As much as I respect the intentions of those who follow in the footsteps of Mahatma Gandhi within the M.K. Gandhi Institute for Nonviolence (GINV), I feel compelled to disagree with a few points in Dr. Manoj Jain’s 10/14/05 guest column (and no, I’m not with the Institute of Violence).
How did Dr. Jain comes up with factoid #1- “In the 21st Century, violence has become standard issue”? Violence has been around since man crawled out from under a rock - and the 21st century is no more violent than the 20th century (or the 19th, 18th, 17th, etc).
Factoid #2 is equally as mysterious. While inequality, injustice, poverty and racism can cause violence, I am mystified why didn’t he include religious extremism as THE major source of violence (The Crusades, Holocaust, Muslim Extremism). I don’t remember any poor people hijacking airplanes, much less blowing themselves up in restaurants.
The far left (of which I include the Gandhi Institute) in the past has had a habit of being apologists for those who wish to advance their grievances through the use of violence. In the world of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) like the Gandhi Institute, violent acts against innocent civilians are considered acts of “desperation” that deserve to be understood, rather than meted out a measure of justice.
One day the world may be better situated to accept the concept of non-violent resistance as the means to conflict resolution, but until then, I prefer to keep both feet planted in reality.
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