The Industrial Revolution and the resulting dependence on machine production led to a large-scale tendency towards violence. Mechanised wars, colonisation, and globalisation have given violence and greed supreme importance in human thought and action. As a result, what was considered terrible violence even a few decades ago has now become a ‘normal’ part of human life.

Countering Violence presents a philosophical understanding of the sources of violence. It brings together the author’s journal accounts of tribal riots in western India in the aftermath of the Gujarat riots of 2002, and the recent resistance movement of writers and artists, called Dakshinayan. It stresses the importance of a fearless and non-violent response to the dark clouds of hatred, intimidation and violence.

The essays in this book are a result of the author’s deep engagement with thought and action related to the question of non-violence. An important statement on violence and ‘constructive action’, the book holds out the hope that reading it might strengthen the reader’s resolve to make this world less violent.

G. N. Devy is a thinker and cultural activist. Winner of the Sahitya Akademi award, he has, since 2015, led ‘Dakshinayan’, a resistance movement of writers and thinkers. He has written extensively on areas such as literary criticism, literary history, philosophy, education, anthropology and linguistics.

Introduction

1. Countering Violence

2. Kikiyario

Adivasi Voice and Violence

3. The Birth of Dakshinayan

Indian Writers in Resistance

Postscript
Index