Ahimsa (Non-violence)
Ahimsa (Non-violence)
Ahimsa (Non-violence)
Non-violence (Ahimsa): its limitations
By
Chandrasekharan Kunnath
Introduction
Both Jesus Christ and Mahatma Gandhi believed that the right thing to do if someone slaps you on your cheek is to show him the other cheek. This philosophy is admirable if you exclude inevitable war and certain situations that render violence inevitable. This article is about one such situation from real life.
The situation
My wife and I live in Trivandrum, Kerala, India. About 2 years ago, we decided to sell our country house on 15 cents of land about 13 kilometres from the city and buy a flat about 3 kilometres from the centre of the city. The flat was going to cost us a fortune as it was situated in a locality where the elite lived. We had to sell the house and get paid for it as soon as possible. A neighbour brought his friend as a prospective buyer. He saw our house along with his wife, his daughter and son-in-law. They liked approved of the house. We agreed on a price of Rs.40 lakhs. I was paid Rs.2 lakhs as an advance and asked to sign an agreement by which I acknowledged receipt of Rs.2 lakhs and promised to transfer title to the house when I received full payment 3 months from the date of the agreement. This agreement said that if I did not receive full payment within the 3 month period, I was free to sell the house to anyone else and I could make good any loss that I suffered in doing so.
In the meanwhile, we had paid an advance to the builder and booked our flat.
The 3 months passed and no payment was forthcoming. I contacted the intending buyer (he will be referred to as X' in the rest of this article) and asked him for payment. X said he wanted one more month's time. He explained that he was hoping to pay me out of the sale proceeds of a large property belonging to him worth about Rs.3 crores on which he had taken an advance payment. Unfortunately, the intending buyer of this property had changed his mind and was not prepared to complete the transaction. I asked X why he could not pay me out of the advance he had taken and X explained that his son-in-law who was a real estate agent had already advanced the money on some other property. He pleaded with me to extend the time by one month and promised he would somehow complete the transaction during that time. I reluctantly agreed but told him that I would give him nothing in writing.
I was taken for a ride
One more month passed and no payment was forthcoming. I contacted X again. He said that he wanted one last extension of time by one month as he was expecting funds from the sale of another property belonging to him which he had to sell at a low price to fulfil his commitment to me. I did not believe what he said but I told him that I had already advertised but I would let him know before committing myself to another buyer. I told him this without any real intention of doing so because I knew he was taking me for a ride by making me wait indefinitely.
Meanwhile, I was under pressure from the builder to make an additional payment on our flat. When I told him that my commitment to X was holding things up, he said very sternly that I had better look for another buyer and that he suspected X was playing a game: real estate prices were rising and X was waiting for prices to rise further so that he could resell and make a profit.
I promptly advertised my house and got a buyer who was prepared to pay Rs.42.5 lakhs (Rs.2.5 lakhs more than X). This buyer paid me an advance of Rs.15 lakhs and I paid this amount to the builder. I called X and told him that I had sold the house to someone else and he was free to come and collect the money he had paid me. X was furious. He said he did not want the money but wanted the house and that the entire price of the house was ready. I told him it was too late as I had already sold the house. He said I was not as good as my word and I had let him down. I agreed I had broken my verbal promise for 2 reasons:
1 The builder who was selling my flat to me forced me.
2 He was the one who broke his promise in the first place.
X was in a rage. He banged the phone down.
The next day, I called X and asked him whether he had a bank account so that I could refund his Rs.2 lakhs by cheque. He replied that he had no bank account and I could give him a cheque in his wife's name. I could not agree to this as the transaction was between him and me but I offered to refund the money in cash against his receipt.
Violence pays
The next day, I went to X's house with my neighbour who had introduced X to me. As soon as he saw me, X started bitterly complaining and finding fault with me. In the presence of my neighbour, I paid X the Rs.2 lakhs he had paid me and asked him to return the agreement I had signed. He said he did not have the agreement as he had given it to his son-in-law. He and my neighbour both said the agreement said nothing about X's returning it to me if I refunded the money. I realized my neighbour was more on his side than mine. I expected this. So, I produced a receipt for him to sign. Meanwhile, he had counted the money and locked it away. Now, X refused to sign the receipt. I told him he had received the money that I had paid him; he had to sign a receipt for it. X coolly asked me which money I was talking about and my neighbour said nothing. I told him I had signed an agreement when he paid me the money and now I had paid him back. He simply said that it was his money and not my money; so he did not have to sign a receipt. I insisted that he should either sign a receipt or return the agreement I had signed. He was adamant and my neighbour was conniving. I realized I had to be aggressive and intimidating. So, I called him a few names and took a belligerent stand. I weigh about 95 kilogrammes. He, about 70 kilogrammes but my neighbour weighed about 90 kilogrammes. I knew I could handle X but I was not sure I could handle both of them together as both of them were at least 20 years younger. At this point, my neighbour did the sensible thing that prevented blows being exchanged. X's wife also tried to drag him away so that we would not actually engage in a fist fight. My neighbour said I was not the only one who could fight; everyone could fight, each according to his strength and fighting abilities. Finally, my neighbour said to me that after all, what I wanted was a signed receipt and he persuaded his friend to sign it. X did this reluctantly with dire imprecations. That was that. Violence was inevitable. It paid. We now live happily in our flat.
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