In most of the common compound words such as “改革”，“革新”，“变革”, "革" is
obviously associated with "change" and "renovation", while "removal" is the less
common and older interpretation.
Also there are many phrases in Chinese to suggest that 革命 is not necessarily violence related.
For example, 工业革命，农业革命，技术革命，暴力革命，非暴力革命，etc.
Any educated Chinese with common sense would understand that 革命 is not equivalent to "take life".

English doesn't even have a word for the concept of 革命 --- "revolution" is a loan
word whose orgininal meaning is 旋转。So English speakers all consider 革命 and
旋转 the same?