Which mob do you belong to?

Two days ago a mob in Ghaziabad went amok, torching vehicles and
causing mayhem, protesting against the illegal buildings they were
living in being demolished by government authorities. Apparently, the
buildings were built by goondas, no doubt with the active support of
the government, and people have been living there for over twelve
years. It has taken the government twelve years to take action, and
now, everything points to a stalemate since no judgement can really be
pronounced against people claiming innocence on top of inaction for
twelve long years! A stay order of some sort looms large.

Since we are so good at these "stay orders", is there any way we can
put a stay order on mobs? Every week, somewhere or the other in
India, we have groups of people quickly getting into the mob
mentality, burning, looting, breaking, destroying public and private
property. Why is this nation so fiendishly ready to get into the mob
mentality? At one end of the spectrum, we have a claim of making
progress, and on the other, mayhem.

Increasing in menace, increasing in proportions, and going largely
unmentioned as part of a shifting national consciousness, is this
increasingly volatile mentality ready for violence. The so called
free press of India has not even begun to pick up on this enormous
change of colour of the Indian psyche. Our holy ash has turned into
gunpowder and we're sitting on the biggest explosive keg in the world.

The reason for mob violence, is because we cannot, do not and should
not trust the law enforcement mechanism we have. The average
policeman in India is a physically unfit, mentally inferior, poorly
paid, corrupt, and incapable of dominating action in any demanding
situation. Much worse, they are just instruments of violence for
ruling parties in many states. Today a Magisterial investigation
found that the killing of one Ishrat Jehan in 2004 was a fake, staged
"encounter" and that it was a murder by the police, after kidnapping
the victim and others. We have set up a large, armed organization to
do the political mob's killing, called the Police Force.

We have never been groomed to trust the system we have in place. We
have a system in place, on paper. Our police forces are incredibly
corrupt and will simply take the side of whoever is willing to bribe
the most. It is that simple. This is not to say that every police
officer is corrupt, but the couple of thugs in khaki uniform who stop
you on a dark road asking you what business you have driving "so late
in the night" are very likely to be on a fishing expedition to keep
their paunches from shrinking, and one of them is highly unlikely to
be the smart Assistant Commissioner who passed the IPS and showed up
on TV as an earnest servant of country and community.

If you have a road accident, you're more than likely to have to deal
with a mob of Indians trying to mete out "justice", than be
professionally processed by the police department. If you took full
legal recourse to a dispute, you are more likely to be tried for your
stamina in dealing with the system than for your real crime, if any.

If your Air India plane catches fire, some government official is
likely to dismiss it as a "minor inconvenience" and even commend the
superb job done by the pilots (by not even noticing the fire until
passengers started yelling) and the cabin crew (who didn't even tell
people how to jump out of their emergency exits), and appreciate the
superb job done by every one of his staff in ensuring passengers
reached their destinations. (Never mind the eighteen people who were
injured in the process of putting up with these "minor
inconveniences")

The mob is everywhere, in various shapes and forms, waiting to bring
you down. Only if you "belong" to the mob that is India in some way,
can you get away with fewer tensions, even if you have to sell your
soul in the process. The mob is ready to get angry - against you if
you are too straight, with you if you are part of it.

We are getting stressed, negative, and a host of other things
including unhealthy, but at the bottom of it all, we are getting
angry. We're not yet awakened, because we have a culture of imagined
non-violence and an inability to let go of our customary apathy. We
have allowed our country to be eroded by corruption and ineffiency,
and we've slid into anarchy. Yes, we do indeed molest our women in
public and on TV, and we can see our policemen do nothing about it.
We don't throw rich and powerful people behind bars no matter what
crime they commit, and we definitely do not provide protection to the
average righteous citizen. In fact, we have everything in place to
make sure the average citizen cannot lead a righteous life.

Anger is one of those things that doesn't vanish with therapy. It
vanishes with retribution, with an outlet, with an explosive burning
out, and with some kind of triumph. Mobs form quickly when the
opportunity for a quick triumph is sensed. If we catch a thief, like
some people in Bengaluru did the other day not long ago, we are more
likely to thrash him to death rather than hand him over to the police.
All our anger can be unleashed upon a legitimate target without guilt
or fear of retribution. The government that provides us with lousy
infrastructure, terrible water supply, unreliable power supply, and a
quality control mechanism for food and healtcare that is not worth the
paper it is mandated on, doesn't have to deliver anything because we
are highly unlikely to form a mob against it and attack it.

The day we are ready to resort to violence, we will get the attention
we deserve. This isn't a call to incite violence, but a prediction
that such a day may not be far off. If this serves as a wake up call,
then I hope the sleepy heads that are taking home salaries without
doing their jobs and taking the bribes without shame are the ones that
are being warned. It won't be long before the whole of India becomes
one unruly mob.

We're always just one step away from joining a mob. It takes the
slightest persuasion for us to flare up situations in public that go
out of control. We know injustice and we know we are a part of it.
We hate it, but like many things Indian, we're not willing to change
first. Some students in Bihar burnt three coaches in a train recently
because one of them was physically abused by a policeman, allegedly
after refusing to vacate a seat he wrongly occupied. No matter what
the facts are, it takes some doing to burn three coaches of a train.
The wick is burning, and it won't be long before India explodes.

The other thing we are angry about is the prosperity some of our
countrymen are suddenly able to display. We're not appreciative of
the genuine opportunities that some sectors of the economy have thrown
up that have helped create wealth. We know we have also bred
indifference large scale by making some people very wealthy and a
large number incapable of even dreaming of such wealth. It is a
complete and total lie if India tries to project an image of inclusive
growth. Millions will never be part of the great India dream that
some of us have. The wealthy will continue to stay aloof and
insulated.

To the average Indian, India is a miserable country to function in.
It is impossible to lead a quiet, peaceful, productive life for most
of us. This is something to be ashamed of, despite the strong growth
numbers we trumpet. We are nothing but a mob in the making. This is
what angers me - the average righteous citizen of this country doesn't
even have a chance to be indifferent to the mess around him. We are
likely to be killed if we rise against the ruling government, and
there's likely to be no investigation.

India is not a non violent country. Let's get this fact straight.
Our gods and goddesses all have weapons and violence is very much
imbedded in our mentality. Gandhi is the huge abberration in our
mental make up canvas. At best we are passive aggressive, on the
edge, wannabe mobsters. Can anything be more humiliating about being
Indian? Or have we really accomplished something since independence
and nobody knows yet?

Below the hypocritical surface is the real culprit of all - our
illusions about ourselves. We haven't been told that we are a third
world country with a really bad, superstitious, backward attitude. We
haven't been told that we need to get up and put our trust in
knowledge, in truth and in putting our system to work. The terrible
governments we get are a direct result of our collective,
unquestioning slave mentality. We think we are a great people, with a
great culture, who have this amazing connection with God and nothing
can happen to us as a result of our apathy. This terrible country has
happened to us. Can anything be worse?