Recently, “Nandini Voice For The Deprived” conducted an essay on the topic “Why is there an increase in violence amongst students in Tamil Nadu?” I submitted this article. Here I am giving it for your reading. Feel free to comment!
TOPIC: Why is there an increase in violence amongst students in Tamil Nadu?
Violence refers to acts of aggression. It denotes the quality of being wild, and using physical force to achieve a goal. When do people become violent? One, when they are unable to achieve their goal through skill or logic. Two, when they have always been pampered and suddenly face an opposition or a refusal. Three, when they have grown up seeing violence right from their young days as a justified act. These three arguments prove to be right in the case of students in Tamil Nadu, too.
Writing about students in Tamil Nadu includes school and college students. Resorting to violence when unable to achieve one’s goal is mostly seen in college students, not among school students. That is because, only after coming to college do students come to understand the tough world, and face stiff competition. Pressure builds up on them. They tend to realise that they don’t have the required skills to go into a well respected institution for work. They prefer doing wrong things to achieve their goal, rather than not doing it and starving in the world.
Way to easy money- that again is a greedy thought in students after they finish their college. They want quick money. Violence or nonviolence simply doesn’t matter at that time. ‘A little violence… Nobody’s gonna find out!’ is what those students think. This propels them forward on to vehemence, contributing to growing violence amongst students.
Now let’s take a look at why there is violence amongst school students. Nowadays, the size of families is very small. Maximum includes the grandma, grandpa, mother, father, and an only child. The child gets whatever he/ she wants, from chocolate to bicycle to anything else that crosses the mind. He/She has never been refused, never been scolded, never ever faced opposition. His/Her verdict had always stood to last. Parents go to office to work all day, and cannot spend any time with the child. And, to convince their conscience, they laud the child with anything and everything in the world that the child wants. Now, what do you think the child’s reaction would be if it ever was refused or opposed? Violence. He/She will not be able to reason out, or even listen to the reasons of the opposition. The first thing that comes to their mind will be ‘How dare you oppose me! Refuse me! Just wait till I beat you up!’ Here comes violence at such a young age. Finally, when they grow up, they will be just the same- with even more ego, and even more fury when there is a refusal.
Also, school children have high energy levels as a natural quality. Amongst these students, some have really high levels of energy that can turn out in a negative way if not guided properly. When such energy is not used productively, it paves the way to a lot of fury and violence. This is not a mistake on the child’s part. They just have to be engaged continuously in activities that supersede or match their energy levels. As proof for this, my dad quotes examples of a lot of “troublesome” kids during his days, who when channelised by PT masters properly, went on to achieve great heights in sports. This is a very important aspect that helps in controlling violence amongst students. Naturally, this applies to students in Tamil Nadu, also.
Seeing violence from young days instills violence. Students generally don’t see people beating or thrashing others on the roads, or other public places. But where they see violence most is in movies. Tamil Nadu is very famous for its movie culture. Every Tamil movie has a hero who will beat, punch, slap, smack, kick and strike the villains, very heroically indeed! And, they do it for the silliest of reasons based on the story. This always ends by sealing the fact that nothing can be done without beating up people. Also, our present culture seems to believe “might is right”. Why! We even have a tamil saying that literally translates into- brothers cannot help like how beating helps. Great. So, why won’t the school and college students, who make it a point to see every single movie first-day-first-show, not be influenced by these heroes on screen? Many think themselves to be those heroes. They see all situations as if they are like the hero on the screens. And, they adopt violence when they think they ought to, just like the hero they envision themselves to be. To add to these already existing problems, some students around them look up to them as heroes, too, instead of talking sense into them. This only encourages the students to take up violence more confidently than ever. Why not? They seem to have a whole fanbase under them!
Now, a note on how this situation can be stopped from getting worse. Students must be counselled in colleges, and opportunities have to be given in various fields for them to identify their interests. Parents mustn’t pamper their children. This doesn’t mean that they should completely have their children under control, since that also gives way to violence. Children must understand the concept of liberty with responsibility. Parents must also look for the child’s interest, and channel the child’s energy in a productive way instead of letting it loose to take the route to aggression. In this case, any kind of sport can help. Finally, it is not at all wrong to watch movies. But, students have to be educated to sufficiently distinguish between the ‘real’ and the ‘reel’.
Let us go back to our middle-school lessons, and recall that India itself came out of the British Raj through non-violence! Anything is possible, not just through violence, but anyway.
If students understand these causes, and the impacts on themselves and the rest of the society, the situation can certainly turn for the better in Tamil Nadu.
After all, where there is a will to set things right, there is always a way to do it.
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