
“You, the flock of sheep, how unthinking you all are !
When asked to go to the right you march to the right;
When shoved to the left you move to the left.
Oh, the mindless, the clueless flock of sheep !”
(the late Bangladesh poet Shamshur Rahman)
Certain recent disturbing trends in various areas – politics, religion, social life, sports, film fetes – indicate a growing trend of mass hysteria, leading to deaths in stampedes. The data collected by the National Crime Records Bureau reveal that between 1996 and 2022, there were 3,935 incidents of stampede resulting in more than 3,000 deaths. A large number of them took place at religious gatherings – as in Sabarimala in 2011 due to suffocation in a crowded narrow pathway, and in the Allahabad Railway station in 2013 during the Kumbh Mela because of overcrowding. These incidents reveal a certain type of mob frenzy that is prevalent among these religious devotees, who jostle with each other and trample upon their fellow devotees in the race to pay respects to their deities in temples, or to catch a glimpse of some godman whom they worship. On July 2, 2024, in Hathras in Uttar Pradesh, over 100 people, mostly women were killed in a stampede during a religious gathering in honour of a Hindu priest worshipped as Bhole Baba. Ironically, it was a Hindu religious preacher Ramakrishna Paramhamsa (the guru of Swami Vivekananda) who way back at the end of the nineteenth century lashed out at these blind devotees by describing them in his typical acerbic style: “They are flies attracted by fires and are driving themselves to death.”
Such display of mass hysteria is not confined to religious gatherings in India, but also extends to political rallies, film fetes and sports events. To mention a few incidents – in December 2020, in Nellore in Andhra Pradesh, eight people died in a rush to have a glimpse of the Telugu Desam Party chief N. Chandrababu Naidu in a road show, when he was campaigning for returning to power. In such political rallies, people scramble for freebies that are offered by these leaders, resulting in accidents that kill and injure many. Sports also draw fans who get crazy in their drive to watch the performance of their favourite teams. On September 22, 2023 in Hyderabad, four people were injured at Gymkhana grounds when a crowd thronged the ticket counters to purchase tickets for the third T201 match between India and Australia. As for the film world, on December 4 this year, at a function held to promote Allu Arjun’s film Pushpa-2 in Sandhya Theatre in Hyderabad, his fans gathered in such an unruly fashion that it led to a stampede resulting in the death of a woman and grievous injury to her son. The causes of such mass frenzy range from superstitious beliefs by some sections in a god man in the religious sphere, to fascination for film stars, sports persons and political leaders among some other sections in the secular sphere – as evident from the above-mentioned incidents.
While acknowledging the failure of security agencies to protect people from stampedes, it is about time that we raise some questions about the frenetic impulses of these people who gather on these various occasions to exhibit their devotion to their icons – whether religious or secular. They know well the risks involved in such gatherings (suffocation in crowds, kicked down in the rush and stamped over by the more vigorous devotees), and yet they congregate. Shouldn’t they be blamed for their folly ? Are they driven by the worshipful media publicity given to these icons, to which they are daily exposed through the social media ? Does such exposure overpower their thinking abilities (which should caution them against recklessness) , and instead stir up their emotional proclivities ? Left to themselves, free from the media publicity, will the common people get into mob frenzy over the icons that are manufactured and idolized by the media ?
Mob-led lynching
But what is alarming is that such mob frenzy is not always confined to expressions of innocent fascination for a charismatic leader or a film icon, but often takes murderous forms of hatred against people whom they dislike. Mob lynching has become a systematic form of violence since 2014, when the Narendra Modi-led BJP took over the reins. Immediately after his coming to power, within a single month of June, at least thirteen cases of mob lynching were reported from Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Jharkhand and West Bengal. Since then, there has been a spree of such mob lynchings which are primarily carried out by the various BJP-aligned outfits like Bajrang Dal and Vishva Hindu Parishad (Indian replicas of the Black Shirts of Fascist Italy and the racist Ku Klux groups of later day USA), which mobilize people, and instigate them by hate speeches to target primarily Muslims. They have picked up the cow as a venerable object of worship called Gau-Mata, around which they are stirring up a mob frenzy of devotion and protection. Like a popular film star or a cricketer, the cow is being elevated to the position of an icon, to be compulsorily adored.
Since Muslims consume beef, they are accused of insulting Gau-Mata and are being lynched by Hindu mobs, stirred up to a frenzy of hatred by the Hindutva outfits. Gangs of cow vigilantes claiming to protect the Gau-Mata have emerged in different parts of the country, under the patronage of the BJP ever since its leader Narendra Modi assumed power in New Delhi. Here are a few instances of their murderous exploits. On August 14, 2014, Muslim meat sellers were beaten up in BJP-ruled Haryana. On May 30, 2015, in BJP-ruled Rajasthan, a 60-year old man who ran a meat shop was beaten to death. On September 28, 2015, in Bisahda village in BJP-ruled Uttar Pradesh a mob of Hindu villagers attacked the home of Mohammad Akhlaq, suspecting him of stealing and slaughtering a calf – without any proof. During the past decade, such sprees of mob lynching have gone up. Coming to some recent incidents, on June 7, 2024 in Raipur in Chhattisgarh a mob of Hindutva activists attacked Muslim cattle transporters, accused them of smuggling cows for slaughter, and killed three of them. On August 27, 2024 in Dadri in Haryana, Sabir Malik, a Muslim labourer was beaten to death by Hindu fanatics who suspected him of eating beef. On October 21, 2024, in Jhunjhunu in Rajasthan, a Muslim youth Zahid was lynched by Hindu villagers on charges of theft.
But this is a selective choice by the Hindutva brigade of goons, since there are many Hindu and non-Muslim communities in different parts of India who consume beef – like Bengalis in Bengal in the east, Malaylam-speaking people of Kerala and Telugus and Tamils in other parts of the south, Adivasis in the north-east , Dalits in certain regions. Can the Sangh Parivar goons stir up mob frenzy in these regions, unlike the other favourable area of their operation which is known as the cow-belt – the Hindi-Hindu heartland ?
Mob attacks by Muslims
Religious mob frenzy is not confined to the Hindus only. Although on a minor scale, Muslim mobs have also been found on certain occasions to be indulging in attacks, even on members of their own community. On the night of May 25, 2024 in the Tukoganj area of Indore in Madhya Pradesh, a 25-30 strong gang of Muslim youth attacked a Hindu young man and his Muslim girl friend when they were returning after dinner from a restaurant, accusing them of violating religious norms (re: thetatvaindia). In October, 2024, in Faridabad in Haryana, a Hindu family was attacked by Muslims over the use of crackers during Diwali celebrations (re: The Wire. November 1, 2024). On December 11, 2024, in Deoband in Saharanpur in UP, a Muslim gang led by one Mohammad Mehtab attacked a seventeen-year old Muslim girl for speaking to a Hindu man.
Mass psychology of dual impulses of devotion and hatred
What are the psychological impulses that drive people (whom at times we elevate as participants in mass movements for social justice, and who at other times disappoint us by indulging mass mayhems like communal riots) ? How does one explain the frenzy of devotion among the people, who are willing even to risk their lives, in order to pay their respects to their objects of devotion – whether self-proclaimed religious god men, or charismatic political leaders, or film actors, or sports personalities ? At some other time, these same people get into a frenzy of hatred against their neighbours whom they perceive as their enemies. What subjective impulses motivate them in this hostile direction ? Or, is this aggressive mood stirred up by vested religious and political interests ?
In order to probe into such impulses, which are dominating our society today, it would be worthwhile to go back to the German sociologist Wilhelm Reich, who in 1933 during the rise of Nazism in his country. wrote a book explaining its popularity among the Germans, entitled The Mass Psychology of Fascism. He traced “three different layers of the biophysic structure of the human being. In the sophisticated layer the average individual is…polite, compassionate and conscientious…But this superficial layer of social cooperation…is separated from it by a second intermediary character layer consisting of cruel, sadistic, lascivious, predatory and envious impulses.” He then added: “If one penetrates through this second perverse, anti-social layer, one arrives regularly at a third, the deepest layer… In this deepest layer, the man, under favourable social conditions, is honest, industrious , cooperative.” But today in India, is the Modi government providing men and women who inhabit this `deepest layer,’ with `favourable social conditions,’ or inflicting on them an oppressive socio-economic order that is reminiscent of Hitler’s Nazi Germany and Mussolini’s Fascist Italy ? Is this driving many ‘industrious, cooperative’ youth’ to escape from that order by joining the ruling BJP’s mob outfits like Bajrang Dal, Vishva Hindu Parishad so that they can protect themselves and gain advantages ? They are the modern Indian replicas of the Black Shirts of Fascist Italy and SS gangs of Nazi Germany.
Mass movements as opposed to mob frenzy
But there is a parallel trend of wide spread peaceful mass agitations in different parts of India which are inspired by the diurnal economic needs and social concerns of the people, in contrast with this narrow mob frenzy that is fed by fanatical religious groups. There is the on-going farmers’ agitation in north India on the issue of minimum price for their farm products, among other demands. Let us also recall the anti-corruption movement launched by Anna Hazare in April, 2011, which brought together various sections of the people. A year later, in 2012, we witnessed the Nirbhaya movement, when thousands came out on the streets of Delhi and other places in protest against a gang rape of a woman. In September 2014, students of Jadavpur University in K.olkata launched an agitation demanding investigation into the molestation of a female student, which soon assumed the contours of a mass movement drawing other sections of society, and compelled their vice-chancellor Abhijit Chakravarty to resign. In June 2015, students of Pune Film and Television came out in protest against the appointment of one Gajendra Chauhan, as its head, who lacked the requisite qualifications, but was selected only because of his Right-wing BJP loyalty.
But the most spectacular and long lasting mass movement took place in Delhi’s Shaheen Bagh from December 15, 2019 till March 24, 2020, where thousands gathered to protest against the Modi government’s CAA (Citizenship Amendment Act) which discriminated against Muslim immigrants who to escape persecution in Bangladesh and other places, were seeking refuge in India. The participants in the peaceful sit-in included both Hindus and Muslims, as well as elderly women in their s.eventies and eighties.
Not all these mass movements lead to the fulfillment of the demands of the participants. But their leaders reorient popular discontent and anger in a direction which earn widespread support from different parts of the country. This form of protest is different from the outbursts of mass frenzy which are spurred by narrow feelings of hatred and prejudices against fellow neighbours who may be members of a different religious or caste or tribal origins.
The biggest challenge before both secular political parties and social activists is how to divert popular discontent and anger from such manifestations of outbursts of mob frenzy (usually manipulated by vested political groups against their rivals) in the direction of mass movements that give voice to their resentment, and are sometimes able to pressurize the ruling powers to yield to some of their demands.
Sumanta Banerjee is a political commentator and writer, is the author of In The Wake of Naxalbari’ (1980 and 2008); The Parlour and the Streets: Elite and Popular Culture in Nineteenth Century Calcutta (1989) and ‘Memoirs of Roads: Calcutta from Colonial Urbanization to Global Modernization.’ (2016).