A recurring social hazard
In primitive times, people were the law! The power of majority was the one which could land a decisive blow to issues that required immediate and imperative attention. The people brought themselves to a unanimous outcome which reflected their sense of judgement. It was essential to realise that making and protecting laws are invaluable processes and require paramount attention. One wrong judgement could cost a hefty price, the epitome of which could be a catastrophic conclusion: an innocent's death. The recent past has seen lynching of innocents for an array of reasons.
Lynching has long existed as an outcome of people's collective agitation, culminating in capital punishment. Even when the law books came into existence, the practice was carried out to arrive at an immediate judgement. History may have witnessed the death of so many innocents who were nabbed by a group and subjected to an ill-fated end, only based on allegations. Highlighting lynching as an active violation of the law never eradicated its existence, even in modern times. It is a social hazard that irrespective of the nabbed person's clarification, executes subjectively pronounced capital punishment. At the time when a group is wreaking havoc on a person, his/her plea is a cry on deaf ears. To be pragmatic, lynching cannot be curbed without the intervention of an overpowering force. Relying on people who can be misled or instigated for preventing such a dreadful event is similar to praying to the Almighty for the timely arrival of monsoon.
A random group's sense of judgement has no legal bearing. Instead, imparting specific awareness about the same holds better chances of preventing such an outcome. While lynching continues to be a violation of law and humanity, measures to understand such a demeaning mindset might be the best way to tackle it. Stringent laws and punishments for the same may also keep a group's display of outrage in check. At times, people were lynched by a group so large that bringing everyone to justice was not feasible. Anyone could be, in a specific situation, alleged for something that might instigate the crowd; the latest to fall pray being two youth in Assam suspected of abducting a child. While investigations remain underway, this speaks strongly of the collective mindset of a mob in general where the first impression becomes the final impression and thus the sufficient grounds for judgement.
