5 April 2009

terrorism and the global response

Terrorism has the pervasive capacity to destroy everything and anything. But who will believe that the most dangerous threat faced by humanity in 21st century banks totally on the philosophy of destruction? Terrorism is a philosophy which uses terror as a weapon to spread the political, social and religious ideology of its propagators. Terrorism is a multi layered political ideology. Its origin as suggested by many scholars, does not lie only in the revivalist Islamic movement of the west Asia and middle east .Yes the revivalist tendency in the Islamic society is much greater than any other religious realm. But how and when this revivalist movement adopted terrorism as its weapon, is a point which must be taken into consideration when we talk about terrorism. Every body talks about Islamic revolution in Iran in 70s, as the turning point in the Islamic revivalist movement. But Iran’s Islamic revolution did not perpetuate terrorism in the way as it was done by those very people, who are now said to be the victims of terrorism. lets start with India. In the case of India we often site the external support, as the main reason behind the terrorism. But is not true, that by neglecting the north eastern states, and not finding the ways to assimilate north eastern clture,langauage, and tradition in our main stream society we have, ourselves contributed in the rise of insurgency and terrorism among north eastern ethnic groups. We are in some ways, for sure, own some responsibility for, making them hostile to our unitary political system.can anybody believe that people of a state ,the state,which was called the paradise on earth,which was a flourishing tourist destination, started adhering to the philosophy of terrorism only because some other person told them to do so. The reason, for rise of Tamil terrorism, or the Chechnya terrorism, or Hamas,or Kashmir militancy, should be traced somewhere, into the mistakes of the ruling establishment,and in their majoritarian policies not only in, as suggested by many , religion or the outside support. In many parts of the globe terrorism was used as a weapon by governments to score some points over their rivals.Who will deny that Indira Gandhi tacitly supported terror outfits in Punjab to fulfill her political aspiration and who can deny that Taliban was promoted and armed by USA itself to defeat Russian plans in Afghanistan and do someone need any better example than Pakistan,which is being targeted by those very terrorists who were armed by Pakistan to wage an unending war against India. And now to the point I raised in the start of my comment. Do you believe that an omni present phenomenon of terrorism is based only on the philosophy of destruction????? I think not. Terrorism like any other ideology, promises to its followers and its sympathizers, a society to be built on the basis of an ideology. It may be the Islamic ideology, or any other ideology or dream, as for example-the dream of creation of Gorkahland or Bodo land ,or independence of Northern Ireland or the creation of separate BASQ state,or redistribution of land among landless people,as promised by naxalites.. To fight a threat, it is necessary to know it better , to know it in totality. and to know something better it is necessary to approach an issue without any prejudice.today terrorism has grown to acquire ominous preposition for world humanity.what we need today is a coordinated and well planned strategy,to fight against this menace. Any suggestion put forward by any country should be examined for the ulterior motives it can have behind it. Yes the global war against terrorism ,waged mainly against the Taliban in Afganistan had the moral support of many nation including India, but can we say it for sure,that the USA had no ulterior motive behind this war of terror. In any war the main sufferers are the common civilians. As the statistics stand now the death toll of civilians in Afghanistan is much greater than the total fatality in 9/11 terror strike. What me must take in our mind that no one has to right to claim the lives of ordinary civilians in the name of war on terror It must be taken into our mind that those people who are being drawn into the act of terrorism are also a part of humanity.any strategy to fight against terrorism must be aimed at tackling terrorism as a whole.we must realize that by eliminating terrorists we are never going to address the problem of terrorism. we must analyze and and address those social,cultural.political and religious issues ,which help in the spread of terrorism. Yes, world is suffering from the threat of international terrorism as never before.and India in particular is the main victim of terrorism. But our response to terrorism should be more comprehensive, and measured one. The approach should not cover only the elimination of terrorists but countering the idea of terrorism.the response should be based on the construction of faith,goodwill and opportunity. When I think about terrorism I always think about Gandhian approach towards violence.Gandhi said that violence cannot be countered by violence, It must be countered with non -violence,the force of our innerself. The strength of the inner self lies in appreciating not only our strengths but also our mistakes and weakness. I believe the world will adopt a new anti terrorism strategy which will factor in the rights of every body,and the Gandhian philosophy of non violence.