Terrorism has left its mark, wherever we turn. Consider going to see the Gateway of India. The amount of police and security there will make you feel the terror of terrorism. You will just forget to see the beauty of the sea. Now, turn right towards ‘The Taj’, and you will be reminded of the 26/11, and all the bloodshed and destruction it caused. This list will just go on. The 9/11, the 7/11, the 26/11, the Paris Tragedy, the ISIS terror, the incidents only get bolder and more inhuman.
A lot of people sympathise with terrorists. They even compare terrorists to revolutionaries. There can be nothing more farther from the truth. Revolutionaries fight to free their country. They try to bring change. Terrorists, on the other hand, aim to overthrow the government and work to strike fear into the hearts of innocent people. They take the life of innocents to prove their point. But they often believe that they are revolutionaries, or that they are working for other people's well being.
I think the biggest thing we need to realise is that Terrorism is the infringement of so many of our Rights as humans and as citizens. It goes against our Right to Life, Right to Move Freely and our Freedom of Expression. More importantly, it creates an environment of fear, on which these terrorists breed. The more we fear, the more their extreme actions increase. But then, as people, we are forced to fear it. It is ingrained in us to fear the unknown. The ‘struggle for justice’ of a few, ruins and takes away the normalcy in the life of the rest. It seems like a crude example of the crab mentality.
How is it justified to make millions suffer (without their consent) to achieve your goal? How will you justify your means to achieve ‘justice’? If you are harming the innocent and destroying lives in the process to achieve your goal, you are neither noble nor just. The Gods you pray to, the providence you bend your knee to; they will never accept your justification of having destroyed millions to acquire your goals. Karma will punish you and your fate will be sealed for the Judgement day. DO NOT fall prey to such thoughts. God would never don the avatar of ‘The Destroyer’ himself if he wanted you to destroy things yourself. In spite of what others may be saying, the means to the end matters just as much as the end itself.
So, what is the solution for terrorism? Well, the world leaders wonder the very same thing. Terrorism is believed to be the voice of the discontent or oppressed of the society. But disputes and problems should be discussed and debated peacefully without such tactics. The lives of the innocent are NOT SACRIFICES to achieve your goal. NO MAN – not terrorists, nor politicians have the right to fate the innocent to death. Also, the leaders should be more transparent and corruption free. They should work to truly solve people's problems, work as the people's representatives.
Terrorism will exist as long as there are less education and tolerance and more corruption and violence in society. Education and understanding need to spread. It also forces the need to prevent unjust on an irrational basis and provide all with equal opportunities. I think, to some extent, each man needs to decide and purify his own conscious on an individual level. We do not particularly need to weed out people, but only the mentality and thought process that makes them do such things. It is often like Anne Frank believed that people, in general, are not inherently bad. It all boils down to that.
Written by Shreya Srinivasan
A person of varied interests, with a possible ADHD that went unnoticed as a child. A gypsy philosopher looking for her place and space in the world. Admittedly a little odd at first, but then, you have to be odd to be number one.