Ironically, I am writing this post which is related to mob violence on the day of the birth anniversary of the two most peace-loving leaders from India M K Gandhi and Lal Bahadur Shastri. I was deeply shocked and disturbed to read the news of the mob lynching of a man because of suspicion that his family consumed and stored beef in their home. This incident happened in a village called Dadri in Uttar Pradesh. I wonder how come many people in India don't find this news deeply disturbing, I still remember the protests and public outrage when the Delhi gang rape and brutal murder happened, this incident is equally bad if not worse than that. A person's house was attacked by a mob, they beat him and his son brutally, the man succumbs to injuries and his son is recovering in hospital. Shockingly, the reason for all this was that people had a doubt that this person ate and stored beef in his home. Assuming that he did eat beef, who are these people to kill him like this?
Who is to blame for all this? The mob that became violent for such a trivial reason? Few people who actually attacked and killed that man? Politics of polarization which most political parties of India have been playing for decades to create such a divisive atmosphere? Administration and law and order that fails repeatedly to investigate such incidents and punish the culprits? Bystander's attitude of people who prefer to watch such things in silence rather than raising their voice against it? Or all of this? One can keep on playing the blame game but the the truth is that one innocent human lost his life for no reason. If only a few people were involved in attacking that family as many villagers claim, then how come a mob of almost a thousand people couldn't stop these few people from committing a murder? If most of the mob was non-violent then why did they allow lynching to happen in front of them?
Such mob violence or riots are heinous acts like terrorism. Terrorists also kill innocent people and rioters also do the same thing, but in India rarely do people responsible for riots get caught and punished. Very often riot or mob violence cases result in very shabby investigations and a very poor rate of conviction. This happens mainly because of the heavy political interest involved in such incidents. Political parties reap heavy political benefits from such tragic incidents, but I am surprised at how long people want to go on with such nonsense. I wrote a post about how a meat ban or beef ban in India is not at all about meat, it has some deeper political meaning than the claim of saving any animal. Such bans are intentional political ploys specifically designed to create polarization in society. The Muslim community is not the only community in India that consumes beef, rather many Muslims don't eat beef as it is not easily available in India, but still, somehow they are targeted every time for eating beef because of some malicious propaganda by certain right-wing organizations. These organizations are only interested in creating a deep rift between two communities, they don't care if this results in some riot, lynching, or murder, they just want to spread hatred. They want to create a homogeneous and non-diverse society where everyone follows the same religion, diet, dress code, and thought process. Any deviation from this is a problem, if you dare to object or question, then it doesn't matter who you are, you will be targeted and silenced if necessary. Such mentality was there in the past also, but it seems these people are getting more powerful day by day and others keeping silent is serving their purpose. Disturbing silence from the top leadership of India is puzzling, in the US the Presidents at least share their thoughts in the wake of any such tragedy, but in India, any such expectation is like living in a fool's paradise, and this seems especially true with the current government. Based on history, I know that nothing much will come out of any investigation of this incident, the government will give some monetary compensation, there will be communal politics played over this death, and then everyone will go back to their usual business until the next death or riot. This is somewhat becoming a routine, just like mass shootings in the USA. I hope people dare to look beyond politics on this issue and punish the culprits to make sure such incidents don't happen in the future. After all, we humans create these problems so we should be able to find solutions for them. I am deeply hurt and ashamed by this incident and hope there is some lesson for everyone to learn from this incident. If not, then we all are going to suffer, remember intolerance can affect each and every one of us who love our freedom, it is just a matter of time. Please fight to protect the freedom of others if you want to be free, today it's them, but tomorrow it can be you.
Who is to blame for all this? The mob that became violent for such a trivial reason? Few people who actually attacked and killed that man? Politics of polarization which most political parties of India have been playing for decades to create such a divisive atmosphere? Administration and law and order that fails repeatedly to investigate such incidents and punish the culprits? Bystander's attitude of people who prefer to watch such things in silence rather than raising their voice against it? Or all of this? One can keep on playing the blame game but the the truth is that one innocent human lost his life for no reason. If only a few people were involved in attacking that family as many villagers claim, then how come a mob of almost a thousand people couldn't stop these few people from committing a murder? If most of the mob was non-violent then why did they allow lynching to happen in front of them?
Such mob violence or riots are heinous acts like terrorism. Terrorists also kill innocent people and rioters also do the same thing, but in India rarely do people responsible for riots get caught and punished. Very often riot or mob violence cases result in very shabby investigations and a very poor rate of conviction. This happens mainly because of the heavy political interest involved in such incidents. Political parties reap heavy political benefits from such tragic incidents, but I am surprised at how long people want to go on with such nonsense. I wrote a post about how a meat ban or beef ban in India is not at all about meat, it has some deeper political meaning than the claim of saving any animal. Such bans are intentional political ploys specifically designed to create polarization in society. The Muslim community is not the only community in India that consumes beef, rather many Muslims don't eat beef as it is not easily available in India, but still, somehow they are targeted every time for eating beef because of some malicious propaganda by certain right-wing organizations. These organizations are only interested in creating a deep rift between two communities, they don't care if this results in some riot, lynching, or murder, they just want to spread hatred. They want to create a homogeneous and non-diverse society where everyone follows the same religion, diet, dress code, and thought process. Any deviation from this is a problem, if you dare to object or question, then it doesn't matter who you are, you will be targeted and silenced if necessary. Such mentality was there in the past also, but it seems these people are getting more powerful day by day and others keeping silent is serving their purpose. Disturbing silence from the top leadership of India is puzzling, in the US the Presidents at least share their thoughts in the wake of any such tragedy, but in India, any such expectation is like living in a fool's paradise, and this seems especially true with the current government. Based on history, I know that nothing much will come out of any investigation of this incident, the government will give some monetary compensation, there will be communal politics played over this death, and then everyone will go back to their usual business until the next death or riot. This is somewhat becoming a routine, just like mass shootings in the USA. I hope people dare to look beyond politics on this issue and punish the culprits to make sure such incidents don't happen in the future. After all, we humans create these problems so we should be able to find solutions for them. I am deeply hurt and ashamed by this incident and hope there is some lesson for everyone to learn from this incident. If not, then we all are going to suffer, remember intolerance can affect each and every one of us who love our freedom, it is just a matter of time. Please fight to protect the freedom of others if you want to be free, today it's them, but tomorrow it can be you.
Thanks for reading and please share your views on this topic.
[Copyright: Vinay Thakur. Please contact the author for re-posting or publishing]
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Your support for Muslims in the last paragraph is no suprise. Yeah like of poor poor muslims cant find any beef so lets feel sorry for them.
ReplyDeleteAnother Hindus bashing blog.
[[Muslim community is not the only community in India who consumes beef, rather many Muslims don't eat it as beef is not easily available in India but still somehow they are targeted every time for eating beef because of some heavy propaganda by certain right wing organizations. ]]
The killing of anyone over anythign is not acceptable.
This one killing of Muslim has become an International outcry by the media and do gooder bloggers like you who blatantly ignore the death, rapes of Hindus in Pakistan and Bangladesh.
I guess no matter what is written, you read what you want to read. This blog post is in no way support of Muslims or any other community. The post is specifically about the killing of a person by mob for trivial reason, according to me the reason is heavy polarization of society by some political ideologies and fringe elements. These people reap immense benefit by dividing people. I don't live in Bangladesh or Pakistan so if you know about those countries and are familiar about those issues please go ahead and write about them, I am sure people would like to know about those things. I write about things about which I know, so please don't come here to judge people, this is not the place to do that, share your views and respect others also. Thanks.
DeleteIts good to know your admission to having blinkers that filters hate towards Hindus. Point proven.
ReplyDeleteDo you know about your blinkers?? May be you are only interested in pointing out fingers at others, but don't worry comment like yours are not new or unusual for any person like me to get. SO I wish you well and hope that soon you will learn first to look at others without any blinkers and then think about issues also without any strong bias.
Delete