Has hate crime become as commonplace in India as, say, bribe-taking or road accidents? Perhaps not, but its very nature is such that it requires only small volumes to have its terrorising effect. Even so, the frequency is alarming. As is the impunity with which mob violence—lynching, to be specific—is erupting across India. It speaks as much about social decay as the abysmal delivery of law and order. From a remote part of Assam to urbane Bengaluru, from the outskirts of Delhi to Bengal and everything in between ... no state seems immune to this descent into predatory behaviour. Behind every incident is invariably a rumour on Facebook or videos on FB-owned WhatsApp.
With over 200 million Indians using social media, group activity has taken the form of collective revelling in toxic content, high-pitched reactions and spewing of bilge. It’s the biggest market for WhatsApp—hatred costs nothing. Hence it’s become the default pastime for a large section of population, replacing those jokes, songs, memes and sermons of godmen.
In this carnival of the grotesque, mobs of foul-mouthed young men, often underage, are ready to kill the vulnerable—a religious minority for rumours of cow slaughter, an immigrant for suspicions of child lifting, and those at the bottom of the caste pyramid for just trying to improve their lot. In the ’70s-80s, stray incidents would make headlines—of abandoned women being branded as ‘witches’ and getting lynched in tribal areas.
Now urban and peri-urban India have joined in. Lean and hungry, glazed-eyed youth, or 50-60 villagers, as seen in Hapur, where an elderly Muslim man was attacked. In Maharashtra, two Dalit boys. In Bengaluru, an immigrant labourer. The Union Home and IT ministries are in talks with the social media giants. The latter, for obvious reasons, are not ready to touch their encrypted messaging system. When Parliament meets for the monsoon session, maybe MPs on both sides of the aisle could sit together and consider a deterrent legal framework. Lest we turn into a feral nation.