Abhijit Naskar's Blog - Posts Tagged "passive-resistance"

Nonviolence is not absence of violence,
Nonviolence is control over violence.
Justice doesn't mean absence of injustice,
Justice means absence of indifference.
Liberty doesn’t mean total lack of limits,
Liberty means to practice self-regulation.
Free speech doesn't mean reckless speech,
Free speech means speaking for ascension.
Order does not mean absence of chaos,
Order means presence of accountability.
Peace does not mean absence of conflicts,
Real peace comes from elimination of bigotry.
No more nonchalant nonviolence, it's a coward's way!
Awake, arise ‘n humanize, or in tomb the world will lay.

I am no Gandhi, that I’d sit quietly and spin a wheel,
While people suffer in the clutches of imperialism.
I am no Guevara either, that I would shoot anyone,
Who looks suspicious, in my revolution for freedom.
Gandhi and Guevara are two extremes of human struggle,
One glorifies submission, another heralds new oppression.
Neither is fit for an infant world aiming to be civilized,
For one lacks backbone, the other weaponizes assumption.
We may take a little from Gandhi, a little from Guevara,
Without rigidity we may administer them accordingly.
I am an accountable human living in a world run by biases,
So most times I’ll keep quiet and act as a harmless dummy.
But whenever inhumanity goes overboard wreaking havoc,
The human bulldozer will rise to cleanse every epoch.

Nonviolence is nonsense – or to be more accurate – bookish nonviolence is nonsense. Nonviolence is to injustice, what homeopathy is to illness – it claims all the credit without any of the responsibility. Placebo brings comfort, not change.

Does that mean, violence is the solution? That’s the problem, you see. This prehistoric world has an instinctual affinity to black and white concepts – to binary concepts – and a gigantic blind spot for grey areas. Justice is too grand an exercise to be contained by the primitive dualistic nonsense of violence and nonviolence.

Let me put this into perspective with an example. Bullets are an act of violence, silence is an act of nonviolence – but there is a third option – the option of the slipper.

Slippers are more effective in fighting bugs, than bullets – bullets make martyr of the bugs, slippers put them in their place. When the slippers of a nation’s civilians combine, even the mightiest of tyrant is bound to fall – be it a state head, court judge or law enforcement officer.

Whenever a bunch of bugs turn the courts into a cradle of animal masculinity – whenever a bunch of bugs turn the parliament into a cradle of fundamentalism and bigotry – whenever a bunch of bugs turn the police stations into a cradle of badge-bearing barbarism – grab hold of that household bug-repellent you wear on your feet, and put them to some good, wholesome use. Treat the corrupt and bigoted like your children, and do with them as you would your own child when they go astray.

When your child starts to bully other kids, if you adopt pacifism and pamper them further in the name of nonviolence, instead of taking stringent steps to nip their megalomania in the bud, it’s very much possible, they might grow up to be the next orange-haired terrorist to roam the oval office or the next musky moron who takes pleasure in destroying people’s livelihoods and providing safe haven to hate speech and disinformation to satisfy their giant ego and puny mind.

So, I repeat – pick up the democratic superweapon from under your feet and put it to good use – treat the privileged orangutans like your children and put them in their rightful place, without actually harming them. Your world, your rules – remember that. Slippers are democracy’s first line of defense, bullets it’s last.