The fundamental tribal component in people’s psyche cannot be eradicated instantly. But that can’t be an excuse for Government inaction

The recent lynching in Rajasthan’s Alwar district of a 28-year-old man, Rakbar Khan, by a mob which suspected him to be a cattle-smuggler, once again underlines the need to understand an evil which persists despite the stir it has caused. It is common knowledge that these cases of lynching have been executed by mobs, with the inter-personal dynamics of the latter playing an important role. Also, mobs emerge from crowds but not all crowds are mobs. It depends on what a crowd has gathered for. One that is watching a cricket match is ordinarily not a mob. Its members disperse after the day’s play is over. It can, however, become a mob if something so ignites its collective wrath that is ready to break out in mass action.

The third question is: What is the social, cultural, economic and political environment that defines a crowd’s agendaIJ

 Beginning with the first aspect, one must recognise, as Desmond Morris states in The Human Zoo, that man evolved as “simple tribal animal” who was a hunter and “lived like that not for a few centuries, but for a million hard years.” He adds, “During the hundreds and thousands of years of human evolution, men had become increasingly adapted, both physically and mentally, both structurally and behaviourally, to this hunting mode of life.” It is only over the last few thousand years that the contemporary farming/industrial societies have emerged. Morris writes, “Speaking in evolutionary terms, this dramatic change has been almost instantaneous….The human animal appears to have adapted brilliantly to his extraordinary new condition, but he has had not time to change biologically, to evolve into a new genetically civilized species.” Biologically, he is still “the simple tribal animal” hunting in packs.

With the disappearance of tribes, people form new groups which discharge some of the former’s functions — provision of an identity, a collective sense of security or activity that generates a sense of togetherness. The pack mentality — including the search for a prey to hunt — overcomes them, subconsciously if not consciously, when they are out as a group as a part of a protest demonstration or what they perceive to be a mission to prevent crimes and/or apprehend criminals. The sight of a suspect makes him/her a prey, and violence invariably follows, particularly when a highly emotive issue like the threat of the abduction of children transportation of cattle for illegal slaughter, is involved.

There are, doubtless, other important contributory factors, such as feelings of alarm and hysterical anger whipped up by false or exaggerated rumours spread on the social media and/or the desire for the leadership or approbation of a mob on the prowl leading to competitive aggression. And, of course, the proneness to violence is all the greater if the mob knows that the culprits would never be brought to justice. The result is a compulsive tendency to view an innocent person as a suspect and the latter as the culprit. His protestations of innocence are summarily dismissed — with those wanting him to be given a fair hearing brushed aside as softies or worse.

Hence the question: What is to be doneIJ One cannot eradicate the fundamental tribal component in people’s psyche instantly through a fiat. The change will have to come through a genetically evolutionary process in history. The first requirement at present is pro-active policing and intelligence gathering. Neighbourhoods have to be monitored for the formation of crowds and mobs. Second, social media should be closely followed for the spread of rumours and these countered resolutely.

The police have an important role to play, intervening quickly and effectively to prevent lynchings, arresting the culprits and prosecuting them effectively to ensure conviction. Unfortunately, policemen have done the opposite in most cases. In that of Rakbar Khan, it has been alleged that he might have survived had there not been a delay of nearly three hours on the part of the police in taking him to the hospital. The delay reportedly occurred because the police took the cattle he was allegedly transporting to a shelter before taking him to the community health centre. While this has been attributed to the policemen’s wrong sense of priorities, the latter itself is a reflection of the values and social approach of a large section.

One hopes that the judicial inquiry that has reportedly been instituted into Rakbar Khan’s killing will identify the guilty who, in turn, will receive exemplary punishment. As for policemen, suspension and transfers to the police lines will hardly be enough. Meanwhile, much will depend on what is seen as the Governmen’s agenda. Police personnel will drag their feet in reaching the scene of a lynching if they believe that the mob has the rulers’ blessings.

 Here, it will not be enough for leading members of a Government to stridently denounce lynching and the activities of Gau-Rakshaks or other groups of lynching lumpens if, simultaneously, the whisper goes around that the thunder is for public consumption and should not be taken seriously.

(The writer is Consultant Editor, The Pioneer, and an author)