Popular acceptance of violent means needs social curbing

Amid growing numbers of mass shooting incidents being reported from across developed countries, there is an environment of fear and anguish all across the world. This is mainly as mass shooting incidents are taking place in schools, parks, places of worship, military bases and even public transport facilities.

There may be different assessment and opinion over incidents of mass shooting. But people need to understand that these kinds of acts should be opposed by the masses in a louder voice to ring in the ears of the policy makers, who actually can stop such incidents. Just imagine the plight of parents whose children were mercilessly killed in a deadliest school shooting incident with no fault of theirs.

How would the family of a man whose throat was slit by some misguided youth deal with his death? Similarly, recent incidents of deliberate, planned bloodshed attempted on our country's jawans, lawmakers and innocent civilians, and the blowing up of government properties worth crores of rupees are a matter of serious concern as they signal the growing culture of violence.

As far as Bharat is concerned, it is very unfortunate that all this is happening in a great country, which is perhaps the only country in the world that believes in the concept of ‘Ahimsa Parmo Dharma', i.e., complete non-violence. It is a very well-known fact that Bharat was once known as the golden sparrow of the world, where man, nature and animals lived in peace and harmony.

It was a glorious era when there was every kind of joy and bliss. This vision of Ram Rajya was sought to be achieved by great leaders like Mahatma Gandhi. But, such a world of divine bliss and happiness can only be established through a righteous value system.

We all know that religious beliefs greatly influence our perceptions and attitudes. Hence, the commonly held belief that violence is justified to obtain your rightful due, or for victory of good over evil, and its corollary that good has to be more violent than evil, needs to be re-considered.

If we as a society encourage such wrong belief, then a person or a group of persons, driven by might, would be considered to be right, and then many young people, who have seen their families suffer a life of suppression and exploitation — physical, social and economic — will look at violence to be the only way to make their voice heard.

Unfortunately, today such youth are continuously being 'misguided' by people and organisations with vested interests, alien ideologies, commercial cinema, television and internet, which justify and glorify the culture of violence.

Gandhi ji showed us that non-violence could be the basis of collective response to achieve social or political goals. He also spoke extensively on the need to imbibe non-violence at an individual level, in thought and action. This can be best achieved through early education within the family first, and then the school, and finally at the level of the society. Education must thus become the central objective in our society, as all subsequent behaviour or action by individuals, would be influenced by it.

Need of the hour is to create a mass awareness among the people to accept each other’s opinion or action and live in harmony with each other. People in power should realize that value-building, especially among the youth, is the biggest call of our times. They must develop such a strong character that even grave situations do not prompt them to take up the course of violence, for violent means never create harmonious ends.

(The writer is a spiritual educator. The views expressed are personal.)