An Indian Muslim teenager Junaid was lynched by a mob in a train in India in 2017.
The writer talks about the tendencies for violence and hatred that is shaping the Indian society today.
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As per this yardstick communal violence can only be categorised as the dirtiest and most evil kind of violence and if we go beyond the midnight celebrations and mass excitement in 1947 we will see it for what it was – a catastrophe for Humanity.
There seems to be something very wrong about the basics of our society and civilization. Violence, fear and death seem to be inbuilt traits of our psyche and society. Mutilating the genitalia of a young innocent girl (not a simple ordinary rape but rape accompanied by extreme torture), or killing a young boy for a train seat seems to be the new yardstick.
Maybe the standard or yardstick was always there, only the fear (fear is the main component of our dna) and constraints of consequences have disappeared.
It is becoming more and more clear that it is only fear of retribution that maintains India as a stable functioning society. Remove that element of fear and India becomes one with Somalia or Colombia or El Salvador or any of the other chequered countries.
- By Lakhinder Singh, is retired Chief Commissioner of the Customs and Central Excise, Government of India