The Link Between Communalism And Mob Lynching In India

Dipa Bhowmik, Student of LLM At University Institute Of Legal Studies (UILS), Chandigarh University

ABSTRACT

“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere ….” Martin Luther King India is a secular country and it guarantees the right to religion to all individuals in the absence of any kind of discrimination. However, communalism has forced Indian society to divide into small groups spreading hatred on each other. Focusing on the present time, one of the most mentionable and debatable issues is the issue of cow vigilantism and mob lynching. The reason behind this cow vigilante violence can be traced back to the difference of opinion in Hinduism and Islam. Viewing this matter in the lens of Human Rights and Fundamental Rights guaranteed under the UDHR and the Constitution of India, it is a direct violation

of the right to religion and religious practices, and the right to life. Mob lynching and communal violence have now become the new normal in India based on the increased number of similar cases since 2014. The system of criminal justice in India has failed to mitigate the number of mob lynching cases and to deter the culprits of the same. In this case, the miscarriage of criminal justice in India begins with a lack of serious stringent charges against the culprits. In this regard, the Supreme Court of India has described mob lynching to be a "horrendous act of mobocracy” in 2018. It is high time for the government to wake up and regulate all the states to take sufficient measures and implement laws in this regard of mob violence and communal hatred, or India will be an example of brutal deaths, communal violence, and violation of human rights.