October 17, 2021, The Liberacy:- Lynching is a brand new term for the Indian society, as past struggles to recall the word in all its glory. The west has been a known customer to the word “Lynching,” calling it as an act of murder by several people usually without professional arms, and there is no good time and bad time to define the act. This new term, in India, saw it irrespective of daylight of the night-shine across religions, caste and political preferences.
Lakhbir Singh, a Sikh Dalit belonging to the scheduled caste labour class, was lynched at the Singhu border of Delhi and Haryana, the major spot of farmers protest against the “Three farm bills” passed by the Parliament, by a group of Nihangs.
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Lakhbir Singh, who belonged to a village in Tarn Taran, was tortured by a group of Nihangs, who mutilated the body by chopping off of the leg and left wrist, and tied the body tying it to the police barricade.
The horrific scenes were caught on camera and circulated across social media and also on the mainstream media, blurring it out for formality.
Nihang (the warrior Sikh group) as accused, have taken the responsibility, saying that Lakhbir Singh attempted to commit sacrilege with regard to Sarbloh Granth.
36-year-old Lakhbir Singh was a resident of Cheema Khurd village of Jalandhar’s Tarn Taran district, and he was the only person from their village to join the farmers’ protest, as told by the locals to The Liberacy.
Lynching is yet to be understood by India. The advent of actions packed inside an 8-letter-word has widespread consequences, and India is still struggling to see the words’ place in the society; sometimes inside religion or sometimes in the caste of people, the broader result is that the politics and political agendas of the parties, irrespective of the ideologies, is guaranteed to be benefited, but only with the first one to gain with allegations.
Lynching word gained a popular ear for the first time in India in 2015, when a Muslim man named Mohammad Akhlaq from Bishada village of Dadri, was lynched by the mob on a suspicion of him eating beef at his house. Akhlaq was dragged out of his house and was killed by the mob, sometimes known as cow vigilante.
“Cow is sacred for Hindus and eating beef is a crime.” as stated by many at the time. This incident of September 29, 2015, was the case of lynching based on religion and beliefs.
There were many such cases of lynching around the topic of beef-eating from Dhule, Alwar and Harpur.
In Dhule, five lives were lynched, with words fanned by a child abduction rumour on social media that forced a mob to take violence in their hands.
On 3rd October 2021, during an anti-BJP protest at Lakhimpur Khiri in Uttar Pradesh, some farmers protested against the Three Farm Bills in front of BJP ministers’ are car convey and even pelted stones. This scared the drivers of the vehicle and as they sped off between the protesting farmers, four protesters and a journalist was run over by one of the ministers’ car and were killed.
The angered crowd of protesting farmers caught people from inside the car and were lynched to death.
The video of the lynching surfaced, and it was known to the common people that it was an act of lunching with sticks and Stones in a broad daylight.
The molten gaps of religion, caste and politics in lynching cases in India need thorough thinking, raising the level of ethical values we hold and the morality we cherish towards others and need a space of rational brainstorming for preparation of a just structure.
In India, the majority of lynching cases were found to be the result of rumours spread through social media and other sources, and with the absence of proper regulation, it becomes very difficult for the government to have control over cases.
But any regulation will only be useful when it is not used for any political advantage, and to gain a popular vote at the times of general or state elections.
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