This week, many newspapers in India carried the account of how a truck driver was lynched at Asansol in the state of West
Bengal. His sin was that his truck fatally ran over a boy. The truck had run for some distance from the
accident site before it stopped.The driver wisely hid in a nearby hut for about an hour, and ventured out when he judged it safe to do so. As ill luck would have it, the crowds that had gathered after the accident, had not fully dispersed, and he was spotted, chased and caught. Then he was beaten up, tied to a nearby tree and beaten up again until some one had the spark of inspiration to bring a can of kerosene. What happened thereafter is best left undescribed. Suffice it to say, that the hapless truck-driver was eventually pronounced as ‘brought dead'' at the hospital of the neighbourhood where he was finally taken in a bleeding and half-charred state. Thus, an accidental death was "avenged", with "death for the culprit". While this is not an apology for careless or reckless driving, still it appears only rational to expect a distinction to be made between an accident and intentional hurt. Macabre as it sounds, it is however a frequent occurrence in many parts of this country, where a vehicle driver gets beaten up and is occasionally lynched if he is unfortunate enough to hit and injure any one, leave alone kill. The tempers of the average person here gets so inflamed by such an accident, that the mob decides to take law into its
collective hand, and acts as police, prosecutor and judge as well as executioner... I am sure that such a phenomenon is not unique to India, and is possibly prevalent elsewhere too. This is, of course, stating the obvious, as -- I believe – the very word "lynching" is of Irish origin! But the thought that such a near-barbaric tendency still prevails among a people of a fast-emerging economy such as is India, is galling and saddening Basically, when people gather together ( as in a mob), their collective conscience or perception appears to develop an aggressive orientation! I wonder how many, as individuals, will display the same aggression, which their aggregate displays.