We frequently hearing about acts of violence around us forcing us to think why such things are on the rise. Perhaps this is the reason the UGC is now intending to ensure that the so-called youth of today cannot be called good citizens until they have developed human values and trained themselves to act as true leaders of tomorrow. Perhaps there seems to be a big question mark as to what kind of education we are after all getting that produces unworthy people creating havoc all around. We wonder how anti-social elements are coming in our midst from technical education backgrounds who instead of creating a society of well-meaning people with their first and foremost aim of doing welfare to the general mass are indulging in sabotage and other activities a number of people in bomb-blasts and other  destructive activities. It is natural then for us to ask if we are producing engineers and doctors to create destruction or construction or create a base of human welfare above all. We must be clear in our aims and aspirations.

It’s often said that we live in a world which is torn by religious and racial persecution and till we have been able to get rid of our selfish and individualistic tendencies we cannot survive. We have globalised ourselves in our attitudes which do not keep us in harmony with our neighbours who are misled by all that glitters but is not gold. Consequently we live in grooves of our selfish and narrow feelings forgetting what we actually are meant for. We are living these days in a nuclear family where we are concerned with ourselves only. As a result we are growing narrower in our circle day by day feeling like strangers to our next door neighbours even who are considered of no consequence to us.

Perhaps we do not feel that we live in a society which creates a feeling of living together developing a sense of belonging to it. We exist no doubt but we do not co-exist and in the rat race of this world we are ready to survive at the cost of others even caring little for them whether they live or die. We live for ourselves not for others. Why we have grown rude and rough in our dealing with others is the result of our thinking-the by- product of this technological civilization which creates Frankenstein-a monster rather than human beings with human values deprived of which we bring disaster to ourselves. “Used to working with precise mathematical formulae”, to quote The Times of India dated 26/2/13, “this could lead them into thinking that society itself is amenable to such abstract formula as well as to social engineering agenda’s which involve violence their lack of familiarity with larger political and social processes and their inability to analyze them ends up making them dangerously one – dimensional. The singular lack of connection with other human beings is often manifest in the casual way terrorist groups destroy civilian locations.”

Scrutinising the above-mentioned passage commenting on the ‘one dimensional attitude’ developed by our youth today while getting technical education keeps them aloof from the holistic principles of life. As a result, we have a lopsided view of life which hardly enables us to understand the complex cities of the present trends of life evolving day by day owing to the growth of society in different ways. Technology is doing what technology aspires to do but whether it is in sync with the evolution of the society in its right perspective or not is very difficult to say.

It is the radicalisation of the youth which is threatening the very equilibrium of our society. We are therefore extremists in our views day by day. We have created an urban civilization by destroying the innocence of a country life with simplicity as the prime virtue. As a result the values long long established by our forefathers are crumbling day by day. The ‘survival of the fittest’ theory of evaluation of the present society is under- going shifting paradigms of morality rationalising the prevailing spirit of violence in the current context of social political and moral pursuits of today. Better to quote Ashis Nandy the famous sociologist who commented on the gang rape in December in New Delhi: ‘the communities are breaking down, relationships are breaking down...a community-centred civilization is being pummelled into urban an individual life at a very fast pace. ...It is not ordinary violence that is increasing, but a more anarchic form of violence, a more anomic one. By this I mean that the violence is often pointless. The violence is an end in itself (Governance Now, Jan 1-15 2013).

That ‘the violence’ as enunciated by Ashis Nandy ‘is often pointless’ and ‘and the violence is an end in itself’ makes us think over and over again as to why our society has come to such a pass as would make our life troublesome and tension–ridden. We perhaps have seen to be reaping the consequences of our misguided notions of morality and ethics which have become rather perverted due to the vicious effects of globalisation. The radicalisation of our youth as such a vicious trend of today which can be curved by studying humanities which could prove itself to be antidote to violence.