Unleashing the cruelty beneath the civilised souls: The Case of Lakhimpur Kheri

As we teach political science and anthropology, we often give examples of brutal genocides. One example is that of the fight between Maori and Moriori in November-December 1835 when a ship full of Maori arrived on Chatham Islands, 500 miles east of New Zealand to kill, cook and eat the Moraroi people and enslave those who were alive. This brutality is based on technological difference, as Maori had guns, clubs and axes, while Morari had only rudimentary hunting and gathering technology at their disposals without any experience of warfare was an easy prey. Because of the lack of technology and centralised leadership the Moraroi also didn’t have strong leadership. Similarly, we can also recollect the story of Fayu tribe of New Guinea who because of proper conflict resolution mechanism have ended up killing each other for trivial reasons. At one point of time they had a population of about 2000 but because of killing each other their population dropped significantly. This happened because they lacked political and social mechanisms that we take for granted everyday.

It would be premature to conclude that ‘proper’ political organisation is ‘essential’ for human survival as we have seen other band societies doing well without these organisations, especially in Saharan Africa, but needless to mention that a complex state society needs them to function and grow. We can look at the recent disturbing visuals that surfaced at the Lakhimpur Kheri, where it is seen that a speeding SUV car, allegedly driven/owned/inspired by a Minister of State, Mr. Ajay Mishra Teni’s son have ploughed through the protesting farmers relating anecdotes just given above. What count’s for such a violent act to crush people who at least as the video show showed no provocation?

There is a broad spectrum of this form of violence which is ontologically different from political murder and killings that we have witnessed about a decade ago. We have witnessed oppositions being killed, Maoists targeting ruling regimes at places like West Bengal, but killing protesters in broad day light is a machinery that needs to be explored.

First of all, there has been a long-drawn provocation and construction of us/them boundary. This possibly began with the use of neologism like #Tukde_Tukde_Gang, #Urban_Naxal which targeted the student union leaders. Especially those who desist Hindutva and its monolithic constructions. Killing however, was not uncommon as we have seen in the case of Gauri Lankesh. The provocation continued.  The construction of Us/them dichotomy apart from using the neologisms that we have just mentioned, have regularly worked along the existing identity fault-lines. This spilled over towards the defamation of any dissent by linking them with a) external influence of Pakistan or Khalistani movement, and b) The Hindu-Muslim divide, even in the cloths that people wear. Such strong us-them divide didn’t even spare the covid-19 which got promoted through other sets of neologisms like #Corona_Jihad.

While, the mainstream and yet divisive media has promoted us-them dichotomy, the online platforms have been used by the IT-Cell machinery to make these divisions as part of everyday living. Over a few years, India has been able to produce a public-sphere which is unemployed, aimless and with heart full of hatred against Muslims, Students, Protesting farmers and anyone who makes a noise. Meanwhile, round the year incidents of cattle-linked lynching frequently ‘inspired’ by the inactive or hyperactive police administration have created a sense of recklessness among those who form the majoritarian sentiment of the country. We have witnessed how leaders have inspired riots in front of administration.

India, is now walking along with hundreds of ‘Maori’ people armed with hatred and organised in a variety of names, be it the Gawrakshaks, or the Jamatis. As we have successfully taught people to carefully hate ‘the others’, the us/them division now see each other as less human and therefore expendable. Clearly, a combination of hatred, fearlessness because of possible administrative and political support is deadly, and Indians are a few steps away from becoming the ‘Fayu’ who killed each other because of lack of mechanisms of conflict resolution mechanisms. In our case, our machineries are failing. The post-violence internet ban, arresting of opposition leadership is symptomatic to such a disorder and chaos. 

Pic Credit: BBC