To understand this topic deeply we have to first define and understand violence. Violence means to violate the rights of a person. Therefore, generally speaking, stopping a person from eating is violence, cutting a person with a knife is violence, stopping a person from speaking his opinion is violence, etc.

But things are not so simple as we may first think. Stopping a person from eating is generally violence, but a parent stopping a child from eating too many sweets and thus protecting the child from getting sick is not violence, it could rather be violence to not stop the child in that situation. Of course it is also crucial how you stop the child. Sometimes it may even be better to let the child do its mistake and learn that way.

Cutting a person with a knife is generally violence, but when the doctor cuts the belly of his patient in order to cure him from an internal problem, it is not violence. Rather it would be violence on the part of the doctor to refuse doing this and let the person die from his problems.

Stopping a person from speaking his opinion is generally violence, but in many countries it is against the law to express nazi opinions publically, and a person who does so may be punished.

A police has weapons, for example a gun, he is also trained to use force when needed. When a police, maybe with the risk for his own life, uses force to stop a crazy guy from shoting innocent people he is praised for being a hero, even if that police had to kill the murderer. Of course a police must also be trained in diplomacy so that he can use that first if possible.

So ahimsa, non-violence, or minimizing violence, is practised by the parent in relation to the child, by the doctor in relation to the patient, by the law in relation to the situation of nazi opinions propagated in the society, and also by the police in relation to the murderer trying to kill innocent people.

All these are examples of ahimsa. From a holistic point of view, considering the law of karma, even the murderer is protected from violence by being killed by the police, since his continuing to kill more people would have created heaps of bad karma for him which would have caused him much more suffering in this and the next life.

In trying to minimize violence some kind of diplomacy should generally be used as a first attempt. If that fails, one may have to counteract violence by curbing the violator with force. Failing to do so, inspite of having the power to do so, may be violence.

From this we can understand that going to war is sometimes needed in order to minimize violence.

All this has to be dealt with in a balanced and sensitive manner. A vicious circle has to be carefully avoided. Forcefully counteracting a person or a group of persons may sometimes stir up their desire for revenge which may eventually create a long lasting vicious circle of violence. Sometimes tolerance is therefore a better way to minimize violence, if such tolerance is inspiring similar tolerance in the opponent.

The practice of ahimsa is a delicate matter and requires deep wisdom and understanding of the human nature.