Mob Lynching: Changing Patterns of Communal Violence in India

THE year 2018 saw 84 incidents of mob lynching. Mob lynching defined in section I of this report has assumed unprecedented proportions in the discourse of violence in India.

According to CSSS findings, 60 lives were lost and 102 persons were injured in 84[2] incidents of mob lynching reported in five newspapers. For mob lynching too like incidents of communal violence, CSSS monitored Mumbai editions of five newspapers namely, The Indian Express, Times of India, The Hindu, Safahat, and Inquilab. Out of these 84 incidents, 25 incidents of mob lynching were related to cow vigilantism or cow vigilantism related violence and inter-religious marriages.

To that extent, the incidents related to cow vigilantism and inter-faith relationships will be analyzed in detail since they come directly under the purview of communal violence and the narratives that are weaved to demonize the marginalized communities.

Though cow vigilantism related violence and violence related to inter-faith relationships constitute communal violence due to its aim to demonize communities based on religious identities and also such violence arises out of communal narratives, CSSS attributes the overall culture of mob lynching to blatant impunity given to lumpen elements to achieve communal agenda of the powerful.

The Culture of Mob Lynching: Triggers and Discourses

If the 84 incidents are carefully analyzed, some pattern in terms of the relationship between the violence and popular narratives spread through social media, political propaganda or rumours etc can be discerned. Thus CSSS has categorized the incidents of mob lynching in the following broad categories: Cow vigilantism or cow vigilantism related, inter-religious marriages, child lifting, theft related and others. In 2018, majority of incidents of mob lynching are related to child lifting (41) followed by cow vigilantism (16), inter-religious marriages/ relationships (9), theft (8) and others (10).

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Conclusion:

In part I of the report, the role of the state and the trend to revictimize the victims of communal violence was discussed in details. In the case of mob lynching, the similar observations hold true. The culture of mob lynching enjoying sometime overt support of the State and other times tacit support heralds a complete collapse of rule of law and encourages majoritarian oppression.

Mob lynching is a new form of communal violence where through the assault on individuals is carried out in the most macabre manner to strike fear in the vulnerable communities and establish the hegemony of the majority or the powerful. The result is the uncontrolled spiraling culture of violence and impunity which poses a formidable challenge to constitutional law and democracy.

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Created on Jun 28th 2020 00:38. Viewed 203 times.

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