When one thinks of “violence”, one thinks of hand-to-hand combat, bombs dropping, etc. Gandhi, however, argues for a less-though of form of violence as the worst type of violence. A good working definition of violence is that violence is the strength of an unpleasant force. This broad definition makes sense of Mahatma Gandhi’s statement: “Poverty is the worst form of violence.” Gandhi’s statement makes sense if one considers poverty as a soil that promotes degenerate social conditions. Degenerate social conditions cause upheavals. War is the ultimate end of poverty, with a sliding scale downwards. Poverty can be thought of as a foundation for horrible physical violent acts, such as war.

The result of being impoverished is that one cannot afford to escape one’s own surroundings. In order to be happy, people need to be free to move. Poverty disallows this mobility. Additionally, poverty creates a cycle of being uneducated. It is because the uneducated do not have the ability to see outside of their limited sphere. Poverty is, in this context, the root of all evils. If poverty is the root of all evils, then certainly poverty is the worst type of violence that exists in this world.

Gandhi argues that poverty is the worst form of violence. This is a strong statement, considering that there are immediate physical violence-types that are much more gruesome: murder, rape, assault…However, I argue that Gandhi’s statement is precise and correct. There are many things about poverty that exceed the immediacy of physical violence. Firstly, Gandhi would argue that poverty is the root of gruesome physical violence. Gruesome violence is momentary, whereas poverty is long-lasting. This is how poverty creates a violent atmosphere; poverty does not simply “go away”. Because poverty promotes on-going violence along with many tendencies to behave violently, poverty is a form of violence.

Gandhi is correct in his assertion that poverty is the worst form of violence because poverty keeps people from being able to partake in any activities that cure boredom. Sometime. Violence erupts because impoverished people are stir-crazy. These people are at each other’s throats because they cannot afford to get away from one and other. Moreover, there is no intellectual stimulation that the impoverished can afford. Therefore, poverty does contribute to violence by not allowing any other options for escapism. When people are trapped by poverty, they are unable to be free to leave, and they resent this entrapment. They enact their resentment by becoming violent in order to voice their frustrations.

Gandhi understood that poverty was also an education issue. Impoverished people are stuck in a cycle of being uneducated; thus, they are further unable to handle their frustrations. Additionally, without education, the impoverished are unable to build a foundation to escape the cycle of poverty. All of this depression, from being in poverty, creates violence as the alternative. The uneducated, and impoverished mind does not have any other options that it understands. In order to understand alternatives to violence, the poor must become educated. There is no progression from being incapacitated by poverty to being empowered by education; this is because poverty is the continual oppressor.

Keeping in mind that a loose working definition of “violence” is the unpleasant force of strength, then clearly, poverty fits this definition. It is the worst type of violence, because unlike the immediate physical violence that one usually associates with the term, “violence”, there is the long-drawn out oppression that creates suffering; thus, poverty is the worst type of violence. Physical violence is fleeting, but poverty is a continued condition of violence.