Sri. K.V.kunhikrishnan: When we chose to discuss Terrorism last month it was just another subject for discussion, although it still had its importance as a regular threat to be tackled by Governments to ensure safety and security of their citizens. But now all on a sudden like a tremendous bolt from a wrathful blue, it has become a live calamity that imposed wanton destruction on Bombay. There is no demand, no claim, no purpose; Just destruction in their madness to satisfy the whim of a few international criminal leaders.
Terrorism is a very vast subject, as vast as the ocean. There will be no end if we start examining every aspect of it. We have therefore chosen to try and find out only the root causes, if we can.
What is terrorism? Whenever there is mass killing of human beings can we call it terrorism? No. Every army is then a terror outfit. It is a machinery for mass killing of perceived enemies. But can’t we call killing of civilians terrorism? Perhaps we can. But there also it will be a matter of opinion. Indian freedom fighters were terrorists for the British. Communists were terrorists for the Congress Government in the late forties of last century. Nexalites are real terrorists for us now. But for them they are fighters for a cause, and the governments who fight them are terrorists who kill and torture their innocent family members. Kashmiri terrorists call themselves freedom fighters. Those who fight them are suicide squads for the militants of Kashmir. Therefore, the usage of the word is according to the perception of the user. According to me an unbiased and non-controversial definition could be ‘wanton killing of innocent civilians with no purpose other than to create terror in the minds of people’ Now what will be the purpose of creating such terror? It could be vengeance against perceived grievances, it could be frustration for any reason, it could be criminal wrath leading to a psychological imbalance, religious fanaticism, power madness, or belief in a divine mission to kill, and/or to establish political supremacy. Lashkar e Toaba, at the time of its establishment is said to have announced its purpose as establishment of an Islamic World. This is not surprising when we consider that the purpose of the communists was, and even now the ultimate aim is, to establish world communism or ‘proletarian internationalism’ using violence. In a sense the aim of both is world government of their ideology by the use of violence. The purposes mentioned are not exhaustive. But generally none of the purposes are achieved by terrorism except the mental satisfaction of deranged minds.
When one comes to the causes, the first and basic cause of terrorism is the inherent violence in human beings inherited from the animal world. Violence in the form of excessive flow of energy is there. Nature meant it to be used for self defense, gathering of food and survival in general. But the energy of violence is misdirected and diverted to wanton violence against others to create terror.
At present we have within the society individuals who are
1) exploited by the greedy and powerful and therefore having a sense of injustice and resentment,
2) disillusioned with society because of rigid norms to be conformed to,
3)frustrated because of rampant inequality,
4) fed up of poverty,
5) whipped up by religious fanaticism, or a virulent ideology,
and 6) emotionally upset by political rivalry and vengeance
As individuals they may be harmless or incapable of much violence. But they are amenable to recruitment into violent outfits. Just like the able bodied youth who join the army, these people join terror outfits out of frustration or for money. Once they join they have no escape. They are brain washed and criminally trained. It is said that they are even drugged to be able to perpetrate atrocities. They are merely the cannon fodder of the terror outfits. The terrorist who was caught in the recent attack in Bombay, Ajmal Amir Kasab was said to be a small time petty criminal from a poor family of Pakistan Punjab who chanced to get recruited in the terrorist outfit and got brain washed and trained. A vast majority of the terrorists are therefore not the root cause, but only instruments.
But among them there are a comparatively few powerfully intelligent, clever individuals who have either a criminal desire for money and power, or a compulsively mad need to wreak vengeance against particular, group, community, or state. Some are religious fanatics. They are ultimately the leaders who organize, collect funds, recruit frustrated youngsters, brain wash them and use them as instruments to execute terrorist atrocities. It is my suggestion that these leaders are one of main root causes. They are at the head of terrorist organizations. Bin Laden Al Quida, Zaki ur Rahman Lakhvi of Lashkar e Taiba, are examples.
Next comes the funding part of the activities of those inclined to organize terrorism. The agencies and rich individuals, who fund the outfits and use them, are the main culprits. They employ the outfit chieftains on contract for their nefarious purposes. Such agencies would include even governments who want to destabilize ‘enemy’ governments. Once an outfit is thus used for harming another country, it gets enough money to thrive and become powerful. America themselves encouraged and is said to have given, through CIA operations, massive financial assistance to several virulent religious outfits in Pakistan and Afghanistan to drive away Russians and in the bargain became instrumental in creating and strengthening Taliban and several fanatical groups of terrorism. In our own country Bindranwala was first encouraged and helped by congress government to fight the then strong Sikh groups in Punjab. Later he became a religious fanatic and had to be destroyed. Pakistan encouraged terrorism in Kashmir and finally is now suffering the damages themselves. Then there are rich individuals who support an ideology or religion who contribute generously to the outfits either out of misunderstanding of the purposes or of perceived injustice.
Therefore I would put forward that the roots are
1. a few criminally minded, power mad individuals capable of organizing terrorism, who lead the outfits. These people have to be identified and incapacitated/eliminated with international cooperation
2. sources of funding the organizations and outfits have to be found out, exposed and the flow of money to the outfits dried up. In my opinion without these actions any attempt, however elaborate and efficient to catch the terrorists and punish them will not help in stopping the menace.
Prof. Richard Hay: Terrorism like that is not confined to Islamic terrorism alone. For example Israel has many terrorist outfits to destabilize the countries around it, especially the Arab countries. . America has its own to contain their enemies. All organized American organizations have their own terror groups for the purpose of financial control. Even when the purpose is political, religion is used for organizing terrorism. Rligious fundamentalism is of course, at present seen as the main underlying cause.
Dr. Babu Ravindran: There is always a highly motivated leadership behind the attacks. Four or five people from poor families have been recruited, sent to Hyderabad for initial training and then sent to the border to cross over. They are the ones killed at the border. Two or three of them are said to have actually wanted to come back after the Hyderabad experience. But they were threatened with death and compelled to stay. If they had not obeyed they would have been killed there itself. Similar is the case of LTTE recruits. LTTE cadres are recruited by force, and even young girls are compelled to join for fear of their lives. Money is forcefully collected to finance their operations. Terrorists in general are trained in use of drugs. And drug smuggling and selling in enemy territory is also a source of income.
K.V.Kunhikrishnan: As regards LTTE they had at the time it was constituted, a genuine reason to engage in a guerilla war with the Srilanka Govt. For a large chunk of well domiciled Tamil people in that country, even citizenship was denied and they were asked to go back to Tamil Nadu by the Cylonese Government. India was not ready to take such bulk migration. Tamil people were in a real fix. It was then the Tigers under the leadership of Velupillai Prabhakaran was born. But slowly it later became power mad and deteriorated into a terror army. They had a highly qualified, intelligent, committed leadership in the beginning.
Prof. Sankarankutty: There is always a hidden cause, a perceived hurt, a psychological grievance of violence that is hiding behind all terrorism. It may be just a personal hurt or insult as in the case of Hitler that finally ended in the mass elimination of Jews. A personal hurt hides behind a deliberately made out general cause. In the name of saving Germany, he was actually wreaking vengeance against them for a personal insult that he suffered as a youth
Dr. Sadanandan: .Man is what his mind is. Anything hidden in the mind comes out in his actions.
Prof. Sankarankutty: A personal agenda comes out in the garb of a common cause. Even in the case of Mahathma Gandhi we can say that it was his personal insult of being thrown out of a first class compartment of the South African train for not being white, that culminated in the freedom struggle against the British.
Dr. Babu Ravindran: It is surprising that even Bangladesh has terrorists operating against India who helped the ‘Mukthi Bahini’ to fight Pakistan and get their independence. The religious angle is clear there.
Prof Hay: Bangladeshis are dead against India. Some of us who traveled to that country recently could make it out. We were advised not to take any Indian currency with us because even the sight of it by the people there might provoke anger! That is the extent of hatred against India.
DR. Babu: What about the local violence in Kavumbagam here? The political murders, is it also not terrorism? The cadres of political parties kill each other. In one party, if a worker tries to, he is eliminated and the blame put on the opposite party to escape detection.
Dr. Abdulla: That is actually a law and order problem. An impartial police have to take action. Innocent ordinary people are generally not victims. Violence is part of basic human nature. When somebody is denied his legitimate right and he feels that he has no remedy he becomes violent. If one kid alone among many is denied a toffee, he gets angry and may become habitually violent if the denial is repeated. Frustration and sense of injustice may turn people into becoming terrorists. The basic human instinct of violence can thus become a cause for violence and terrorism.
And there are different types of terrorism although ninety percent of it at present is religious. There is political terrorism; there is racial terrorism, and there is ‘casteist’ terrorism.
Sri.Kunhikrishnan: Violence in nature is for survival. And for survival of the fittest. Man can, if he wants, canalize it in the right direction.
Dr. Babu Ravindran: What is the injustice done to the terrorist Ajmal caught in Bombay attack? He was just recruited in Pakistan Punjab, given intense training, brain-washed with hatred against India and sent to kill innocents at random. He cannot have any personal grievance against India or Bombay.
Sri. Sivanandan: I am in agreement with what Dr. Abdulla said and would like to elaborate on it. The down trodden poor people have a grievance that they are never cared for by the society. They are deprived of even the minimum human requirements for making a livelihood. The depraved people are frustrated. They are naturally angry and willing to make a fight to death. When somebody promises them what they are denied so far, and they get recognition in their group, they become willing to do anything in their frustration. Poverty and depravation can thus be the cause for violence and terrorism.
Dr. Sadanandan: Patriotism is another reason for hatred and the resulting political terrorism. In the name of protecting the citizens, in the name of security, the feeling of nationalism is whipped up creating hatred against the ‘enemy’. But if one looks deeper, one can see that each country does the same thing, thus separating everybody from everybody else. What is after all, patriotism? Is it more important than the value of human life? Being patriotic, countries are secretly developing nuclear weapons for fighting each other and in the process preparing to destroy the world itself. Patriotism or nationalism is more propaganda than a genuine division of territories.
Dr.Sankarankutty: J.Krishnamurthy said that patriotism is glorified tribalism. Each tribe fights the other tribe to protect their identity and territory.
Dr. Thomas: In normal fighting, that is, in fighting a war, the losses and casualties are more. Terrorism is actually cheaper. It is a cheaper way of inflicting greater losses.
Dr. Abdulla: The nexalites do it. They are angry and frustrated that their rights are not properly served by the government and the society.
Dr. Sankarankutty: You go to any government office to get something done. There is a casual reply with least consideration asking you to come later or telling you that somebody is not in his seat. Or they say, ‘we will look into it’. Politicians are also same. There is no honesty in politics. Citizens naturally feel helpless, frustrated and angry.
Dr. Thomas: But those who die for a cause that they sincerely believe in, are real martyrs. They die without expecting or getting any money or reward. Contract killer gangs or an army is not like that. They die for a remuneration.
Sri.Sivanandan: How do people resort to violence or indulge in it? If a person gets what he wants, that is, if he gets the minimum facilities that he requires, he will not be frustrated. When he is denied his requirements he is angry and frustrated. This frustration is utilized by those who want to create panic for their own purposes. The militants want to be well fed and lead a life without poverty. At the grass root level this is the position. At the level of nations big and powerful countries subjugate lesser nations like what America did to Iraq, and make them helpless and frustrated. If people of Iraq indulge in terrorism it cannot be surprising.
Dr.Abdulla: When you have no remedy, when there is no way to counter the injustice, when you have no power to retaliate, what you can do is only to indulge in violence.
Dr. Babu Ravindran: Of course, those who plan the attack, the leadership is responsible. Others are only brainwashed followers. Recruitments by force, keeping under coercion and threat of death, and using as suicide squad like what the LTTE and Al Quida are doing is definitely nothing but terrorism.
Prof. Richard Hay: Personal frustration and injustice do not seem to be applicable to terrorist leaders like Bin Laden. He was an affluent construction engineer. He was not even religious it is said. Later he learned religious texts and became devoted. He then became a missionary. There in Saudi Arabia he is said to have realized the atrocities America is committing against Muslim countries and decided to fight the powerful Americans by using terrorist tactics.
Dr. Babu Ravindran: Ultimately, the world requires ‘philosopher kings’. In a world where there is too much money and luxurious living among many, but hardly anything with a large majority, only divine rulers can manage to rule.
