“an eye for an eye
can make the whole world blind.”
Mahatma Gandhi,in these golden words ,had tried to show mirror to the
very existence of a problem that is pushing the human race to its doom and
problem is of violence shown up in wars,conflicts,revolutions,household affairs
and so on.this messenger of non violence had tried to preach through his deeds
but still it needs to be seen that whether the world followed his basic
teaching of non violence or if not,then how can this teaching be made true in
the world context?
Violence in itself is the action and tendency to harm and disturb the
physical as well as mental state of others.even when the world is context of
definition of violence ,it’s the individual at the end who bears the brunt the
most
The whole issue of
violence and bloodshed is coming on table when there is a cursory look at the
affairs of today’s world.whether it be Iraq Syria Ukraine nigereia Somalia
Myanmar or sri lanka ,at everywhere violence is taking place ,sometimes in the
name of god,sometimes in name of ethnicity and sometimes in name of
nationality.behaedings done by Islamic state is the most cruel form of violence
,putting humanity to shame.
To ascertain
the whole concept of violence,it needs to have a look at the various causes of
perpetuation of violence and along with that ,what had been done by the world
community to stop this menace?the more important issue is to look at the
solutions to stop this dreadful human ritual of violence?
The most dreadful and most common cause of violence comes from the
deprivation of political rights and freedom to a group or community.it
literally mena sdiscrimination by the governace of a particular nation
state.bangladesh mukti bahini rise of 1971 was one apt example of this when the
discrimination by Pakistani government in respect of bangle people had given rise
to the birth of a new nation.islamic state of today is also the result of
exploitation of genuine grievenaces of sunni tribesmen of Iraq by some unlawful
elements.
Political disctrimination as
a cause of violence ,further takes its fuel from a much deeprooted economic
inequality.history of mankind is replete with the very fact that when a group
of people is divided between haves and have nots,then the have nots wwill tend
to look at haves as the reason for their deprived quality of life.french
revolution,marked and justified by guillotine massacres was a perfect testimony
to this fact.maoism of today which preaches that” power flows from the barrel
of gun” is all about the picking up of arms to ward of economic
deprivation.2010 incident of naxalites killing 76 indian crpf personnel is just
the iceberg of brutality of this ideology.
Modern arms and equipments added fuel to the fire of violence.its no
longer than world war1 when the britishers introduced the tanks and tianman
square incident of 1989 was marked by introduction of tanks on civilian
roads.its hard to forget the plight of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.antony klashnikov
47 have been now a days the most dreadful weapon in the hands of violence
mongerers.moreover arms affordability of today have made the weapons available
in the hands of youngsters resulting in gun fire incidents like of usa and
Canada.
The
whole web of violence becomes murky when the countries start adopting it as a
tool of foreign policy.it means that countries offering arms,technical and
monetary support to the destabilizing elements in othe country.some countries
practiced this openly like usa did by supporting mercenaries in cuba in 1960s
and some practice it in clandenstine like pakistan’s support to terrorist
activities by allowing them happen on their soil.such type of policies along
with easy availability of arms ensure that violence will never ever be stopped
by those who have responsibility to stop it.
Violence can also have its new meaning in the form of high crime
rates.social deprivations,unemployment,broken families,gender stereotyping and
discrimination and many more are its causes.the root cause of this hole concept
lies in the prejudices and stereotyping that is psychologically ingrained in
the minds of a generation.dowry violenece,communial riots,untouchability are
all parts of this psychological mindset.
Though the situation is grim,when it comes to the issue of violence,yet
still there is light at the end of this dark tunnel.but much more needs to be
done to go aong the path of light in tunnel and
that too in time so that view of light not get lost in this ever
inceasing darkness.
Political
participation of each and everyone in the growth and development of a nation
state will be the most important cconcept for stopping the tendency to violate
others.it is possible by way of democracy with the instreument of separation of
powers among executive,legislature and judiciary along with the possible system
of checks and balances among these three organs of government.regular elections
will act a sgrievance redressal system and good governace will help the people
to gain the fruits of very development.arab spring and umbrella revolution of
hongkong ,both have the ideal of democracy dear to them.the whole vision of
this political aspirations were expressed by mahatma Gandhi,if the message
given by him for india,just extrapolated for world-“I shall work for an india
in which the poorest shall feel that it is their country in whose making they
have an effective voice……..this is india of my dreams.”
But the political
solution of violence will not hold its meaning if its economic side is
ignored.economic solution of violence comes from noble principles of
modenisation,equity,self reliance and growth.the gdp,or the size of cake,should
not only be bigger but it should be cut into equal pieces.this is practically
possible by vocational education,on the
job skill training,shg bank linkge,financial inclusion,pushing the growth of
start ups,waste land regeneration along with its distribution to landless
,frugal technology use to make day to day things cheaper and of high
quality,pushing for a robust security market in third world and much
more.countries of today are awakening to their responsibility of caring a
person from ‘womb to tomb’ and economic well being of all is emerging as main
priority of today’s govts.
Its often said by many security experts that where there are conditions
of any violence,there violence is bound to occur sonner or later.political and
economic well being are one prt of solution while other part will come through
an effective control on supply on arms.this needs collaboration of each and
every country.defence budget of many nations is reaching upto 30% of their
total expenditure.this money can be effectively directed to build more
schools,hospitals .research centres and much more.first step in this direction
can be taken by all nuke weapon armed countries including permanent 5 by effective
disposal of their nuke weapons.then stringent control should be applied on
small arms smuggling by a treaty or a convention on border posts surveillance.a
license duly authorized by gove should be necessary for an exporter prior to
exportr of any arms.
Along with
the arms control,the issue of international support to violence lso warrant
urgent attention.its quite unfortunate that mena sto solve this problem are
available with us in form of united nations,yet one fails to use this
institution for solving the problems arising on world stage.first step towards
the effective use of institution of united nations can come via reform of
security council of united nations.india brazil germany japan and a few
countries from Africa needed to be inducted in permanent membership.only
then,its decision can gain international support.after this ,efforts should be
to make this organization financially independent like by imposing tax on use
of international waters etc.this institution has to take strict actions against
those countires which practice violence as state policy ,first as a warning and
second as a military action if needed.the whole principle of responsibility to
protet needs to be in correlation with present times.
After
all the reforms in political ,economic,international affairs system,it’s the
individual who has to be ground of change to effectively combat the ideology of
violence.education is the most important tool of such change.the education has
to teach the young students that a mere change in olour appearance and beliefs
does not mean the existnec of animity.for this,it’s the capability of reasoning
which needs to be there and love and affection of mother can act as vehicle for
such reasoning.teaching children about the lives of great
personalities,thinkers and their applicability in day to day life can bring an
unprecedented change for the whole humanity.
Having said
that ,its quite clear that though the violence happens because of political
deprivation,economic inequality,unlimited supply of arms,wrong foreign policies
and individual’s psychological stereotyping yet it can be effectively combated
with democracy,economic equality,arms control,strong international institions
and by the agency of education.
Violence is a problem and most dangerous is the tendency of violence
which is seen all around in modern world.this tendency is not only harmful but
its fruits are also poisonous.as said by mahatma Gandhi “victory attained by
violence is tantamount to a defeat as its momentry.”its hopeful that worl will
not get blind by the poisonous dust of violence and success of humanity for the
achievcement of higfhest ideal of peace will be gauged from the scene of a
little girl coming out of school in remote area with a smile on her face and
mind sharper than yesterday.
