EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
Something strange has happened in the two largest democracies in the world. With the election of Donald Trump as American president and the earlier ascent of Narendra Modi as prime minister in India, there has been a tangible change in the social atmosphere of both countries. Hate crimes have increased and more than ever before people feel much freer to abuse, threaten and even kill minorities. India has recently seen a spate of horrific lynchings accompanied, quite disturbingly, by prolonged silences from those in power, at the Centre and in the states. From a 15yearold in Ballabhgarh who was knifed to death on a DelhiMathura train while returning from Eid shopping, to a 55yearold dairy farmer who was hunted down and murdered by a crazed crowd on a highway in Rajasthan for allegedly smuggling cows, the nation has watched in disgust at the descent into the dark ages where the mob rules and fear reigns. A detailed report by india today correspondents across 11 states shows that since June 2014, when a young IT professional was bludgeoned to death for ‘derogatory’ Facebook posts, there have been at least 50 cases of lynchings. Almost all the victims were Muslim or Dalit; 70 per cent were suspected of killing or smuggling cows.
Mohammad Akhlaq. Pehlu Khan. Junaid Khan. These are names that are branded on the nation’s conscience. The reasons for this scourge are quite apparent. It seems that the state has been complicit in whipping up hysteria around cow slaughter and beef export by not condemning toxic statements from members of the Sangh parivar. Almost 60 per cent of India now lives in BJPcontrolled states; cow slaughter is banned in 11 of 15 BJPruled states, allowing vigilantes to believe these killings have legal sanction. Coupled with this is the breakdown of law and order, deliberate or otherwise, that ensures the murderers are not always punished, and certainly not in time. Clinical psychologist Ashis Nandy, who writes in this issue, calls it the “chartered accountancy of violence” because the people who plan these attacks are not driven by faith or fanaticism but by calculations of political power. He says lynchings are a manifestation of a new type of abstracted, freefloating violence seeking a soft target. The deeper reason is that underlying tensions in society cause such resentments to explode into rage. Social mobility has not gone hand in hand with social cohesion. People are living in cities without imbibing civic values. Anyone who looks, prays, eats or lives different from the majority becomes the enemy. Sociologist Dipankar Gupta ascribes it to the imperfect establishment of rule of law. “Violence is also endemic where law enforcement officials are ambiguous about their role or partisan in the performance of their duties,” he says, adding that it is worse in a society like India which is in transition.
Fortunately, the silence around these lynchings has finally been broken. After nationwide protests by concerned citizens—spurred by social media amplification and called #NotInMyName—the prime minister made an appeal for nonviolence last fortnight. But it was ineffective given that within hours of his condemnation, Asgar Ansari was beaten to death on suspicion of carrying beef in Jharkhand’s Ramgarh district, and in the week that followed, at least three more people were lynched. The cover story by Executive Editor Damayanti Datta and Senior Associate Editor Kaushik Deka makes for chilling reading as it documents the horrors that are unfolding. It also analyses them in the context of rising anxieties about incomes, quality of life, relationships and public services. The mask of civility is slipping, the feral Indian is emerging. This is a far cry from the development mandate on which Prime Minister Modi was elected. It is besmirching his image as well as that of the country in the comity of civilised nations he wants so much to be part of. He cannot pretend to be an innocent bystander while these barbaric acts happen on his watch. Not anymore.