What do you think is the best way to discipline a child?

Okay, I'm gonna ask this question again cause some people were being stupid about their answers and completely misinterpreting the question. We have a Niece that was orphaned last year, her mother died giving birth to her with AIDS, but she didn't contract it. Her father has never been heard of since her mother's death and presumably never wanted to take responsibility for her well being. Our family has just formally adopted her, and my sister insists on being the legal guardian of the child, though she hasn't finished school herself, so she's basically the parent. Our parents, since we're all living in one roof, are funding for all our education and welfare including the child; a school has been picked and she should start this September as she's now old enough for kindergarten. The problem however, arises when it comes to disciplining the child. Some of my siblings and the servants believe that the best way to raise her would be the beat her. They think this is effective because they were all beaten at this age until their late teens. And the same goes to me, I was beaten by the servants, as my parents gave them permission to do so, and my parents, mostly my mother beat me as she thought it would instill discipline on my siblings as well as myself. So it's really a chain of bad parenting and I want it to stop. As a child who was beaten most of her life, I think that though you beat a kid because you want them to learn, they only do what they think is the right thing at the time because they're afraid of being beaten again. And what's more is that beating creates fear, fear is completely different from respect. So just because a child is doing right and admits a mistake after a beating, just means they did it out of fear and not genuine respect and manners. Sometimes when I'm with this girl, even to hear the faint voice of my sister from a distance or any other person that beats her, I can already sense the fear. You shouldn't put a child in a position where their that scared. I think that she's become even worse off than she was when she first came in terms of discipline, and I blame it on the beating. Initially, she'd go the toilet fine and eat her food fine, if she had a problem she'd tell you, and she wouldn't even talk so much. Now she's approximately 4 years old this August, and she's all over the places throwing tantrums being loud and rowdy and all that whatnot. She's gradually learning violence as a result of the beating, and it's reached a point where she literally won't take anyone seriously unless you show her you'll beat her or make her think that you'll use physical force to make her do what she's supposed to do. I personally use a different mode to get things done and p my message through. If she doesn't finish the vegetables or doesn't go where she's been sent or do what she's been asked to do, I take away her favourite toy cause I know that it's of sentimental value to her, and tell her that if she wants the toy back, she has to finish her chores. And it works. But when I try and explain this kind of thing to my sister, she doesn't wanna listen and goes on and on about how we shouldn't tell her how to raise her kid. Same thing goes for the servants that beat her, they don't wanna hear it, and what they say about beating the kid goes, same to my mother. Another problem is that though they beat the kid, she doesn't understand when people say no to her. She's been force fed with starchy foods and sweets and juices... so whenever she sees you have something nice to eat she wants your food even after she's already eaten. When you tell her no, she nags to get her way. They give her the juice at the wrong time, especially at night, which is really a stupid thing to do cause there's a very high probability she's bound to wet the bed by the morning. Even when she was on diapers, they put her off the diapers, now. Which of course leads to more beating cause she wet the bed, and she's left there confused. Now when she wants to go to the toilet she's scared and doesn't say anything and sometimes pisses on herself. Which leads to more beating. Instead of explaining to her what she did wrong, my sister and those who beat her literally beat her and shout to her about what she did wrong. Now evidently when inflicting such pain on a child, she's already crying too loud to even hear you. So she simply cannot comprehend what it is you're doing and why you're doing it to her. She touches everything, wrote all over my school books that I was using to prep for my exams which was a bummer, and I told her unless she's under supervision my room is out of bounds, and now she got it and doesn't enter unless someone else is there. BUT, Literally right after that my sister beats her. The servants who beat her are the ones who are mostly