Q. Mob lynching is not only an assault on an individual but an attack on the collective conscience of the society. Comment.
Q. Mob lynching is not only an assault on an individual but an attack on the collective conscience of the society. Comment.
Approach:
- Start the answer with writing the definition of Mob lynching and cite a few cases to highlight the issue.
- Write why and how mob lynching incidents are increasing.
- How it is affecting Indian society.
- Provide a conclusion based on the arguments provided.
Oxford dictionary defines lynching as murder by a group of people for an alleged offence without a legal trial. A number of cases -Pehlu Khan, Junaid Khan, Allimuddin Ansari being some-of mobs descending on individuals and in the name of protecting cow, religion or other trivial disputes, brutally murdering them.
They were 'we', the people of the world's largest democracy, who were hunted, beaten and tortured to death by vengeful, bloodthirsty crowds. Horrific images, reports and video clips of people being tortured or dying terrible deaths are surfacing every now and then.
Causes
- Rise of majoritarian tendencies: A section of society has cultivated a twisted idea of democracy where consideration of the aspiration of minority communities is viewed as being undemocratic. They have also successfully converted the deep fissures in the society along caste/religious lines and the economic resentment into personal victimhood and hate against a specific community
- Silence or complicity of the political class : Political class has not taken a leadership position on this issue. At times, the issue of lynching is electorally favourable and hence they remain silent. Many times polarisation in the society based on hate helps them build their political capital.
- Lack of an intellectual or cultural movement : A mass movement to explain and provide solution to mob lynching has not come up.
- Silence of the middle class : A large section of the society is callous or indifferent to these acts of violence. This may be because these incidents happen in rural areas and they are living in cities. OR may be because these incidents do not affect their livelihood.
- Lack of strict legislations that address the issue of hate crimes
- Social media : Whatsapp facebook etc makes the spread of unverified news and hate speech very easy.
How mob lynching is against very fabric of Indian Society:
The culture of collective murders as a social phenomenon is moving from the margins to the mainstream. For long, such incidents happened to the large numbers of 'invisible people' living in obscure corners of the country amidst lawlessness, natural disaster, deprivation and poverty.
The lynchings from the '80s and '90s,were built around greed for property, robbery and theft, neighbourly or family disputes, local politics, superstition and disease, which often developed into allegations of witchcraft. They probably had no ethnic or religious core. The infamous Khairlanji massacre of 2006, where four members of a Dalit family were lynched, mutilated and murdered in a tiny Maharashtra village by members of 'upper' castes, was an act of retaliation linked to the land.
With the new issue of beef and cattle trade, lynching is becoming ubiquitous. It can happen anywhere, anytime. It's strange how normal people turn beasts when part of a crowd.
Psychologist believes "A crowd can affect an individual's behaviour, especially, a raging crowd". Also, It's now believed aggression is contagious.
A mob also provides cover for the release of deep-seated emotions: anger, fear, suspicion, resentment, frustration, prejudice, malice. One trigger and things suddenly get out of hand. It's what Freud described as 'mass psychology' in the wake of World War I.
Tolerance, pluralism , mutual respect are the basis of Indian society. The increasing incidents of hatred and mob lynching have torn apart the very fabric of our plural and vibrant society. At a time when ‘We’ as a nation growing leap and bound in economic growth and making strides in technological developments; the incidents of lynching are distrubing. Does religion or socio-cultural differences, in which India takes pride are the only reasons for the Lynching ? Or is it our collective conscience and societal values become so narrow that it turned all of us from tolerant and mutually respecting, accommodative society to intolerant and mob lynchers. Certainly, these incidents are not only an assault on an individual or few but an attack on the collective conscience of the society.
As Theodore Roosevelt rightly said, “The nation, like the individual, cannot commit a crime with impunity. If we are guilty of lawlessness and brutal violence, whether our guilt consists in active participation therein or in mere connivance and encouragement, we shall assuredly suffer later on because of what we have done”.
Only the fear of law can never be the solution for lynching. The collective conscience must needs to prevail. Rising intolerance and growing polarization expressed through spate of incidents of mob violence cannot be permitted to become the normal way of life or the normal state of law and order”. So the onus is upon all of us to raise voice against “horrendous acts of mobocracy”.
We all should keep in mind that the core of democracy and our Constitution is fraternity. As Dr.Ambedkar said,” fraternity, which is only another name for democracy. It is primarily a mode of associated living, of conjoint communicated experience. It is essentially an attitude of respect and reverence towards one’s fellow men’.
Approach:
- Start the answer with writing the definition of Mob lynching and cite a few cases to highlight the issue.
- Write why and how mob lynching incidents are increasing.
- How it is affecting Indian society.
- Provide a conclusion based on the arguments provided.
Oxford dictionary defines lynching as murder by a group of people for an alleged offence without a legal trial. A number of cases -Pehlu Khan, Junaid Khan, Allimuddin Ansari being some-of mobs descending on individuals and in the name of protecting cow, religion or other trivial disputes, brutally murdering them.
They were 'we', the people of the world's largest democracy, who were hunted, beaten and tortured to death by vengeful, bloodthirsty crowds. Horrific images, reports and video clips of people being tortured or dying terrible deaths are surfacing every now and then.
Causes
- Rise of majoritarian tendencies: A section of society has cultivated a twisted idea of democracy where consideration of the aspiration of minority communities is viewed as being undemocratic. They have also successfully converted the deep fissures in the society along caste/religious lines and the economic resentment into personal victimhood and hate against a specific community
- Silence or complicity of the political class : Political class has not taken a leadership position on this issue. At times, the issue of lynching is electorally favourable and hence they remain silent. Many times polarisation in the society based on hate helps them build their political capital.
- Lack of an intellectual or cultural movement : A mass movement to explain and provide solution to mob lynching has not come up.
- Silence of the middle class : A large section of the society is callous or indifferent to these acts of violence. This may be because these incidents happen in rural areas and they are living in cities. OR may be because these incidents do not affect their livelihood.
- Lack of strict legislations that address the issue of hate crimes
- Social media : Whatsapp facebook etc makes the spread of unverified news and hate speech very easy.
How mob lynching is against very fabric of Indian Society:
The culture of collective murders as a social phenomenon is moving from the margins to the mainstream. For long, such incidents happened to the large numbers of 'invisible people' living in obscure corners of the country amidst lawlessness, natural disaster, deprivation and poverty.
The lynchings from the '80s and '90s,were built around greed for property, robbery and theft, neighbourly or family disputes, local politics, superstition and disease, which often developed into allegations of witchcraft. They probably had no ethnic or religious core. The infamous Khairlanji massacre of 2006, where four members of a Dalit family were lynched, mutilated and murdered in a tiny Maharashtra village by members of 'upper' castes, was an act of retaliation linked to the land.
With the new issue of beef and cattle trade, lynching is becoming ubiquitous. It can happen anywhere, anytime. It's strange how normal people turn beasts when part of a crowd.
Psychologist believes "A crowd can affect an individual's behaviour, especially, a raging crowd". Also, It's now believed aggression is contagious.
A mob also provides cover for the release of deep-seated emotions: anger, fear, suspicion, resentment, frustration, prejudice, malice. One trigger and things suddenly get out of hand. It's what Freud described as 'mass psychology' in the wake of World War I.
Tolerance, pluralism , mutual respect are the basis of Indian society. The increasing incidents of hatred and mob lynching have torn apart the very fabric of our plural and vibrant society. At a time when ‘We’ as a nation growing leap and bound in economic growth and making strides in technological developments; the incidents of lynching are distrubing. Does religion or socio-cultural differences, in which India takes pride are the only reasons for the Lynching ? Or is it our collective conscience and societal values become so narrow that it turned all of us from tolerant and mutually respecting, accommodative society to intolerant and mob lynchers. Certainly, these incidents are not only an assault on an individual or few but an attack on the collective conscience of the society.
As Theodore Roosevelt rightly said, “The nation, like the individual, cannot commit a crime with impunity. If we are guilty of lawlessness and brutal violence, whether our guilt consists in active participation therein or in mere connivance and encouragement, we shall assuredly suffer later on because of what we have done”.
Only the fear of law can never be the solution for lynching. The collective conscience must needs to prevail. Rising intolerance and growing polarization expressed through spate of incidents of mob violence cannot be permitted to become the normal way of life or the normal state of law and order”. So the onus is upon all of us to raise voice against “horrendous acts of mobocracy”.
We all should keep in mind that the core of democracy and our Constitution is fraternity. As Dr.Ambedkar said,” fraternity, which is only another name for democracy. It is primarily a mode of associated living, of conjoint communicated experience. It is essentially an attitude of respect and reverence towards one’s fellow men’.
