Words are all I have

Sania Mirza rarely loses a tennis match. She invariably crashes out. The times when she does win, she deals a crushing blow.

Saina Nehwal‘s feats on a badminton court are inspiring. She has even been known to whip her opponents .

India and Pakistan don’t often meet on a cricket pitch. But when they do, it is to resume hostilities.

Rahul Bose wrote so thoughtfully recently. But the rugby team he used to play for thrashed its opponents in a match.

Inflation is worrying everyone in India. It must be tamed. It must even be fought.

Opposition parties don’t always agree with policies of the Government. They hit out at those they don’t like.

The Government is no slouch either. Its known to slam the Opposition when they disagree .

The words in bold font are evocative aren’t they? I sometimes wonder if they evoke violence as well. Words used in the right context convey the gravity of a situation. The same words bandied about in much more trivial ways lose their meaning.

Prajnya, the Chennai based non-profit working on issues relating to peace, justice and security and which runs an annual 16 day campaign against gender violence, notes that teaching, advocacy and communication bring learning to fruit. One of the objectives of the campaign is to use the right words in the right context.

This means two things. First, we need to stop using euphemisms when we refer to incidents of violence. Second, we should refrain from using words that refer to violent acts in casual conversation.

So: street sexual harassment is not eve-teasing ; an abusive husband cannot be called over-critical or exacting. The careless use of language can trivialize the trauma of violent assault.

As Mr Bose, in the article linked above, writes (even though he would like to attack the problem),education is the key and reaching out to neighbourhoods, communities etc is important. But learning peace isn’t easy when violence in words and deeds are all around us.

As this paper notes, teaching peace is a purpose intrinsic to education. Language would be a good place to start.