for instance when our demands are genuine, but, even after many request they are not given an ear to, so we just have to resort to violence, in order to make ourselves be heard by the authorities concerned. It is only our frustration in not being heard that makes us take up the cudgels in a violent manner. However, if we coolly analyze the achievement after a lot of hullabaloo we will surely notice that, we rarely return with a long standing solution to our problems. Our bouts of violence only lead us to discontent, discord, destruction and even death. Thus if we analyse with an attitude of understanding, we will mostly realize that violence is not a real achiever.
Another flaw in being violent is that, when we are violent, we can only plan destruction, this is because our violent minds do not remain at all balanced, and so we can not plan our strategy in the right perspective. We only destroy personal property, and burn public property, shout slogans and abuses, but, we hardly ever wait to see whether all this will have any impact at all. In India of course, at times, it is felt that only violence is heard by the concerned authorities because, the Government or the people who matter only understand this language of violence. The authorities are conveniently deaf and dumb to the genuine demands of their workers so, the only recourse that appears feasible is violence, and the irony of it all is that, Government often succumbs to violence, thus showing the general public the way to achieve their ends. This is true but, it is not as it should be in a civilized State. Let us just think and look for any permanent achievement that we might have made by the instrument of violence, in the last few decades. The scene of violence was seen at its worst in Punjab – with the demand for Khalistan looming large, when thousands were killed and many more were rendered homeless. This violence was being used on the innocent public just to frighten the Government to accede to the demands of the violence. This scary scene lasted for several years, but where is the result, where is that Khalistan they fought for? In this same way, extreme violence is rampant in Kashmir with no one knows what plan in mind but, I dare to say that here also, achievement is not likely to be anywhere near the target. So, let us understand that violence is a very poor achiever. We have just studied two achievements of violence which are nowhere near their goals, and on the contrary we see with our own perception the achievement of Non-Violence. This Non-Violence had the strength of destabilizing the British Empire from its foothold and roots in India. Oh! what an achievement by practicing the art of non-violence.
The worst form of violence we see in wars. These result in massive destruction and myriads of deaths, but what is the real finale? Whether it is the victor or the vanquished, both sides of the warring factions find themselves losers in their homes. The result of a war on both sides is pure devastation, this is the ultimate gift of the war. On the contrary, we see Mahatma Gandhi’s movement of non-violence what a great and permanent gift he has won for the country, earning the independence for the country is no mean task done.
It may thus be clearly understood that though sometimes, violence may yes, I say may give some results but those results can never be far reaching and permanent. This is mainly because when we resort to violence, we are not planning our modus operandi with a clear mind, methodically and rationally. Our activities are sporadic and irrational and are thus, never really result oriented. Thus we must realize that whenever we want something we must plan our approach, be patient, hard working and non-violent. violence may sometimes appear to be the only means of reaching out for an objective but, this achievement cannot be long lasting. We must set our goals with a serene mind, plan our program and only then go ahead towards our target. Resorting to violence depicts in us a lack of cohesion and patience and thus, the other side i.e. our adversary gets the better of us and we are left in the lurch –as losers.

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