On June 8, two young men were lynched to death by a mob in karbi Anglong district of Assam

What is mob lynching?

• Mob Lynching means killing of someone by a mob for an alleged offence without following any principles of jurisprudence or due process of law.
• A lynching is a majority way of telling a minority population that the law cannot protect it.
• Lynching served the broad social purpose of maintaining superiority in economic, social, cultural and political sphere.

Reasons

1. With modernity, there is growth of individualism and an erosion of associational life

• Associations encourage us to appreciate others culture and moderate our aggressive instincts.

2. Mob has no face. This impunity leads mob to take extreme steps
3. Weakening of civil society organizations and other organic institutional links.
4. A culture of political mobilization that uses violence as a tool of politics.
5. Indifferent attitude towards other cultures and religions.
6. Indifferent attitude of Police leads people to take law in their own hands (e.g. Tamil Nadu Lynching)

• In 21% of the cases, the police filed cases against the victims/survivors. (India spend report)

7. Rise in penetration of Social media and its usage to spread rumors and hatred (Bangalore Exodus of North east people)
8. Growing Prevalence of Fake news and Hate News (Dadri Lynching). There are instances of organized hate campaigns as well.

• According to ‘India spend’ 52% of attacks in last 8 years is based on rumors.

9. The silence of political class. They are ineffective to create deterrence through strong law.
10. Ineffective and delayed justice (Assam Lynching of rape accused).
11. High Unemployment rates leave millions of youth unengaged. (ManesarMaruti Plant Incident)

Impact

State

• It is against the values upheld in constitution of India.
• Every individual have certain fundamental rightsany violence would be curtailment of this right.
• No regard to law and order in society.
• This may lead to growth of feeling of sub-nationalism.
• Radical and extremists organisations such as ISIS etc could take leverage of atmosphere created by such incidents

Society

• This impact solidarity of society and idea of Unity in diversity
• This create an atmosphere of majority v/s minority
• It could aggravate caste, class and communal hatred.
• This may increase the extent of domestic conflict and subsequent militarization.
• Such acts shows loss of tolerance in the society and people are being swayed by emotions,prejudices etc.

Economy

• This impacts both foreign and domestic investment thereby adversely affecting sovereign ratings. Many International agencies warned India against mob lynching incidents.
• It directly hampers internal migration which in turn affects economy.
• Large resources deployed to tackle such menaces induces extra burden on state-exchequer.
• These incidents would led to selective distribution of investment which may impact regional balance.

Steps taken so far

• Government Launched Ek bharat shreshta bharat for sustained and structured cultural connect between citizens of different regions
• Civil society Launched ‘NOT IN MY NAME’ campaign: to protest against the cow vigilantism.
• Civil society also lunched National Campaign Against Mob Lynching (NCAML). It also known as ‘Masuka’, short for ManavSurakshaKanoon (law to protect humans).
• A draft of the proposed legislation is currently up on the Internet, awaiting suggestions from the public.

What needs to be done

• Government should criminalizes the act of mob violence.
• Awarding of penalties on public servants for failing to investigate properly due to malafide intentions or wilful neglect of their duties.
• Establishment of Special Courts for the trial of mob violence.
• Empowering local law enforcement officials to take pre-emptive action.
• There needs to be continued responsiveness on part of the local administration in dealing with anxiety and suspicion in local communities.
• Create a mechanism to insulate investigations of communal violence from political interference.
• Community Sensitisation and awareness through multi-media campaigns.Counter-information campaign to check fear-mongering and fake news.
• Strengthen civil society Organisation. This helps to nurture solidarity.
• Re-orient values and traditional principles towards enhancing compassion, empathy and fraternity among people.
• Find productive engagement avenues for large unemployed or under-employed youths.
• A targeted region specific approach is need of the hour as reasons for such acts vary widely across space.
• Police reforms are vital along with sensitization drive to make transformational changes in their behavioural and attitudinal approach towards tackling of crime.