The culture of punishment as spectacle runs deep in our society. The shocking news from a Mirzapur school last week of a child being dangle...
The culture of punishment as spectacle runs deep in our society. The shocking news from a Mirzapur school last week of a child being dangled upside down from the first floor by his principal should trouble all of us.
Although the incident concerns an individual’s action, it is situated in a social life that views exemplary punishments and its public spectacle as a norm. Physical punishment finds easy acceptance in societies that valorises cultures of violence – whether in public or domestic spaces. The unfortunate and unending phenomenon of mob lynching gives life to these cultures of violence.
In India, the scope and scale of lynching have been expanding to include people associated with Dalit and Muslim identity, child-kidnappers, lovers, thieves and right-wing ideologues. Further, police beating ordinary citizens for violations of law in public spaces are some other examples that routinise the spectacle of violence.
My point is that violence has found a socially legitimate space in our bedrooms, living rooms, classrooms, streets, cities and villages. It also traverses through our marketplaces, worksites, police custody and public transport.
Not all these examples constitute the same type of violence and spectacle. Lynching has an accompanying element of public cheering and is...
