Revenge

An Aesop’s fable tells the story of a wolf who ran into a lamb. The wolf decided that he would find some good reason to eat the lamb. The wolf said to the lamb, "last year you insulted me!" but the lamb replied, "I wasn't yet born last year." So the wolf said, "You have eaten in my pasture." but the lamb said, "I don't eat grass yet." Then the wolf tried again, "You drank from my well." The lamb replied, "The only thing I drink is milk." At that point the wolf ate the lamb saying, "Well! You certainly like to argue!"

An exhibition highlighting the tragedy of the Kashmiri Pundits is doing the rounds in Goa. Successive governments in J&K and Delhi have paid only lip-service to their forced exodus due to terrorism. However, instead of creating the factual awareness of the situation, the organisers have chosen to provoke hatred. Posters of atrocities have statements like “if this does not make your blood boil, you are not a Hindu”. A film that is also shown on cable networks calls for armed squads in Goa to defend the faith.

Such calls for revenge are increasing amongst all communities. In the 1980s, the Sikh community was the victim of such malicious branding. Cries to “teach them lessons” resulted in the mass murders in Delhi and elsewhere. As usual the victims are innocent people who are not connected in any remote way with the crime. And the instigators of hatred from different religions share a common approach… that of the wolf who has pre-decided that he will kill the innocent lamb.

I remember a teacher who would strike the head of the nearest boy with his knuckles, every time he wanted to punish a naughty fellow sitting on the back benches. Does it make sense in any remote way to question the credentials of a person just because he shares his faith with a culprit, when we will refuse to be tagged with malicious minds from our own religion? The emotion of anger is natural in the face of injustice. But an attempt to present facts in the package of hate does no favour to the victims of terrorism. Worse, it often seeks to provoke revenge and that too, against innocent neighbours.

We must “develop new dimensions” that are just, fair and humane in our response to injustice. We must oppose and expose the infiltration of blind hatred that seeks to avenge the innocent victims by punishing other innocents. In a film called Sarfarosh, the hero tells the vengeful villain, “Partition has been a devastating tragedy for all of us… but while you chose to avenge a bloody past by killing more innocents, I choose to learn from the past and do everything to stop it from recurring!”

More often than not, revenge is a guise to carry out pre-decided intentions,
It is only true love for justice and peace that “develops new dimensions”!

Regards
Pravin