Watch: Satirist Akash Banerjee analyses data on lynchings (the results may or may not surprise you)
The central government has recently constituted a panel to combat mob lynchings under Home Minister Amit Shah.
The new episode of satirist Akash Banerjee’s web show The Desh Bhakt focuses on the sharp rise in the number of lynching incidents that India has seen in the past five years. The data and statistics used in the episode are facilitated by “Hate Crime Watch”, an initiative of FactChecker.in.
The episode throws light on the history of lynchings and how it gained prominence in the United States of America after slavery was abolished at the end of the Civil War in 1865.
Recent cases of lynchings in India have been fuelled by a set pattern of rumours about the kidnapping of children or slaughter of cows. A recent addition to the list is forcing people to chant “Jai Shri Ram”. According to FactChecker.in, 90% of the lynchings in India since 2009 have taken place in the last five years.
Also watch:
This ghazal (and a poem) draws attention to mob lynching in India
‘It’s like I am reading the news to remind people’: Aamir Aziz on his song ‘Ballad of Pehlu Khan’