The recent spate of mob vigilantism has pushed the debate of
hate crimes in the frontline. At a time when the Supreme Courte of India asks
the Parliament to formulate a new law on mob violence, it is imperative to make
efforts to understand the nitty-gritty of the matter in a more systematic way. ‘Hate
crime’ has not been defined in Indian jurisprudence and therefore it is handled
the same way as that of a conventional crime ignoring the acute differences
between the two. A hate crime is a conventional offense but with an added
element of bias. A
hate crime is performed out of some kind of hatred or ill feeling towards the
other person or group of persons. For
hate crime offences, it is essential to meet two criteria. First, the act must
constitute an offence under criminal law and second, the act must have been
motivated by bias.[1]
Bias motivations can be broadly defined as preconceived negative opinions,
stereotypical assumptions, intolerance or hatred directed to a particular group
that shares a common characteristic, such as race, ethnicity, language, religion,
nationality, sexual orientation, gender or any other fundamental
characteristic. This violence is not limited to the individuals of specific
groups but symbols associated or even perceived to be associated with a particular
group can also be the targets of hate crimes and the assault can be physical,
mental or even verbal. Hate crimes affect the security of individuals, their
communities and societies as a whole. The effects of hate crimes are deeper and more wide ranging than those of
other serious crimes such as murders and assaults. They impact not only the
immediate victim but also the community with which the victim identifies,
affecting social cohesion and stability.
Recently the Supreme Court of India termed incidents of mob lynching as 'horrendous
acts of mobocracy' and observed that individual citizens cannot take law into
their hands. The Apex Court said that the
state cannot become deaf against growing rumblings and is duty bound to
maintain the rule of law and social and pluralistic fabric of the society[2]. However, the rising graph of mob vigilantism has haunted the nation.
Hate crimes in India
In India
the highest number of hate crimes is reported against Dalits and Muslims. India
has witnessed the legitimized inequality and horrific violence against savagely
oppressed caste, women and minorities. India has a shambolic record of
religious violence. According to the Global Restriction on Religion Report 2015
published by Pew Research Centre, India is world’s fourth religious intolerant country
after Syria, Nigeria and Iraq. As per the report India had the highest levels
of social hostilities involving religion[3]. This
report reflects on the Government Restrictions Index (government restrictions
on the free practice of religion) and the Social Hostilities Index (hostilities
between groups around the issue of religion). The Pew study criticizes the India on high
levels of interference in religious practices, hostility to minority religions
and inaction on complaints of discrimination.[4]
The
National Crime Record Bureau doesn’t record the official data of hate crimes.
However, some institutions have come forward to record the hate crime. As per
IndiaSpend data base since September 2015 more than 600 incidents of hate
crimes have been reported. Communal violence has also rose by 28 percent from
2014 to 2017. According to data released to the Lok Sabha as many as 7,484
communal incidents have been reported over the last decade between 2008 and
2017 i.e. two incidents every day, killing over 1,100 people, whereas 2276
incidents of communal violence have been reported during last three years
leading to death of 294 people. Highest number of communal violence has been
reported in the year 2008.
Total communal incidents since
2008
|
Year
|
Incidents
|
Persons killed
|
Persons injured
|
|
2007
|
761
|
99
|
2227
|
|
2008
|
943
|
167
|
2354
|
|
2009
|
849
|
125
|
2461
|
|
2010
|
701
|
116
|
2138
|
|
2011
|
580
|
91
|
1899
|
|
2012
|
668
|
94
|
2117
|
|
2013
|
823
|
113
|
2269
|
|
2014
|
644
|
95
|
1921
|
|
2015
|
751
|
97
|
2264
|
|
2016
|
703
|
86
|
2321
|
|
2017
|
822
|
111
|
2284
|
(Source- Lok Sabha)
Mob vigilantism based on
hatred and falsehood has emerged as threat to not only the rule of law but also
to the social fabric of the nation. People
don’t hesitate to take law in their hand and try to punish at site. This trend has taken a clear shape in last
couple of years and the impunity encourages to commit the crime. Cow related
violence and child lifters rumors have emerged as major challenges in recent
past. Around 85 incidents of cow related violence
have been reported since 2014 leading to death of 34 people, 56 percent of them were Muslims. As per the
IndiaSpend, since 2010 the highest cows and religion related violent incidents
were recorded (37 incidents) in 2017 which led to the 11 deaths (highest since
2010).
Child-lifting
rumors have caused 75 mob attacks in the last one and a half years. From January 1, 2017, to July 13, 2018, 36 persons
have been killed and hundreds have sustained injuries in violence cause by
child lifting rumors. In the first 13 days of July 2018 alone, there have been 11
cases of mob violence over child lifting rumors and six deaths have been
reported so far, which amount to almost one attack recorded every day[5].
|
Types of hate
crime
|
Year
|
No of incidents
|
Causalities
|
|
Violence due to
child lifting rumors
|
2017
|
8
|
9
|
|
2018
|
66
|
27
|
|
|
Cow related
violence
|
2012
|
1
|
0
|
|
2013
|
1
|
0
|
|
|
2014
|
3
|
0
|
|
|
2015
|
12
|
10
|
|
|
2016
|
24
|
8
|
|
|
2017
|
37
|
11
|
|
|
2018( till July
20)
|
9
|
5
|
(Source-
IndiaSpend)
Legal framework for hate crimes
Even
though India has the history of mob violence, the Indian jurisprudence doesn’t define
the hate crime. The Indian Penal Code doesn’t mention the hate crime. As of
know it is dealt with certain sections of IPC especially section 153 and 295.
Hate crimes against specific groups like women, dalits are dealt with special
legislation. But there is clear lack of national legal framework on hate
crimes. A Supreme Court bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra on 17th
July 2018 described the cow vigilantism or any other vigilantism as ‘extra-judicial
act’ and issued several directions of preventive, remedial and punitive
measures and asked the Parliament to create a separate offence for lynching and
provide adequate punishment for the same. The court said that a special law in
this field would instill a sense of fear for the law.The court passed
guidelines for the Centre and the States for as fast-tracked trials, victim
compensation, deterrent punishment and disciplinary action against lax law-enforcing
officials.
Experts
welcome this intervention of Supreme Court but centre always walks free
describing the law and order and police as state subject under seventh schedule
of the Constitution of India. While state police has poor record of using section
153A. For example, police didn’t mention the
Section 153A in FIR or charge sheet
in Junaid murder case. Police seems reluctant in invoking this
section in identity-related hate crimes to downplay the real motive and hide
the real cause. In mob violence police usually file FIR under charges of
unlawful assembly, causing hurt and house trespass against unidentified
suspects which was bailable offence unlike Section 153A, which should be invoked
in all such cases of mob violence. Whereas as per the media reports police
misuses the section 153A to target the people arbitrary[6].
States were also criticized to use this
section as political weapon to suppress the dissent voice. As per the NCRB
report cases registered under section 153 A had risen 41 percent in last three
years.
|
Year
|
Cases registered under
Section 153 A
|
|
2014
|
336
|
|
2015
|
378
|
|
2016
|
478
|
(Source- NCRB)
Here
central concern remains the implementation of the law in letter and spirit.
Lack of political will, ineffective policing and unfair investigation aggravate
the situation which needs to be taken care of.
Supreme Court in its directives asked the states to fix the
responsibility of policemen who subvert the cause of the justice and fail to
discharge the duty.
Important
IPC sections dealing with the hate crimes.
|
Section Under IPC
|
Description
|
|
153
|
This section
deals with the the act of provocation with intent to cause riot. Whoever
malignantly, or wantonly, by doing anything which is illegal, gives
provocation to any person intending or knowing it to be likely that such
provocation will cause the offence of rioting to be committed, shall, if the
offence of rioting be committed in consequence of such provocation, be
punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend
to one year, or with fine, or with both; and if the offence of rioting be not
committed, with imprisonment of either description for a term which may
extend to six months, or with fine, or with both.
|
|
153 A
|
The purpose of
the Section 153 A is to punish persons who indulge in wanton vilification or
attacks upon the religion, race, and place of birth, residence, language etc
of any particular group or class or upon the founders and prophets of a
religion. The jurisdiction of this Section is widened so as to make promotion
of disharmony, enmity or feelings of hatred or ill-will between different
religious, racial, language or regional groups or castes or communities
punishable. Offence on moral turpitude is also covered in this section. The
offence is a cognizable offence and the punishment for the same may extend to
three years, or with fine, or with both. However, the punishment of the
offence committed in a place of worship is enhanced up to five years and
fine.
|
|
153 B
|
Section 153B
of the IPC safeguards the interests of “class of persons” and above all the
“national integration” by providing punishment against imputations and
assertions prejudicial to national integration.
|
|
295
|
This section
makes destruction, damage, or defilement of a place of worship or an object
held sacred, with intent to insult the religion of a class of persons,
punishable with imprisonment which may extend to two years, or with fine, or
with both. This section has been enacted to compel people to respect the
religious susceptibilities of persons of different religious persuasion or
creeds.
|
|
295 A
|
The objective
of this section is to punish deliberate and malicious acts intended to
outrage the religious feelings of any class by insulating its religion or the
religious beliefs. This section only punishes an aggravated form of insult to
religion when it is perpetrated with deliberate and malicious intention of
outraging the religious feelings of a class.
|
|
505
|
Section 505 of
the IPC is aimed to check and punish the spreading of false and mischievous
news intended to upset the public tranquillity. The offence shall be
punishable with imprisonment which may extend to three years or with fine, or
with both.
|
World in Grab of Hate
Across
the world incidents of hate crimes are increasing. It has taken over
the developed countries like USA, France, UK, Australia etc. In,
America, Federal Bureau of Investigation records and releases the data related
to hate crimes. In the year 2016 a total of 6,121 cases
of hate crimes were reported in USA. In 2017, hate crimes rose 12 percent ov
All
around the world, there are various laws to tackle the hate crimes. In spite hate
crimes are increasing day by day reflecting the fact that people are fast
becoming unaccommodative to live in harmony with other sects.
Shooting the messenger; Social Media and hate
crimes
Another
aspect related to the issue of hate crime is related with the medium by which
opinions and fake information pertaining to the propaganda of the perpetrators
are being spread. Earlier this propaganda used to be spread through word of
mouth but with the arrival of digital communications, the abusers are now using
the digital mediums of communication for spreading contents that are full of
hate and violence. While these new digital mediums are fast, they also offers a
variety of content (including text and audio visuals) without revealing the
identity of the original creator.
In
countries like India, where the internet penetration is quite high, the problem
of hate speech being spread on social media and other digital communication medium
is alarming. As per the World Bank Report, 2016 there internet penetration in
India is ~ 30 Percent and almost 241 million people use Facebook.
While
the whole world is now trying to limit the damages caused by the widespread lie
and propaganda on social media by bringing a mix form of government imposed
regulations and self-regulations, India has a bit controversial history of
regulating social media. The Indian Information Technology Act, 2000 originally
contained a controversial Section 66 A which tried to stop the evil of online
hate speech, but due to excessive misuse by government to curb the dissenting
voices, this section was finally struck down by the Indian Supreme Court in
March 2015. The vague and arbitrary terms used in the section led to much
misuse of both personal and political nature, with several criminal cases being
instituted against innocuous instances of online speech, including political
commentary and humor.[8]
In
the light of above mentioned judgment, it becomes quite difficult from the
regulatory point of view to find a balance between protecting the citizens’
right to freedom of speech and stopping the distribution of hate speech and
other such dangerous material on social media. Though the current BJP led
government took some steps to stop the evil of fake news in April 2018 when the
Information and Broadcasting Ministry issued a notice stating that journalists
or agencies accused of creating or spreading fake news would be referred to the
statutory body for media, but just after a day of issuing this notice, the
ministry took a u turn and scrapped the notice.[9] Recently,
the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, India took another
approach to this problem and sent a letter to Whatsapp, a leading messaging app
with deep penetration in India, urging actions against misinformation
circulating on its platform in India.
Though
the problem of hate speech and misinformation being circulated on social media
is complex and has multiple issues underlying it, but steps like this coming
from the Indian government shows some light that the government is trying to
create a framework consisting of both imposed and self-regulations to deal with
this evil. Also the websites and apps are trying to bring tools and features to
curb this issue as Whatsapp recently added a feature in its app giving the
administrators of ‘Whatsapp Groups’ to control the ability of its members to
send and forward messages.
With
time the nature of hate crimes are changing. In order to limit them the
need is to bring suitable laws and implement them in the most sincere way.
There is an important part society has to play in limiting hate crimes and this
requires rigorous awareness and education. The most important part is that the
political backing and support feeds impunity to the violators and encourages
such incidents. The way out is nothing but political will power to punish the
offenders in a time bound way.
[1] http://hatecrime.osce.org/what-hate-crime
[3] http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/06/21/key-findings-on-the-global-rise-in-religious-restrictions/
[4] http://www.prsindia.org/media/articles-citing-prs/how-indians-view-religion-in-the-country-4972/
[5] https://www.business-standard.com/article/current-affairs/69-mob-attacks-on-child-lifting-rumours-since-jan-17-only-one-before-that-118070900081_1.html
[6] https://scroll.in/article/863176/2017-india-is-undercounting-religious-hate-crimes-by-not-invoking-a-crucial-section-of-the-law
8]https://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-others/section-66-a-instances-of-alleged-abuse-on-social-media-2324927/
[9]https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/apr/03/india-backs-down-over-plan-to-ban-journalists-for-fake-news
