Ahimsa

Published on 2nd October, 2022, in Mid-day. A large forest was torn down to make a helipad for a visiting minister, who is a strict vegetarian. The mountain was sold to miners, who are strict vegetarians. An air-conditioned hall was built for monks who are strict vegetarians. Every vegetarian insisted they were non-violent. They never saw the trees, the insects, the worms, the rats, the birds, killed for their comfort. Violence was not their immediate experience. It had simply been outsourced to poor labourers. Vedic scriptures are, however, not so blind. In Veda, himsa, or violence, is seen as an essential part of life. Life ..

Published on 9th September, 2015, on www.dailyo.in . It has finally happened. Non-violent people can now become terrorists, without shedding a drop of blood. They do not have to carry guns, blow up towers, or behead people on camera. They can simply use their financial and political might to create legislation that denies people their food, clothes, freedom, pleasure, and even insist on the excesses of caste, and thus mentally terrorise people into submission. Since no blood is spilt, and no one is physically hurt, technically, it cannot be called terrorism. So it is a kind of non-terrorism that enables you to terrorise people and ..