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HOW DO WE RESPOND?
Vidhi Jain presents her view of ahimsa in the context of modern day terrorism
UNICEF AND WHO REPORTS Violence has invaded human society in confirm that since 1990 sanctions on the form of war and terrorism; it is Iraq have killed more than one million threatening us in every moment. people, over half of them under five. A Whether you kill someone by country where now the most serious discreetly planting a bomb or kill weapon for mass destruction is only a someone after an open declaration of bottle of water tainted with disease, attack, it is largely innocent people where for the price of a hawk bomber who suffer. clean drinking water can be provided to Terrorism is the result of hatred, almost one and a half million people sown by dictatorship, bondage and for life.
human exploitation, enslaving and Let us consider the world that brutalising people for financial future generations will inherit from us. interests. All this comes back to haunt It is a world of deep-seated fears us in the form of fights for freedom, for haunting us endlessly, a world full of justice, for identity, for revenge. War is uncertainty. It is a world full of nothing more than terrorism made military and economic terrorism, popular. War is also the manifestation religious bigotry, unimaginable of the desire of a small elite to extend genocide, trans-national mass murders their power or to seek revenge. and senseless slaughter. A world that Whether terrorism is violence by has 30,000 nuclear weapons. A world religious fundamentalists and full of misery, with 50,000 people resistance movements, or it is violence starving to death every day. A world in the name of a political or holy war that has faced 35 major wars and is by recognised governments, it is preparing to face many more. A world unjustified because it results in that reminds me of these words from carnage. After 9/11 September, George the Bible: “And the sins of parents Bush said, “Either you are with us or shall be visited on the heads of the you are against us." Bin Laden said, children, even unto third and fourth “The world is divided into two sides - generations."
the side of faith and the side of With due respect to the intelli- infidelity." We are already torn in two gentsia, this is not a senseless dramati- worlds, only to be massacred further! sation. We are all from different We all retaliate. But what kind of countries, speak different languages, retaliation is it where an entire country have different lifestyles and cultures, is punished for the crimes of a few practise different traditions; but we all determined, hard-headed criminals as live in a world of fear and insecurity in the recent history of Yugoslavia and 4 Jain Spirit September - November 2003
Afghanistan. Rushing to judgment and acting outrageously by viciously murdering thousands would mean repeating mistakes made in the past. How correct was Mahatma Gandhi when he said that an eye for an eye will only make the whole world blind. Evil cannot overcome evil. War is evil and people do not win wars - people die in wars.
Violence in any form is illegal, immoral and downright impractical. If retaliation worked, the Israelis would be the world's most secure people. Kill only one terrorist and a hundred innocent people will be killed, and there is a good chance that several future terrorists are being created. A war only Sows seeds of further terrorism and further wars. One gives birth to another. The response cannot be massacre and bloodshed in the name of peace and justice, as it can never bring a peaceful tomorrow. Violence will only escalate when the response to it is violent. It will only end everything: every flower, every tree, everything we love, our children and our children's children.
For once, let us ask ourselves: what is it that we want to achieve - security or revenge? They are mutually exclusive. We can either feel secure or avenge ourselves
For once, let us ask ourselves how much savagery we are going to commit in the name of peace and justice.
Photo: Jason Powell
Jain Education International 2010_03
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