The risk of solving a problem by means of violence

Problems can be solved my multiple ways. One of the ways to solve them is by temporary violence or by threat of violence. It is said that, in democracy, the right of violence is only with the police. They do solve certain problems as well. We can't deny that. Even the threat of violence is a big thing and many problems can be solved by this way. If the threat is created by a good person and if it is used for a good purpose, against the bad people, it is justified in our minds up to great extent. As we subconsciously justify it, it is used by good people in certain instances to keep bad behavior under control and to keep bad people under control!

However, there is a risk with this approach. The risk is little subtle and hence is not recognized or is not understood in most of the cases. The risk is that, while using the violence to solve a problem, the solver might get the 'taste' of violence! He might start liking it in fact! The person who came to solve the problem created by violence, might end up getting trapped in the vicious circle of violence himself! He might justify it too. He will show the inevitability of violence if he is very intelligent. So he might be able to justify it. So no action can be initiated against him at least at that point but in the process he has in fact damaged himself because he has started liking violence and feels that it is the only way to solve the problem. So in fact he is increasing the extent of problem.

That is the risk we take when we try to solve a problem by means of violence.

So, what is the solution? Should violence not be tolerated at all at any level? How we define violence?

I think that when we will come to this question of definition of violence, we are in the process of making some progress. The value of nonviolence is to be followed at the level of 'mind' hence there is no point in saying that psychological violence is not real violence. In fact, the level at which we need to practice non violence according to Indian philosophy is at the level of mind and not that of body! Hence classifying violence as physical and psychological is wrong in my opinion! We need to understand that violence is always at the level of mind! What we see at the physical level is the consequences of such violence. Hence though we might not be able to understand this subtle thing all the times, we must recognize that the seat of the violence we see is at the level of mind!

- Dr. Abhijeet Safai