What is Lynching?

Lynching means to illegally kill a person suspected of an offense without a trial, often by a public mob. In the past few years, incidents of mob lynching rose in India. Religious polarization and fake social media news are the two main drivers of increased lynching in India.

The term 'lynch' refers to a self-made court that punishes a person without giving them a chance to defend themselves; such actions are based on religious prejudice or rumours, and the cause for this is a mentality clash between different communities.

Every act of criminality alters the core of justice in society. These are also known as extrajudicial punishments, in which the victim is assumed to be the perpetrator by the general public.

This word was derived from the name of a Virginia landowner named Charles Lynch, who was the head of an irregular court founded to punish loyalists during the American Revolution.

Mob Lynching

• Mob-lynching is one of those horrific crimes in which a person is targeted by a group of people, and the violence is equivalent to crimes against human body or property, both public and private.
• It is a violent act in which a gang of people, acting together, target and illegally kill a person. The Supreme Court of India has referred to these mobs as "Horrendous acts of Mobocracy."
• A person's right to life, as defined by Article 21 of the Indian constitution, is also jeopardized. This is the most recent addition to the list of offenses.
• This can even be classified as one of the worst types of crime because one person infringes on the rights of another in order to satisfy their own selfish motives.
• Because there is no legal authority, it is frequently referred to as vigilante justice. The concept of compassion and justice is completely violated by such brutal violence and uncontrolled mob behaviour.
• When such traumatic situations occur, not only a single person is impacted, but the entire society is forced to deal with the effects.
• In India, mob lynching has been a crime with a latent threat looming over people's heads. The majority fears the minority, and the minority fears the majority, creating a cycle of fear that leads to the crime of mob lynching.
• While there are many factors that can contribute to mob lynching, religion and a lack of respect for and belief in the country's legal system are at the top of the list. Misunderstanding historical ideas can also set the fire ablaze.
• There is no codified law in India prohibiting mob lynching; however, Sub Section(a) of Section 223 of the Criminal Procedure Code, 1973 contains the relevant provision for persons being charged jointly for the same offense committed in the course of the same transaction that is applicable to two or more people.
• Those who are lynched are treated inhumanely. They are frequently beaten, chained, and hanged, resulting in serious injury or death.
• It has been noticed that rumours and misleading information are the primary causes of mob lynching in the majority of cases. While doing so, these individuals believe they are punishing the offender, but they forget that by acting in this way, they are taking law into their own hands. Only the concept of lynching arose from there.
• When viewed from a broader perspective, mob lynching is a result of the terror that has been instilled in the minds of the people.

History of Mob Lynching

• This tactic was developed in America, where it was originally used against black people with the primary goal of suppressing them.
• Following that, in the seventeenth century, when there were so many riots in England due to political unrest, so many occurrences of mob lynching were reported.
• Violent group activities were quite common in the British Atlantic region, where group violence was thought to be harmless or non-toxic in terms of purpose.
• During the civil war, black individuals were hanged in America due to racial discrimination, while Mexicans were targeted in the southwest.
• According to certain studies, there were 4730 people lynched in the United States of America between 1882 and 1951, with 3437 of them being black and 1293 being white, highlighting the racial turmoil in the country at the time.
• When southern democrats regained power and began controlling state legislatures in 1892, the number of mob lynchings reached an all-time high.
• However, by the end of the twentieth century, all southern states had passed new laws prohibiting blacks and poor whites from voting and isolating them from public life. During that time, the law was highly divisive, with 3500 black and 1300 white Americans lynched.
• These occurrences have been on the rise for years, thanks to the backing of local law enforcement. It is one of the most improper practices because, many times, innocent individuals are forced to become victims as a result of rumors.
• In addition, several German courts had rules for imposing fines or penalties in situations of lynching. To preserve public dread, these atrocities were performed in public so that the public's conscience may be affected.
• Mob lynching and violence can be found in every civilization and country, but especially in places like South Africa, Guatemala, and Brazil, where mob lynching rates are quite high.

Reasons for Mob Lynching in India

• There are insufficient laws in the Indian Penal Code and Criminal Procedural Code to deal with this major problem.
• Laws protecting minorities and persons from lower castes are not sufficiently applied.
• Police officers are subjected to a great deal of political pressure.
• Intolerance against a particular group is growing by the day, and misinformation is spreading as a result of people's growing anger.
• With the rising unemployment rate, youth are easily misled by political and religious forces.
• Another reason that these mob lynching events are documented is that there is a bias against a particular class.
• Personal animosity between various groups.
• One of the factors that encourages people to choose this manner of dispensing justice is the low conviction rate.
• Fake news is widely spread on social media, which in turn encourages the masses.
• Social tensions such as class, caste, and religious conflict are deeply rooted in the minds of Indian citizens, and it is for this reason that the marginalized are driven into a never-ending cycle of injustice.

 

Incidents of Mob Lynching in India

Internal tensions between different communities in India are the main causes of mob lynchings, whereby people from one ethnic minority group assault those from another ethnic minority group who are accused of committing a crime.

It has been noted that persons from the marginalized part are the eventual victims in the majority of incidents. For example, in the village of Kherlanji in the Bhandara region of Maharashtra, four Dalit families were assaulted and massacred by a few members of the Kunbi caste in 2006.

This episode occurred as a result of communal violence, and it is thought that it was caused by a fight between the upper and lower castes. According to reports, the Dalit family refused to give up their land for the construction of a road that would benefit the upper caste, and as a result, they were murdered.

Female Dalit family members were compelled to take off their garments. We don't have particular rules in India to prevent mob lynching, however section 223(a) of the criminal process code of 1973 states that if the same allegations are brought against multiple people, they can all be held jointly accountable for the crime.

Examples of Mob Lynching from India

• 2006 Bhiwandi Mob Lynching:
  • It is a lynching case in which two police constables from the Bhiwandi region of Maharashtra's Thane district were slain by a mob made up largely of Muslims.
  • It was interpreted as a retaliation for the police killing of two Muslim males. The killing of Muslim males boiled the people's blood to the point where they stabbed both constables to death.
     
• 2015 Dimapur Mob Lynching:
  • On March 5, 2015, in Dimapur, Nagaland, a crowd of 8000 to 9000 people stormed the Dimapur central jail and attacked one of the inmates who had been charged with rape in one of the rape cases.
  • The enraged mob compelled him to strip naked in response to the rising number of rape and sexual harassment charges in the area.
  • Farid Khan and three of his buddies assaulted and intoxicated a twenty-year-old Shri Digambar Jain Girls College student on February 23, 2015, and afterwards raped her multiple times. They even offered her a payment to be quiet.
  • An FIR was filed against all of them on February 25th under sections 476, 363, and 344 of the Indian Penal Code. During the trial, they all said it was consenting intercourse because money was exchanged for the same thing.
  • The enraged mob lost control and showered all of the accused with stones, dragging him for almost 7 kilometers before killing him on the way to the clock tower. His body was then displayed on the clock tower so that no one would dare to do it against a girl in the future.
  • Police had to use tear gas and blanks to keep the mob under control. During the altercation, 52 police officers were injured, and ten of their vehicles were set on fire. The mob believed that the state's justice system was broken and that instant action was required, hence it was the correct thing to do.
     
• 2015 Dadri Mob Lynching:
  • It is a case in which residents from Bisara village, near Dadri in Uttar Pradesh, attacked Mohammed Akhlaq, a fifty-two-year-old man, on suspicion of slaughtering a cow.
  • Residents of Bisara village assaulted Mohammad Akhlaq on the fateful night of September 28, 2015, because they suspected him of stealing and butchering cows.
  • Bricks and knives were thrown at him. He was unable to bear those bodily injuries as a result of this violent deed, and he died; his twenty-year-old son Danish was also severely injured.
  • When the case was brought before the court, they stated that, first and foremost, the evidence of the meat could indicate whether the meat was meat or beef, and that the meat was assured to be cow meat in the forensic lab.

However, in this case, the court found Mohammad Akhlaq not guilty because the beef was not fit for human consumption. Following the lynching, there were political reactions from all throughout the country. As a result, the family received monetary recompense.

2016 Jharkhand Mob Lynching
Two Muslim cattle traders, Ansari, 32, and Imtiaz Khan, 12, both of Jharkhand, were hung from a tree in 2016 because a crowd claimed they were murdering livestock.
According to the villagers, the point of contention here was that there was some community animosity in the area about beef consumption. As per the Jharkhand Vikas Morcha, this incident raises serious questions about humanity. The defendants were taken to trial by the Jharkhand police after a few days.

2019 Palghar Mob Lynching:
The recent Palghar mob lynching case, in which two Juna Akhara Hindu sadhus and their driver were beaten in Maharashtra's Palghar district in 2020 because all three of them were mistaken for kid thieves after rumours circulated over WhatsApp that several criminals were roaming the locality.

When the police intervened and tried to prevent them from taking the law into their own hands, they were beaten up by the mob as well. The Maharashtra administration got widespread condemnation and backlash as a result of this.

115 villagers were later detained on criminal charges, but they all claimed to be innocent, claiming that they mistook the sadhus and drivers for kidnappers and organ harvesting gangs. The fact that the vehicle arrived at night only added to their suspicions that they were kidnappers.

Given the seriousness of the crime, India's National Human Rights Commission requested that the Mumbai police chief provide detailed data on what action was done against the perpetrators and how much compensation was awarded to the victim's family.

Impact of Mob-Lynching on the Society:

• This act of people taking the law into their own hands due to a lack of understanding of the justice system poses a severe danger to the Rule of Law and Natural Justice concepts.
• Such activities have also posed a major threat to the country's minority populations, and adequate measures must be made to prevent and deter such crimes.
• Furthermore, vigilantes with some political affiliations to right-wing groups have perpetrated acts of violence, believing themselves to be politically proper while doing so.
• Across the country, mob violence has frequently resulted in the promotion of majoritarianism by propagating the majority's values while limiting minorities' basic rights.
• People taking justice into their own hands in a country like India is unacceptable, because inhabitants of the country have been awarded many fundamental rights, and such lynching cases are an affront to their right to life, right to a fair trial, and so on.

India is a secular country, thus it's critical to ensure that minorities' rights are maintained and that the majority does not oppress them.

Lynching and Economy:
An important fact about lynching in India is its effect on the economy of the country. The greatest number of attacks have been on drivers carrying dead animals, traders of beef and owners of slaughterhouses; as a result, they will tend to abandon these jobs due to fear of suffering lynching. This is sure to affect the trade and economy, especially since India is one of the largest exporters of beef in the world. The lynching will also lead to job loss and increase the rate of unemployment in India where unemployment is already at its highest.

Lynching and Health:
Lynching incidents are an issue of public health. In the short-term, lynching leads to death and injury for the victims whereas in the long-term it can lead to psychological and physiological effects on present and future generations. Studies show that higher rates of lynching in an area lead to increased rates of mortality for those communities.

Enactment and Enforcement of Strict Anti-lynching Laws:
In India, there are currently no laws dictating punishment for lynching. Therefore, the first and foremost step is for the government to introduce and pass an anti-lynching law and strictly enforce it. Given the distinct nature of the crime, it is important to make separate laws for this and not merge these incidents with other kinds of murder. The United States passed its first anti-lynching law in 2018 and India should follow the lead.

Improve Economic Conditions and Employment Rates:
Research says that there is a link between hate crimes such as mob lynching and economy. Socioeconomic status and education determine participation in such criminal acts. People living in poverty and with low educational status are more prone to both participating in lynching and becoming a victim of such incidents. Therefore, creating more jobs for the unemployed young of the country, skill development and improving their financial circumstances will divert their attention away from such heinous acts and protect them from being a victim or a perpetrator of it.

Campaigns and Awareness:
The success of Ida B. Wells (who started the anti-lynching crusade in the United States in the 1890s) and The National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People (NAACP) movement against lynching of African-Americans in 1909 are examples to learn from and the people of India can start similar awareness campaigns against current increase in lynching incidents. Such campaigns can end religious polarization and create cultural sensitization towards mob violence.

Control the Spread of Fake News Through Social Media:
Apart from the cow protection groups, the second most important cause of lynching in India is the spread of fake news over social media regarding child abduction. People in rural areas and with low education easily believe the news they read on social media platforms and act in anger and frustration. Therefore, the Indian government needs to restrain the spread of such fake news by collaborating with social media companies and run awareness campaigns about the pros and cons of social media.

Punishment for the Offense of Mob-Lynching
In our country, there is no explicit law or legal provision dealing with lynching or mob violence.

However, the following statutes, which are currently part of the Indian Penal Code, provide for the punishment of mob lynching:

• Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code deals with the penalty for murder. It said that anyone who commits murder will be punished with either life imprisonment or death. In many circumstances, the convict may face further punishment.
• Section 304 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) deals with the punishment for negligent homicide that does not equal to murder. The following are examples of possible punishments:
  • Life Imprisonment.
  • For the crime done or likely to cause the death of a person, the defendant can be sentenced to 10 years in prison and fined accordingly.
• Section 325 of the IPC outlines the penalty for causing serious bodily harm to another person wilfully. Under the provisions of this section, a person who causes serious harm voluntarily, except in the case of provocation (as defined in section 335), is likely to be punished by imprisonment for a term of up to seven years and a fine.
• Section 120 B of the Indian Penal Code describes the penalties for parties who conspire to commit a crime together. It specifies that:
  • If the offender conspires for an offense punishable by life imprisonment, death, or a sentence of two years or more in prison, the offender will be punished in the same way as if the offender abets the offender while committing the offense.
  • If the offender conspires to commit a crime that is not punishable by death, life imprisonment, or a sentence of more than two years in prison, the offender faces up to six months in prison, a fine, or both if the crime is not punishable by death, life imprisonment, or a sentence of more than two years in prison.

Conclusion
Mob lynching can occur for a variety of causes. Witch-hunting was on the causes of mob violence, with 2000 mentally ill women being murdered because of rumors accusing them of kidnapping and murdering children.

In India, religious conflagrations such as the 1984 Sikh riots, Anti-Muslim riots in Gujarat, or the lynching of Ghulam Muhammad by Hindu Yuva Vahini over his relationship with a Hindu girl in the neighborhood have had a negative impact on the country.

The majority of the incidents occurred as a result of the country's government's beef-ban orders. It might be argued that all lynchings motivated by race or ethnicity discriminate against the entire community, in violation of Articles 14 and 15 of the Indian Constitution.

The current state of mob violence in the country is deplorable, and special legislation is required to protect victims of mob violence as well as to enforce tight processes to prevent attacks and punish wrongdoers engaging in mob violence.