Narrating the story of ‘Lynchistan’ to the West

(This piece was first published in the Reader's Blog section of The Quint on 17 July, 2018. https://www.thequint.com/voices/opinion/mob-lynching-hindu-nationalism-in-india)

As an Indian living and teaching abroad for the past few years, I have been constantly confronted with uncomfortable questions, none more so than those related to mob-lynching – especially of Muslims in India – which has gained unprecedented notoriety since the coming to power of the Hindu right-wing Modi government in 2014. As a lecturer of contemporary South Asia and someone who on a daily basis engages with questions of religion, caste and gender, the utter helplessness of witnessing the rapid degeneration of a nation built on the principles of democracy, equality and secularism is reflected in uncannily terrifying ways in lectures and class discussions where students – most of them from different parts of Europe and North America – express surprise at first and then lapse into a dangerously simplistic assessment of post-colonial realities in India and its neighbouring states. The surprise is a result of the Orientalist positioning of the Western outlook on the Indian subcontinent, its culture and society. I fear often that my rendition of the contemporary political realities of India – in a Western setting – might acquire simplistic undertones. The fearsome regularity with which incidents of deliberate targeting of minorities have occurred since 2014 does not do my predicament any favours.

How can I possibly capture in its entirety the explanation to why Akhlaq was lynched for keeping meat in his refrigerator to a group of students who receive this piece of information with a smirk unable to fathom this seeming distaste for meat? What could provide an answer to why a young Muslim man (Junaid) was harassed for sporting a beard and eventually stabbed to death in a train? Is it feasible to rationally narrate the story of the brutal lynching of a meat trader in Uttar Pradesh without eliciting bewildered eyerolls from students? It has become increasingly difficult to tell these stories to a group of young people without leaving ground for uninformed perspectives to gain space or even answer questions coming from curious minds. The crux of the matter remains the impunity enjoyed by these lynch-mobs, increasingly composed of males of all age groups, brought together by rumours floated on social media and instant messaging platforms such as Whatsapp. The recent felicitation of a group of right-wing extremists accused of lynching yet another Muslim man to death by Union Minister Jayant Sinha is the nadir of a socio-political trend that seems in no hurry of abating.

The noxious turn that India is taking can be traced back to the pre-Independence cow protection movement which led to the first ever communal riot in India. Pockets of hatred were created as Hindus were prohibited from selling cows – even old and infirm ones – to Muslims as the community began to be portrayed as a threat to ‘Hindu’ India and its religious symbols such as the cow. The demonization continued with the Hindi-Urdu controversy which further exacerbated the schism between the majority Hindus and the principal minority – the Muslims. Partition followed. Post-Partition India has relentlessly demanded an oath of loyalty from its Muslim minority – the demand is fastidious, yet ubiquitous. Be it a cricket match or a terror attack, the Muslim remains at the receiving end of obscene queries – most of them deliberate and questionable – about national loyalty and patriotism. While a Hindu is automatically perceived as patriotic, Muslims in general have to go that extra mile to prove their loyalty to India – as if patriotism is inherent in the genepool of the Hindu and curiously absent in that of the Indian Muslim. These stories from India’s chequered history have dotted the landscape of my expositions of contemporary politics, often simplified but inevitably true to the incessant attack on the fundamental principles of the modern nation state launched by the Hindu nationalists.

My work on social media and its complete takeover by the BJP and its affiliates lends credence to the vicious role being played by Whatsapp groups – mostly managed and run by Sangh extremists – in the generation of lynch-mobs in a matter of minutes. Not only did the BJP consider their presence on mainstream media to be curtailed and inadequate in the run-up to the 2014 elections, they accused TV media of being intrinsically biased. What we witness today in TV studios points towards the contrary. The manufacture of television news content has never been more pronounced. News anchors are the new news ‘makers’. From Whatsapp to TV studios, an ideological takeover is in the works, it is mammoth and seems temporarily irreversible. Dissidents are threatened openly as chest-thumping videos overflowing with hate and prejudice are circulated on social media and messaging applications. Public anger – manufactured on TV – is mobilized through Whatsapp resulting in blood-thirsty mobs baying for the blood of the ‘other’. The mob that lynched meat trader Mohammad Qasim in Hapur in UP comprised of males as young as fourteen. A vicious cycle has been set in motion – it all begins from the manufacture of anger and resentment against the Muslim in the TV studio, is followed by the circulation of often fake videos and news snippets on messaging platforms and culminates in the quick takeover of the street by mass-produced mobs.

Stories like these are unpalatable, are difficult to tell and often lapse into the realm of oversimplification. On-ground reality is far grimmer, more demanding of critical engagement. As a scholar of culture and politics, the prisoner’s dilemma does not leave anyone unscathed. While I struggle to cope with the regularity with which incidents of mob lynching are taking place in India, the making of ‘Lynchistan’ is complete.