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Introduction
In recent years violence has become a common phenomenon in India. It has engulfed the entire political, social, economic, cultural and even our personal lives. Violation of social justice and caste discriminations of complex characters have added additional burden to our society whereas we the Indians have been specially advised to practice 'non-violence.' The growing trend in violence thus provokes us to talk about nonviolence and to identify the roots of violence in India.
'Caste violence' is perhaps one of the most dangerous forms of violence in India. As a subject of study 'caste violence' is a very complex one. It often intermingles with the political, social, cultural, regional and class violence. So caste discriminations and atrocities against the socially weaker sections particularly against the Scheduled Castes (SCs) or dalits with age-old traditional and unconventional norms deserves a careful historical investigation. In this paper thus, along with preliminary ideas on the origin and development of caste related violence, I have briefly dealt with the recent trends in caste violence in India with special references to the dalits.
Meaning of Violence
Violence is just the opposite of non-violence or ahimsa which is closely linked with the social values since the beginning of settled human civilization and the birth of organized religious philosophy in India. Ancient Indian religious orders such as Buddhism and Jainism were fundamentally rooted in non-violence. But the concept of non-violence becomes irrelevant without having a proper idea on violence.
Violence has different expressions. The nature of expression generally depends on one's perception regarding the meaning of this term. Generally the term violence expresses :
(i) the act or an instance of violent action or behaviour,
(ii) abusive or unjust exercise of power,
(iii) behaviour involving physical force intended to hurt, damage, kill or abuse
(iv) an unjust, unjustifiable, or illegitimate display of force, such as tends to repress or overawe; etc.
This term is also used to mean intensity or severity, as in natural phenomena; untamed force; abuse or injury to meaning, content, or intent in case of text.
So we find multiplicity of meanings of 'violence.' In case of our present study we are more concerned about the first four expressions of violence committed against the so-called lower castes of...