This tribalist culture is reflected in ways in which the mob metes out what it sees as justice. It has the sanction of the crowd, whether it’s dealing with a pickpocket, suspected ‘beef eaters’ or ‘honor’ killings
Rule of law, says psychologist Rajat Mitra, remains an alien concept over seven decades after we adopted our Constitution. Sometimes this lack of faith spills over to those sworn to uphold the law (Getty Images/iStockphoto)
When it first pops up on my Twitter timeline, my instinct is to switch it off. But it won’t go away, this grotesque video of a woman, begging her mostly female captors to let her go. A portion of her head has been tonsured, her face blackened and there is a string of footwear around her neck.
The 21-year-old mother of a two-year-old child is paraded through her east Delhi neighborhood after being gang-raped and beaten, media reports. A few months earlier, she turned down the advances of a minor boy who subsequently died by suicide. This is his family seeking retribution.
The bystanders watch quietly and no one thinks to call the police. It’s an apathy that is reflected in the larger public response where outrage runs through a 24-hour cycle and, a day after the incident, Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal tweets that people will not tolerate such a crime. But they do and have.
The more worrying question is what the incident tells us about public faith in the rule of law. “It is quite common to subjugate women to this sort of treatment in small towns and villages,” says psychologist Rajat Mitra. But its spread to larger towns is a sign of a growing “lack of faith in the rule of law.”
This tribalist culture is reflected in ways in which the mob metes out what it sees as justice. It has the sanction of the crowd, whether it’s dealing with a pickpocket, suspected “beef eaters” or “honor” killings.
Rule of law, says Mitra, remains an alien concept over seven decades after we adopted our Constitution. Sometimes this lack of faith spills over to those sworn to uphold the law: The encounter killing of men accused of gang-raping a vet in Hyderabad by the police was met with cheers from even within Parliament.
Equally persistent in independent India is women’s continuing lack of agency. If she rejects the advances of a man, she risks public humiliation, stalking, and acid attacks. The latest occurs just a few days after the Delhi incident in Srinagar where a 24-year-old woman is attacked with acid for rejecting the proposal of a man who has now been arrested.
But if she exercises choice in her selection of partner, she is just as vulnerable, risking the ire (and near-certain punishment) of her family and also the law. In several states “love jihad” laws put inter-faith relationships at risk of not just mob action, but also State action.
On a day when women in the armed forces were taking the lead at the parade to celebrate India’s 73rd Republic Day, another sort of parade was taking place. That it could happen in the Capital with such impunity in the presence of bystanders, tells you just how much distance we have yet to cover. Unless we address the problem, teach our children better, and reclaim our constitutional values, the mob will continue to rule.