India: Just a chapter on mob lynching in syllabus, is it possible?

A speedy action taken by the mob amidst a pandemic should be as severe as the pandemic itself. All incidences should either be recorded by the social scientist,  historians, psychologists, lawyers,  sociologists, playwriters, etc. who would play an active role in visualizing and evaluating brute human behavior taking the lives of ordinary people.

This subject is not new to world polity, laws, and governance. The worst series of lynching in US history against the blacks demanded not just framing the laws but urges for solemn enactment and implementation after that.

Lynching not just violates Article 14 ‘equality before the law or equal protection of the laws’ and Article 15 ‘prohibition of discrimination against any citizen on the grounds of religion, race, caste, sex, etc. It also violates the word ‘life’ under article 21 of the Indian constitution, which does not primarily deal with physical sense but chunks of worth living and human dignity. Unfortunately, it has forgotten the growing paralysis of the human mind and rationality that provokes them the denial of peaceful death or natural death or dignified death circumstances. After all, mob lynching has become a polished style of persecution involving the top-down machinery. From policy-makers to the lowest in the strata, i.e., the people keep justifying the incidences into paper, considering it as heinous as murder, rape other such crimes.

Some of the senior advocates like Indira Jaisingh pleaded the highest courts to take intense action against the contemporary pattern of ‘mobster taking lives of human.’ A striking report published by IndiaSpend claims an increase up to 98% in lynching cases since 2014 related to cow protection activities as reported. It also raises serious questions of ‘breaching the laws in the presence of law protectors- police administration.’

The question of revising a chapter in Indian subjects is undeniable. The public administration has a broad wing of Indian Police Services or Administration called IPS, which requires a vigorous discussion, and discourse of mob lynching is still a bland subject. All incidences, including the very recent Palghar district in Maharashtra, was given a communal angle under the deceived idea of New Indian Mobocracy , which allowed an immediate arrest of hundreds of culprits.

No such action was taken on media, journalists, and political heads that were busily engaged in giving it a usual ‘Hindu-Muslim’ opinion and a personal ideological view. Despite the denial by the state and local administration to call it a communal issue, hate-mongering continued to put into the quadrant of left-wing and right-wing war amidst pandemic. A robust revival of journalism laws and regulations on critical matters amidst epidemic, that increases probable chances of depression and trepidation cases.

It has relevance in the domain of sociology as involving two particular sections of the society, the mob constituting a more significant part, and a victim usually one-three in numbers. Hence, an essential subject of opening scope for researches on such topics would compile the complications and investigation into horror endure by the human mind and body in a larger family-society.

Nevertheless, literary theories and playwright revolve more around power, politics, and individual social lives in the form of short stories and poetry. A greater enlivenment on the mob lynching subject would help in creating awareness among the people through theatre and writing platforms around the world.

The Indian law books are overflowing with such illegitimate, and unnatural death claimed as mob murdered involving humans on both the side. That’s utterly a shame on humanity first, then the subject of legal proceedings for both counseling and punishments to the criminals is to be done. But sadly, administration, sociology, and psychology are critical social subjects meant for adults in colleges and not for the minors and juvenile awareness.

The mob lynch would have been recorded as a heinous crime followed by a strict action and punishment if the matter would have been seriously taken into account on all previously and many unnamed cases of taking the lives of people as the ultimate solution to humanity.

All legislations and bills passed by states parliament, including West Bengal Assembly, to prevent and punish mob assaulting and injuring a person recommended jail detention of minimum three to life imprisonment give the light of hope to the general public. But there is still more to done and explain the causes of such barbarity.

These are incidences where urgent preventive and remedial measures are taken to secure social order. An assertive and imperative judgment declared by the center and state is required to cease ‘mob hooliganism’ or ‘mobster’ in the near future.

The discourse of social inequalities and denial of a dignified death to a person is an inconsiderable or partially highlighted subject in the Indian Democracy. It should be made parallel as that of guarantying impressive socio-economic equalities, as the Indian mob is likely to defy tolerance and positivity in the long-run.