Jernail Singh Anand - The idea of non-violence
Moderator 
THE IDEA OF NON-VIOLENCE
Dr. Jernail Singh Anand
Non-violence is defined as a philosophy that advocates for the non-use of violent force in relationships among individuals, groups, organizations, and nation-states, opposing all forms of violence including social, economic, political, and cultural manifestations.
Before Mahatama Gandhi made it a brand for the world to live by, it was preached at a vast scale by Sikh gurus. Prior to Buddhism and even Hinduism, I wonder if we have ever advocated violence.
The reverse side of violence appears to be non-violence. But, I think, this is a word which shows our own lack of imagination as a civilized society. Can’t we coin a better word in which ‘violence’ is not at all used.
Violence is a way of life. And opposed to it, Peace is also a way of life. The only proper word which should replace violence is Peace. We Indians believe in Peace. We have no faith in violence.
The text books should say good bye to the word Non-Violence, because as we utter this word, it brings to our mind the bloody spectacle of partition and other such situations in which human lives were lost.
As a civilized society, it should be our effort to ‘let go’ our past, and all the associations which remind us of our ‘foolish acts’.
I think we are good or bad, depends on what we remember from our past history. There were good times also, but alas! They were not recorded. History records only battles, killings, loot, arson, robberies and wars. Should we spend years in reading and memorising the essential data, who attacked whom and when, how long a battled lasted, and how many people were killed?
If there is any lesson in this history, it is very bitter. We have learnt only one thing from history. To check who committed atrocities on our race, and now get back to them with equal fierceness. To even the account.
It is disconcerting to note that all that we are teaching does not teach us anything about our present. We have a hundred issues today. Which textbook deals with problems our society is facing? And are there any departments or text books, or even books which articulate what will be our tomorrow? How we want to shape it? What is need for tomorrow? As intellectuals and think-tanks, we are studying, researching, going back again and again to what old masters said. What they said, we have behind us. A horrible history of mankind. Now it is time for the think-tanks to stop looking backward, and look forward, and look into the issues of the present.
Education, studies, research, which is based on the past, appears to have failed us in the present, because we have no guidelines how to live our present, how to make it great like our past. And then, we have to encounter our future tomorrow. Is there anything to guide our youth?
This is a philosophical vacuum we are passing through. A sad period for which all educated intellectuals are responsible. The political establishment does not promote philosophical constructs and future formations which might tell upon their own prospects.
Author:
Dr. Jernail Singh Anand, with an opus of 180 plus books, is Laureate of the Seneca, Charter of Morava, Franz Kafka and Maxim Gorky awards. His name adorns the Poets’ Rock in Serbia. Anand is a towering literary figure whose work embodies a rare fusion of creativity, intellect, and moral vision. He’s not just an Indian author but a global voice, challenging readers to confront the complexities of existence while offering hope through art and ethics. If Tagore is the serene sage of a colonial past, Anand is the fiery prophet of a chaotic present. Recently he dedicated his collection of 12 epics Epicacia Vol 1 and Vol 2 to Serbia and Dr Maja Herman Sekulic.
