"Law may not be able to make one man love another, but it can keep one man from lynching another." – Martin Luther King Jr.

Do the names Akhlaq and Junaid still resonate with you? They likely do, remaining as painful scars in our collective memory. It is impossible to forget these two Indian Muslim citizens, brutally murdered by Hindutva mobs over mere rumors of possessing beef. Yet, in the years following their deaths, how many more instances of mob lynching across the nation have actually registered in our consciousness? How many victims of Hindutva extremism in the far corners of the country can we actually name? Since those early tragedies, how many rallies of protest or circles of solidarity have we truly formed for the fallen and the wounded? We must ask ourselves: how did we evolve from a society that shared news of such violence with profound gravity into one that now simply scrolls past these horrors on social media?

In just the past week, four Muslims of varying ages and backgrounds were slaughtered in Hindutva-led mob violence across different regions of India. Even as these targeted assaults against the minority community escalate, the world’s most populous democracy maintains a haunting silence. Mainstream media outlets and secular-liberal activists often appear oblivious to these occurrences. Even among those who notice, there is a burgeoning sense of apathy—a feeling that such violence is now mundane, regular, and unworthy of fresh outrage. The Hindutva ideology has been instrumental in this shift, successfully rebranding the persecution of Muslims, Dalits, Christians, women, and Adivasis as a "new normal."

A Bloody Week: Four Lives Extinguished by the Mob

The violence of the past week is staggering. In Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, on March 2, thirteen-year-old Unais Khan was shot and killed by a friend. Unais, who was observing his fast, had been invited to a gathering at the friend's residence. It was there that the nephew of Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Brajesh Pathak allegedly turned a weapon on the boy. On March 1, in Madhubani, Bihar, 65-year-old Roshan Khatoon was beaten to death. Reports suggest that the elderly woman, also fasting, was subjected to the indignity of being forced to consume urine and alcohol before the mob finally took her life.
The state of Bihar saw further tragedy on March 5 in Darbhanga, where 65-year-old Abdu Salam was murdered. During a verbal altercation involving communal slurs, he attempted to de-escalate the situation, only to be beaten to death by Hindutva supporters wielding iron rods. On March 2, in Haryana’s Nuh district, 26-year-old Aamir was shot and killed by Hindutva extremists following accusations of cattle smuggling. Even Kerala has not been immune; on March 1, eighteen-year-old Harikrishnan was lynched during a temple festival in Maruthadi, Kollam.

Official Admissions - The Data from Odisha

On Monday, Odisha Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi provided startling statistics regarding communal unrest within his state. He revealed that 54 communal riots have plagued the state over the last two years. Specifically, 26 such incidents were recorded in the Balasore district alone, with another 16 in Khurda. The Chief Minister further noted that while 298 arrests were made, formal charges were filed in only half of those instances.
Additionally, seven distinct cases of mob violence were identified in the districts of Deogarh, Dhenkanal, Balasore, and Rayagada, leading to cases against 81 individuals. The Minister also indicated that prohibitory orders had to be enforced in six Odisha towns over the past 20 months to quell rising violence. In BJP-governed Odisha, it is a visible reality that these waves of aggression are consistently spearheaded by Hindutva elements.

The Calculated Escalation Since 2014

 In 2018, the "Citizens for Justice and Peace" (CJP) published an exhaustive report detailing the surge of mob violence between 2014 and 2018. Their data showed that 78 individuals lost their lives to mob attacks during that window. The casualties included 21 Hindus, 32 Muslims, 6 Dalits, and 2 Adivasis, with the identities of 17 others remaining undisclosed. During the same period, 174 people sustained severe injuries, a group comprising 21 Hindus, 64 Muslims, 42 Dalits, and 6 Adivasis.
The CJP’s findings underlined a critical trend: mob violence has grown systematically since the BJP took power at the Center in 2014. These attacks are most concentrated in states where the BJP holds the reins of government. Despite nearly eight years passing since that report, the landscape of violence remains largely unchanged, if not more entrenched.

Ideology as a Weapon of Exclusion:

Many in our society cling to the comforting belief that caste-based hierarchies and communal violence are relics of the past. We point to universal schooling and employment as proof of our modernity. Yet, this view requires us to ignore the systemic pressures that led to Rohith Vemula’s suicide or the active efforts to dismantle affirmative action for backward classes. We conveniently erase the demolition of the Babri Masjid, the horrors of the Gujarat riots, and the mounting frequency of anti-Muslim assaults. This intentional amnesia allows us to maintain a false sense of national "progress."
This perception is rooted in a specific historical project. In the early 20th century, as Brahminism sought a new lease on life through nationalism, the RSS was born. Under the guidance of figures like Savarkar and Golwalkar—who found inspiration in the racial theories of Zionism, Nazism, and Fascism—Hindutva ideology was meticulously crafted. This framework established a nationalist identity that viewed Muslims, Christians, Dalits, Adivasis, and women as "The Other."

By framing the marginalization of these groups as a requirement of "True Nationalism," Hindutva has created a distorted moral permit for violence. In states they govern, the machinery of the law is used to demolish the homes of "The Other" with bulldozers, while in the streets, mobs take care of the rest. Encouraged by a lack of legal consequences and a digital ecosystem saturated with hate, this culture of lynching thrives. An individual who might be a coward on their own finds a dark "courage" within a crowd. This collective bravery is fueled by a radicalized national pride that views the victim not as a human, but as an enemy. If we continue to let our Constitution be sidelined while these atrocities become too "common" for the evening news, our nation will inevitably succumb to a future of lawlessness and profound insecurity.