Mob Violence

In April last year Kannada actor Rajkumar died of natural causes. Thousands of his fans erupted into violence even though there was no foul play involved in his death. They burned shops, pelted stones at cars, and set fire to both private and public vehicles. The mob went on a mindless rampage. The next day—the day of Rajkumar’s cremation—was a rerun of the day before. Innocent bystanders were beaten up. Shops were set fire to. And all of this happened without the slightest provocation whatsoever.

I used to think that people in Karnataka were more rational than people elsewhere in the country. It seems that they were merely waiting for an opportunity to prove how irrational they too could be. Property was destroyed, people were dead. The reason? A film star died. What was wrong with these people? The media explained it away as an “unrestrained demonstration of grief for a beloved icon”. How does one condone or even justify such acts of violence in the name of ‘mourning’ for one who was “admired for his humility and the human values that he espoused in his films” [The Hindu]? What made these people behave in such a manner?

These things happen on a fairly regular basis in this country. A road accident triggers off destruction of buses and property. Passing vehicles are stoned and burned, even if these had nothing to do with the incident that sets it off. Innocent people who have the misfortune of being at the wrong place at the wrong time suffer the consequences of an accident/incident that they had nothing to do with. This happens in every part of the country.

I think a major reason for this is that people in this part of the world lead repressed lives. They unthinkingly and unquestioningly carry the burden of obsolete traditions and ridiculously irrelevant customs. They are not educated enough to express themselves clearly, if they wanted to. They are selfish and greedy, but are forced to live together with people who have conflicting interests. They are dissatisfied with a million things which are the result of their own doing, but are too lazy to solve their own problems and find it easier to blame their troubles on others. They live in a rut and do things because it is what their parents did and it is what their peers are doing.

People in this part of the world lead such frustrated lives that at the slightest excuse they give vent to their frustrations. But the average frustrated man does not have the courage to do this on his own. He looks around him for support; each adds fuel to the other’s fire, stoking each other through talk, till all their repressed animal energies burst forth in mob violence.

And who has repressed the desires and energies of the average Indian? He has done this to himself. Because he is too lazy, too stupid, too gutless to change.