Retributions  

In our post on mob violence, we had argued that increasing incidences of mob justice can be linked to state’s failure to address legitimate grievances along with the inherently violent nature of the Indian society.

The latest incidence of mob brutality in Bihar fits this pattern perfectly,

In yet another instance of people taking law into its hands, ten people were bludgeoned to death on suspicion of being thieves at a village in Bihar’s Vaishali district early on Thursday.[link]

Villagers complaint, quite rightly as it turns out that despite increased incidences of thefts and repeated complaints, the police had taken no action. Frustrated, the villagers took the law into their own hands.

While the frustration of the villagers at the failure of the state to punish lawbreakers is understandable, lynching ten people for stealing points to a deeper malaise than merely police inaction What is more worrisome is that the trigger point for violent outrages seems to be constantly lowering from violent crimes like Dacoity, armed burglary e.t.c to merely stealing. While it won’t be fair to draw such conclusions based on sketchy data, it won’t be entirely presumptuous to conclude that the villagers’ primary purpose was to kill.

The state urgently needs to revamp the governance structure. But that is not enough. It must move against the perpetrators of mob justice and punish them severely. Admittedly, the state has lost its moral authority by its failure to discharge its most basic function: protection of the citizenry. However, I am convinced that till action is taken against mobs even in cases where their action may seem ”justified”, the state would have no incentive to improve governance. State failure is almost guaranteed in two cases: First, when it usurps the function of the market and the civil society. Second, when it allows its own basic function to be taken over by non-state actors. Private justice should be an anathema in a constitutional democracy.