As a result of a few unfortunate incidents that happened recently, there are many among my friends who seem to recommend barbarian punishment as a deterrent to inhuman crimes. I don’t understand how so many Indians, well educated and otherwise sane, can be so completely out of their minds as to think that this would produce any positive results. Do these people not understand that by doing so, the entire society would be resorting to similar evil as these criminals are accused of? If we disapprove of their actions, how can we propose that the whole society sink to their level of savagery? If now only a few criminals are insensitive to the suffering of others, do we want most or all of us to be like them?

Brutality and evil are like the Ring in “Lord of the Rings”. If we start using it as a tool, we gradually lose ourselves to it. Give in to violence, and we will soon be controlled by it, thus losing the freedom to direct it selectively as we wish. If the vast majority of Indians really think, just as those criminals did, that using violence and fear to subjugate their opponents is going to make this world a better place for anybody, then we have a much bigger problem at hand than the one they are attempting to solve.

If we institutionalize brutality, then there is also the risk of these institutions falling into the hands of those who misuse them and turn them against the very people who are supposed to be protected by it. Perhaps we Indians do not understand these consequences well enough because we have never been ruled by lynch mobs. Watching a movie like “The Ox-Bow Incident” will help us appreciate it more. Our legal system is based on the rule that not a single innocent should be punished. Even though the process is slow, it eventually catches up to those who transgress its spirit.

Finally, even if this man-made system were to fail, I trust that the spiritual law of Karma cannot be evaded. So, for ordnary folks (i.e., those who are not part of law enforcement or judiciary), the best course of action is to forgive, forget, and take care not to vitiate their own minds by unnecessary thoughts about violence and cruelty. I sincerely believe that thus raising ourselves above base tendencies is the best way in which we can contribute to making this world a better place for everybody to live in. The transformation that we want to see in this world has to begin inside ourselves.

Quote possibly misattributed, but the message is invaluable