I have been studying for an exam for a while now, and I came across this term yesterday. It stuck in my head for a bit, not just because its a little weird( this exam needs me to specifically read up weird words), nor because I have never heard it before. In fact, it was precisely the opposite. I had heard it before, I just couldn't remember where. I remembered its meaning yesterday night. It wasnt a thesauraus that got me there though. It was Facebook.
Don't worry, Facebook is yet to become an online dictionary. What rang a bell was a picture of a semi-nude man, seemingly being torn up by a metal hook inserted into his throat, and then being hanged from the same hook. Pardon me for that not-so-nice language, but that's what I saw. That's when I remembered what Ochlocracy means. It means rule of the mob.
There have been several incidents happening around me over the last few days, all of which have left me deeply disturbed. The gang-rape of a woman on a bus in Delhi, the assault on secondary school teachers in atleast 6 locations in and around Kolkata over 3 days, and the hue and cry that is rising all around it. What is the common denominator across the board seems to be a general sense of amazement. Beyond the anger and the outrage and the public dismay at how something like these can happen to every single one of us (trust me, it can. Did you check that door, now?), what people are failing to grasp is, how can something like this happen? How can there be such a concerted breakdown of law and order across the board, from city to city, state to state, crime to crime. How can they act with such impugnity? The answer is simple, as are answers to all apparently baffling questions. It is because they are the law.
Make no mistakes, I dont mean that the students who slap their teacher, or the drivers who assault and rape their travellers, imagine themselves to be well connected. They simply imagine themselves to be faceless. And when they are faceless, they are the mob. And our nation today, is ruled not by the parliament, not by the judiciary, not by the police, but by the mob. And in this little detail, trust me, the people in the candle light vigil and the rapists are no different. and you know it already.
Before being outraged by this piece and slandering me, listen me out.
Consider yourself. Do you mind going on this candlelight vigil that is happening in Central Kolkata this Saturday? I don't think you will say No. Do you mind taking a candle and standing on Garer Math today evening? Assume there is no vigil planned and you are not allowed to bring anybody else. Forget about the effect of the collective and all- it's about your personal decision. Will you? I dont think so. Its not fear, not yet, that is stopping you. It is just a little rumbling feeling, this discomfort in your belly- what if someone sees me and pokes fun, what if its a little dangerous, you know, with the pickpockets and all? what if I end up ridiculing myself?
Let's say what I just said is wrong- you would actually go to garer math today. As you have realised by now, with a strong enough impetus, you actually can go. It is like in a Dare. Now lets take it a step further.
When you are returning from Garer math, you see a cab parked in a dark corner and a muffled scream coming out. You might like to call the police, but they might be too late, and you don have anyone around, remember? Do you accost the people inside? what is its just a couple having some fun on the sly? What if they are goons with guns? Feel the questions swarming in? Exactly my point. That's what i call ochlocracy.
What allowed the criminals to brutalise whoever they wanted to was this feeling of being in a mob, staying faceless, as if being faceless somehow saves them from being exposed, from being held accountable. The same is true for us. When the women lie bleeding on the streets, the people who look on impassively are iundividuals. Only when Facebook and NDTV and a weeping Jaya Bacchan and minute by minute updates galvanise them, they become a mob. They can tear up the perpetrators, donate their blood if it helps the woman, stay on candlelight vigils every night for weeks. But single them out, and you see a frightened soul, looking at you, furtively, trying to cower away into the shadows, Because away from the glare of the media eagerly interviewing us and Facebook that lets us quantify our feelings in Shares and Likes, we all know who holds the real power today. It is the mob. And outside the mob, we are nobody.
Atleast most of us.
And then another individual is singled out, and we go back to being the Mob.
Somehow it reminds me of The Incredible Hulk.
