There are people who tell me in all seriousness, “but what about all the trained soldiers returning to civilian life with knowledge of fire-arms”, and I truly wonder sometimes where they are coming from. It was probably an attitude like this that caused ancient civilisations as far apart as in South America, Australia, Africa and Asia to come under the European Colonials as they marched across these “new” lands with guns.
Just imagine – if the Indians and Chinese, who figured out the usage and control of gunpowder way before the Europeans, had decided to head out for the Med and the North Sea, and enforced a control system for Europeans to take their own ships out into their own oceans and rivers in the name of “free trade”, backed by the fire rockets which we already had, the world would have been a different – and better place.
Knowledge of how to use (and make) explosive weapons of all sorts is now nothing new in India. A quick trip to my childhood district of Munger (then Monghyr) in Bihar will provide ample evidence of this. Likewise multiple other parts of India. Where there are lathes, where there is steel, and where there exist explosives – there you will find weapons of the sort that go “boom”.
In any case, butcher’s knives, also known as choppers and farmer machetes, appear to not disturb the peace – though they also cause harm of the grievous sort. Mostly carried out in the open by “one particular community”. Then why worry about armed “natives”, are we back in a colonial era when only those who were already powerful could carry arms, and possess ammunition? Or even know how to use it?
The usage of weapons and the availability of weapons are two separate matters, as the Umrika has shown us so well – people who often don’t even know the parts of a weapon, leave alone how to maintain them, do enough damage to provoke huge protests in a country where “the Right to bear arms” is protected by their Constitution. Here in India, many of us received formal training on how to use weapons, but once that part of life was over – no more weapons. Everything needs a licence. Not even a khukri, or a sharp knife with a blade more than a few inches long.
One of our most valiant and well known communities have the religious right to bear sharp weapons – and they do so too. Barring a few exceptions, outliers, I have seldom seen any of them even unsheathing their religious knives. Even we, as seafarers, duty bound to always carry a sharp knife and marlinspike hooked on to our belts, would pull them out only for work and never carry them ashore.
It is truly said that those who are trained to use fire-arms will never misuse them. Even in anger. They already know the power of a weapon. It is usually the morons who do not know how to utilise the power of arms, who opt to misuse it. Or those who would dominate over others.
And therein lies the truth.
It is probably only those people who want to continue to see a weak India who tend to raise the bogey of the so-called risks from those who know how to use weapons. Frankly, once the safety is off, with a tight grip to prevent the weapon from bouncing around, anyone can do and they do cause damage – and at such times, I would be happier seeing a trained person trying to stop further damage.
As a child I was witness to how someone once pulled a side-arm on my father. In a bit of a dispute over jurisdiction between a Force and a Service. One of the soldiers with us, in one quick move, disarmed the assailant, removed the chamber, further removed the bullets, and then handed the now-useless weapon back to the champion. Without a word, without a facial expression, without any threats or harsh words.
Next day matters were resolved at the level of “other ranks”, again totally politely, and mutual respect won the day. I learnt a huge lesson that day, and trained a wee bit in weapons myself, managed to disarm a very drunk and incapacitated uniformed attacker in East Germany. Next day we were the guests of their formation at a loud and noisy party. Life went on.
Point is this – 4 years training in any uniformed service is enough to bring in a level of maturity even with young boys. And the benefits to the National Interest are phenomenal. 4 years also helps choose the best of best, way better than what a Recruitment Officer can do.
(Veeresh Malik was a seafarer. And a lot more besides. A decade in facial biometrics, which took him into the world of finance, gaming, preventive defence and money laundering before the subliminal mind management technology blew his brains out. His romance with the media endures since 1994, duly responded by Outlook, among others.)
