THEORIES OF VIOLENCE(INDIAN SOCIETY, POLITICS AND VIOLENCE

Topic Cover –MA Sem-I (P-V) Political Sociology

Submitted By

Dr. Jiwan Devi

Dept. of Political Science

HMV Jalandhar, Punjab, India

INTRODUCTION

• Political violence in most of the modern societies is the result of social tensions, which develop in them due to different reasons.
• Normally, political violence is directed against the state because the state is considered the chief source of injustice and repression.
• As a result, different sections of society are taking recourse to violence to solve their problems.
• They are following violent methods because the state has failed to secure regular obedience from the people.

​

• Violence is a purposeful political action to register protest of certain sections of society against ‘wrong’ policies of the government.
• In modern times, revolution as a form of political violence is carried out to change the form of government and to transform social structure.
• Political violence is a deliberate political activity, which has enormous ethical implications.
• It is pointed out by Aristotle that men do not revolt because they catch the cold. There are serious moral issues involved in it.

MEANING OF POLITICAL VIOLENCE

• Political violence is a collective violent action of a group of people against the government to highlight its discontent.
• It may be a protest against a particular policy of the government, it may be used to remove a particular government from power, or it may be taken recourse to for the change of political system.
• Aggression and violence have been a part of human history since long because men take to violence and aggression to secure things that they did not possess or to preserve things that they possessed.

NATURE OF VIOLENCE

• The word violence is derived from the Latin word ‘violentia’ which comes from the root ‘vis’which means force.
• Usually ‘violence’ denotes great force, excessive or constraint.
• The first two meanings: force and excessive force are taken from the stand-point of an agent’s activity.
• The third meaning: constraint is taken from that of a passive principle affected adversely by the activity of the agent.

VIOLENCE AND STATE

• Violence is in built in the institution of the state. It has the monopoly of coercive power in its hands. The state exercises this power with the help of its repressive agencies such as the army, the police, jails and courts. It can punish people who do not obey its orders and who disturb law and order.
• The state claims authority to rule and it secures authority with the help of legal sanctions or popular sanctions.
• When the state exercises power, it is entitled to use legally sanctioned violence to enforce its order.
• More often than not, the state uses coercive methods, which are not sanctioned by law.
• The degree of use of violence differs from state to state, because ultimately it depends on the ability of the state to secure compliance of its order without using coercion.

POLITICAL VIOLENCE AND POLITICAL INTEGRATION

• The state is an institution of society and its prime function is to bring about social and political integration of the people.
• Ancient and medieval states allowed co-existence of multiple autonomous political authorities.
• The modern state wants to establish its total authority over people and the territory under its jurisdiction.
• In every state, there exist distinct cultural and ethnic groups and it is a desire of every state authority to amalgamate these cultural groups into a single political unit under a single central authority.

POLITICAL VIOLENCE AND THE PROCESS OF ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

• Historically we have seen that the state exercised violence in the early phase of economic development when there was a transition from a handicraft system based on agriculture to a relatively labour intensive factory system.
• During this period, a great majority of population suffered because of this change.
• The state used extremely violent methods to curb agrarian revolts of the farmers who were agitating against unjust policies of the government.
• It used its authority to protect private industries by curbing the rights of workers and by declaring trade unions illegal.

CAUSES OF POLITICAL VIOLENCE

• There are many causes that give birth to political violence. Men take recourse to violence as a last resort.
• It is rightly pointed out by Aristotle that men do not revolt because they catch cold.
• People decide to use violent methods when they think that their survival as a community is at stake and unless they fight against it, they will have to have to suffer no end.
• Normally, people exhaust legally available avenues to get their grievances redressed. But if the legal methods fail to deliver goods, people take to violence.

CAUSES OF POLITICAL VIOLENCE.�

1) General causes

2) The Concept of National Self-Determination

3) Ideology

4) Religious and ethnic conflicts

5) Political conflicts between different groups of elites

6) Economic conditions and the concept of relative deprivation.

​

FORMS OF POLITICAL VIOLENCE

There exist different forms of political violence, which people use to show their resentment and dissatisfaction against the government. It can assume a form of a violent demonstration or it can be an epoch making revolution like the French revolution of 1789. We see the emergence of political violence in the following forms

1) Violent protests by the people against the government

2) Terrorism

3) Military revolts and take overs

4) Revolts and Rebellion

5) War

METHODS OF OVERCOMING POLITICAL VIOLENCE

• The state uses three different methods to overcome violence which are as follows:

1) the remedial method of liberals which believes in reforms

2) the method of force and

3) the method of carrot and stick policy.

NATURE OF VIOLENCE

1. Linguistic Violence

2. Terrorist Violence

3.Caste Conflict and Violence

4.Public and Public Protest Movement

5. Social Violence

6.Violence on the eve of Election

SUGGESTION FOR CONTROLLING VIOLENCE IN POLITICS

1 . Proper Education and Political Socilization

2.Control Over Inequalities and Evils

3. Job Oriented Professional Education

4. Efficient Law and Order System

5. Control over Political Corruption

6. Compaigns against Social Evils

7. Strong Step for Checking Criminalization of Politics

8. Respect of Human Rights and Zero Tolerance for Violence

8. Effective role of Civil Society

CONCLUSION

• Political violence is built in the political process itself, because the state seeks to monopolise the use of force.
• There are different causes of political violence, but loss of legitimacy of the government and inability of the political system to accommodate demands of different sections of society are the important causes.
• Religious and ethnic differences also play an important role in encouraging violence. Political violence assumes different forms including turmoil, sporadic violence and internal war..

• In modern times, revolution is an important form of political violence because it seeks to restructure basic social, economic and political institutions of the society.
• The state uses different methods to overcome violence. Those who support the democratic system argue that political violence can be overcome by redressing grievances of the people, by reforming the system and by devising constitutional remedies, which provide for peaceful resolution of social and political conflicts

THANK YOU!