In Thecla Pereira’s article, “Violence last refuge of incompetent” (Herald, Other Voices, May 20), we get a glimpse of violence – free, harmonious world of tomorrow. But for today violence cannot be discarded in its totality.
We can categorize violence in two major types 1) aggressor’s violence and 2) violence for self-defence or deterrence. It is mainly because of aggressor’s violence the world has come to such a pass. Wars, rapes, ragging, abuse, bullying, lynching, murders, reckless driving, genocide, sadism and jingoism — all are ugly manifestations of it.
Unfortunately, cowards in us glorify violence. A soft spoken, gentleman is being pooh-poohed and branded as a weak person. To add insult to injury, some advertisements and movies are hell-bent on promoting carelessness, callousness and cruelty. As a result, shouting, reckless speed – driving, utterance of foul language and slavery to liquor have been accepted by society as macho qualities. Indeed, these qualities have often been set as a benchmark for getting a certificate of adulthood. But they are invariably very intrinsic qualities of a coward or as Thecla Pereira said – “incompetent”.
As it is said — charity begins at home, we can and should clean out type-1 violence from our mind. We can make our children understand that the limit of one’s freedom is in front of other’s nose. Otherwise, liberty will be lost in a jungle raj where it is restricted only for the fittest brutes. If we can restrict type-1 violence, then we will also automatically be able to check the type-2 as the latter is but a reaction to the former.
As a matter of fact, so long as the type-1 violence rules the roost, we cannot criticize the type-2 which is for self-defence or deterrence. Recently, what happened in Kerala when a girl bobitized an aggressor is a case in point. We should hang every killer rapist (Nirbhaya or Rohtak or Canacona) or at least keep them in jail till their death. This violence is absolutely necessary to counter macho or sadistic design. This type-2 will act as a deterrent to type-1.
