On Enmity
Good and sensible people aviod quarrels and enmities. Good and sensible communities look with disfavour on communal tension and communal riots and conflicts. Good and sensibe governments love peace and hate war. Law-breakers and criminals are enemies of society. Yet a good and sensible society does not treat anti-social elements in a human manner.
But sometimes enmities, quarrels and conflicts are forced on individuals, communities and nations. What to do in such circumstances? If it is a war between two nations the rules of civilised warfare should be followed. Prisoners of war should not be cruelly treated. The civil population should not be unnecessarily victimized. Similarly in race riots and communal riots the aim should be self-protection and not retaliation. For the settlement of differences and conflicts amnog individuals we have courts of justice. We should not take the law into our hands.
The golden rule is so to conduct our lives that we have no ill-wishers or enemies. If, unfortunately, some people are bent on doing us an ill turn, we should not think of revenge. There are good enemies and bad enemies. A good enemy morally disarms his opponent. The great ages of chivalry in Europe and Asi have many examples of noble enmity.
In dealing with an enemy we must never forget that one day he may become our friend. This means that we should do nothing which may make it impossible for our ertswhile enemy to become our friend later on. Extrees should be avoided at all costs. Moderation is a sign of strength.
We should do our best to treat cases of enmity in a sportsman-like spirit. In games we do not allow the efforts of the opposite team to rankel in our hearts. We are the first to congratulate the team which defected us. In order to win and to defeat our opposite party we should not break the rues of the game. It is not cricket.
In life, if we have an enemy, we should treat him as if he were a member of the team playing against us. After the conclusion of a cricket match the captain of the team playing host of the other team pened his speech with the words, “Our friend the enemy”. When cease-fire took place after pakistan’s attack shook hands with one another in Lahore in a most cordial manner; and the Pakistan regiment gave a sumptuous feast to the Indian officers. That is the proper spirit.
Meanness, ill-will, narrowness, cruel passions, savagery, necessary violence, blind hatred, must find no place in our hearts when we dealing with an enemy or an opponent. If enmity is forced on us let us prove ourselves to be nvel and civilsed enemies.
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