Outlook English - Print Subscribers Copy Outlook English, 16 July 2018 | Page 13
LYNCH COUNTRY QUARTERLY
A map of lynchings since May shows the normalisation of violence in the country
MAHARASHTRA
Jun 8. Two men
beaten to death in
Aurangabad
district, prompted
by fake messages
on WhatsApp
MAHARASHTRA
July 1. Five men
from a nomadic
community
lynched in Dhule
district over child
abduction rumours
CHHATTISGARH
June 22. Mob
thrashes man to
death in Sarguja
district
UTTAR PRADESH
June 19. Man
lynched in Hapur
district following
rumours of cow
slaughter
GUJARAT
June 26. A
woman, 40,
beaten to death in
Ahmedabad.
Another woman
assaulted in Surat.
MAHARASHTRA
July 2. Mob attacks
five labourers in
Malegaon, suspecting
them to be child
abductors. Police
rescue them.
ASSAM
June 8. Two men
lynched in Karbi
Anglong district,
where they had
gone trekking to a
picnic spot
WEST BENGAL
June 13. Homeless
man tied to an
electricity post
and lynched in
Malda district on
suspicion of being
a child lifter
TELENGANA
May 24. A man
visiting a relative
lynched in Nizamabad
over child abduction
rumours; another
killed in Yadadri
district
KARNATAKA
May 25. Mob kills
man in Bengaluru,
video of lynching
circulates on
social media
TAMIL NADU
May 10-11. Man beaten to death and hung
from a bridge in Pulicat; 60-year-old woman
lynched for giving “foreign chocolates” to
children in Tiruvannamalai district
TRIPURA
June 28 and 29. A
woman from UP and a
man hired to spread
awareness about
rumours are among the
three to die in cases
of lynching
ANDHRA PRADESH
May 8. A transgender begging in
Hyderabad lynched on suspicion of
being a child abductor
Map by SAJI C.S.
suspicious object,” Mumbai-based psy- ciously”. “It is also advised that no one
chiatrist Harish Shetty said, explaining should forward the received messages/
the dark side of instant and virtual rumours on WhatsApp or other social
media without verification. All police
communication.
The fake news wave has prompted pol officers have been instructed to spread
ice to scan social networks, especially awareness,” Padsalgikar reportedly said.
The warnings and arrests have not dete
WhatsApp group chats, for incendiary
stuff. But that won’t be easy as the country rred the rumour mill, which continues to
has more than 200 million WhatsApp spark mob violence across India. The
users, the Facebook-owned instant mes- government’s recourse is to ask social
networks to share more
saging app’s biggest mar-
user data to help track
ket in the world, and all
down ‘rumour mongers’.
messages are encrypted
This wave of
But such efforts have hit
from end-to-end.
several walls, including
After the Maharashtra child abduction
the issue of infringing
lynchings, the state’s rumours draws
individual privacy.
director general of police, more from lore
On several occasions,
Datta Padsalgikar, has and myth, making
fake news spawns and
advised people to main-
any ‘stranger’ a
overlaps fresh unverified
tain peace and not come
massages, as was the case
under the influence of suspicious
after two friends—Nilot-
“rumours spread mali- person.
pal Das, a 29-year-old sound engineer
based in Goa, and Abhijeet Nath, a busi-
nessman from Guwahati—were lynched
mid-June in Karbi Anglong district of
Assam on the suspicion of being child
abductors. They had gone to a scenic pic-
nic spot at Kangthilangso in the hill dis-
trict to capture the sounds of nature, but
came back home in body bags.
Reports sa id the duo was stopped by
villagers on their way back, pulled out of
their car and thrashed. A video of the
attack surfaced later, in which one of
them was seen pleading for mercy and
telling the mob that they were Assamese.
After the fatal assault, unverified rep
orts circulated that the two friends may
have seen and photographed gangs quar-
rying quartz stones secretly and illegally
in the area and the mafia got them elimi-
nated. However, there is no official con-
firmation on this count. O
16 JUly 2018 OUTLOOK 13