Increasing Levels Of Brutality Do Not Portend Well For A Nation

In 2021, Prof. Thomas Blom Hansen, an anthropologist at Stanford University, wrote in his book `The Law of Force: The Violent Heart of Indian Politics’ that more and more Indians are tacitly endorsing or actively participating in public violence and that this pathology has moved to the centre stage of public life.

His assessment seems to have been borne out of the public killing of farmer Ramswaroop Dhakad in Guna district last week. He was mercilessly beaten in the village of Ganeshpura in the Guna district of Madhya Pradesh by a local BJP leader, Mahendra Nagar, his sons, his wife, his elder brother and other relatives. There are conflicting reports about what led to this murder. One report states that Dhakad had reportedly taken a financial loan from Nagar against a collateral of six bighas of his land located in the adjoining Baran district of Rajasthan. With prices of land having shot up, he wanted the legal documents returned to him, but Nagar refused. The other version is that Nagar, a small-time BJP leader, has a history of grabbing land belonging to farmers and is known to have forced 25 farmers to ‘sell’ their land at dirt-cheap rates, with many of them having been forced to flee the village rather than face his wrath and that of his cohorts. He had wanted Dhakad’s land, which he had declined to sell to him. An incensed Nagar decided to teach him a lesson. Nagar, his two sons, brothers and some assistants armed with guns proceeded to surround Dhakad and beat him mercilessly with sticks and rods. This was followed by one of Nagar’s sons reportedly driving a Thar vehicle over his legs. The bleeding farmer lay on the roadside for an hour, screaming in agony, but the villagers remained mute spectators, as they were scared of the gun-toting men accompanying Nagar.

Dhakad’s two daughters tried to save their father, but they too were beaten mercilessly. The most shocking aspect of this crime is that three women from Nagar’s family were at the forefront in beating both the father and the two girls. Nor did they raise any objections when he was being run over by the jeep. All three women are absconding, as are two of the men who took part in this violence.

A bleeding Dhakad was taken to the hospital but could not be saved, as he had lost too much blood. His wife and two daughters remain traumatised by his death and insist they be given justice.

Have we as a nation become more prone to violence? While political analysts may have different points of view, speaking to a cross-section of psychologists only serves to confirm what most Indians believe and have grown to accept.

Psychologist Dr Pulkit Sharma believes that violence is definitely on the rise, primarily because there are no deterrents in place. “Powerful people believe they can get away with anything primarily because there has been a breakdown of the law and order machinery.” He cites the example of Dubai, where the law enforcement is swift and exemplary. “People who are sadistic or have psychopathic tendencies are going to take advantage of the present system and use it for their benefit,” said Sharma.

Dr Nisha Dube, a Delhi-based psychologist specialising in deviant behaviour amongst adolescents, believes online content is showing increasing volumes of violence, and young people are being allowed to view such content. Exposure to violence, whether as a victim, witness, or through media, can profoundly affect their development. It can normalise aggression as a way of coping with rejection and frustration. She also believes that friction within families has resulted in the younger generation not developing sufficient coping mechanisms for dealing with stress, anxiety, and depression, and this in turn can result in aggressive behaviour becoming an emotional outlet.

Dr Dube is horrified at the present trend where “crooks and criminals are being presented to teenagers as role models to be emulated and have been found to be earning lakhs on YouTube channels. What kind of message are we sending out to society at large—that crime is something that will bring them fame and money? This is scandalous,” he says.

The police have registered a case against 14 persons, including Mahendra Nagar, his sons, his wife, his nephew and two other women from the Nagar family under multiple BSNS sections. Nagar has also been expelled from the party. A senior BJP leader pointed out that Nagar was among several Congress workers who joined the party in 2020 after Jyotiraditya Scindia and 22 loyalist MLAs quit the party, overthrowing the Kamal Nath government. Guna is one of the three districts in the Gwalior-Chambal region that comprises the Guna Lok Sabha constituency represented by Scindia. Locals point out that the Chambal region has a history of banditry and criminality.

Another shocking incidence of violence was when a martial arts trainer and his wife deliberately hit a gig worker’s motorcycle with his car, resulting in his death in Bengaluru on October 25. The gig worker’s crime was that while riding the bike, he accidentally broke a window of their car.

Of course, there are political scientists, including two US-based scientists, Amit Ahuja, from the University of California, and Devesh Kapur, from Johns Hopkins University, who, in their book ‘Internal Security in India: Violence, Order, and the State’, argue that large-scale violence both in the public and private spheres has shown a downward spiral, though they also admit that new forms of public violence, including intimidation and lynching, have seen a rise.

What is worrying for Ahuja and Kapur is the new trend in which many ordinary people are supporting or participating in public violence. This, they believe, undermines the state's ability to control violence. If we are not careful, this present wave of violence will erode our society completely.

Rashme Sehgal is an author and an independent journalist.

Published on: Saturday, November 01, 2025, 07:38 AM IST