"Dimagi Goondaism": How Political Power Produces Street Violence

In Rajasthan’s Rampura-Kanwarpura village, goons attacked workers of the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP). They pelted them with stones, beat them, and smashed the windows of their vehicles.

Rajasthan’s Education Minister defended the violence, saying that the goons were angry with the CJP workers because, in the name of inspecting the school, they were disrupting the children’s education. He went further. He congratulated them. The local MLA denied that the goons had any connection with the BJP. But as he said this, one of the goons stood right behind him.

In West Bengal, for three consecutive days last week, goons attacked Jadavpur University. One allegation is that they were affiliated with the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP). BJP leader and minister Dilip Ghosh threatened a “surgical strike” on the university. BJP leader and MLA Sarbari Mukherjee threatened to unleash a night-long orgy of violence on the campus.

One would have expected the West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari to condemn the violence. Instead, addressing a public meeting, he threatened to establish nationalism in Jadavpur University and eliminate the “tukde-tukde gang”. If you want to live in Bengal, you will have to say Vande Mataram. These were Adhikari’s threats. He made them while addressing a gathering of women. When students at a college in Medinipur demonstrated against this violence, goons attacked them. The attackers are alleged to have links with the ABVP.

Earlier, in Bankura, West Bengal, goons attacked CJP worker Sheikh Abdul Hafiz and his father, Sheikh Mohammad Mafiq, killing Mohammad Mafiq. The attackers are alleged to have links with the BJP. The Chief Minister has again denied any such connection.

After the BJP’s victory in the West Bengal Assembly elections, Trinamool Congress leaders have been attacked in one place after another. Recently, MP Mahua Moitra was attacked while visiting her constituency. The Supreme Court, however, refused to treat the incident as a security threat. Instead, she was asked why, as a people’s representative, she could not face such violence.

What happens when the court itself speaks in this language? A band of goons gathered at the gate of the circuit house on the night of August 15 and threatened her. The authorities, instead of protecting her, issued a notice to her late at night, asking her to vacate her room. And those carrying out these attacks are not being described as goons. They are being described as the people.

CJP workers are being threatened by BJP people’s representatives that wherever they go, they will be dealt with in the same manner. Some people in the corporate world, along with many journalists, seem delighted that “the people” are attacking the CJP.

In Pune, before Rahul Gandhi’s programme, goons attacked a women’s hostel. The students were threatened with violence. And again, it is being said that these were not goons but members of the ABVP.

In Uttar Pradesh, Kanwariyas are attacking people on the streets, vehicles and even police officers. One police officer is seen crying as he tries to establish his innocence. He says that if he has made a mistake, the Kanwariyas may hit him with their shoes. Those who kick Muslims offering namaz with their shoes are themselves helpless before the Kanwariyas.

Should these Kanwariyas be called devotees or goons?

Of course, India has been under Gunda Raj in one form or another for the past thirteen years. But ever since Narendra Modi, on August 15, called for identifying and dealing with “Dimagi Naxals” (intellectual Naxals), attacks on those whom he considers ideological Naxals have increased across the country.

The CJP workers were not committing violence. They were inspecting the condition of schools. The students in Bengal were not committing violence either. The young women in Pune were perhaps preparing to attend Rahul Gandhi’s programme. All of them had their own demands. Goons attacked all of them.

Journalist Ashutosh wrote: “A dangerous fascist trend has begun in the country. If anyone makes any kind of demand, surround them and beat them, break their arms and legs. And then say that this is the anger of the people.”

But this trend is not quite as new as it may appear.

The Shaheen Bagh movement against the Citizenship Amendment Act was attacked by goons. The farmers’ movement too was attacked by goons on several occasions. Those attacks, too, were described as expressions of popular anger.

In 2020, goons attacked Jawaharlal Nehru University. Before that, Delhi University’s Ramjas College had been attacked. That violence, too, was presented as an expression of nationalist anger.

It is beginning to seem that India has been under Gunda Raj for the past thirteen years. Sometimes these men are called cow protectors, sometimes Kanwariyas, sometimes nationalists. It is almost as if a concentrated campaign is underway to turn different sections of the people into goons.

In Manipur, armed groups such as Arambai Tenggol have been raised under the patronage of BJP leaders. They are being presented as representatives of the Meitei community.

The BJP is erasing the distinction between the people and the goons. Those conducting this campaign to turn large sections of India’s Hindu population into goons are also the people governing the country. They are ministers, MPs, MLAs, and RSS functionaries. They are leaders of the Bajrang Dal, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, and the BJP. They sit in television studios. They are newspaper editors and journalists. They are vice-chancellors and teachers in universities. They are cultural figures too, making films. Vice chancellors openly call for the elimination of “urban Naxal” teachers and students.

Yet these people themselves rarely come out onto the streets to indulge in hooliganism. They do not personally attack anyone. They run shakhas. They run educational institutions. They write articles, deliver speeches, and make films. They make laws. And then the goons appear to enforce those laws.

They make laws against cow slaughter, and in their shadow, cow-protector goons come out onto the streets. They make laws against “love jihad”, and then goons attack couples who enter into interfaith marriages. They make anti-conversion laws, and then religious-protector goons become active in attacking Christians.

One could say that street-level goondaism is impossible without this Dimagi goondaism. The question, then, is not merely who will stop the goons on the streets.

The more difficult question is: who will confront the Dimagi goondaism that produces the goons on the streets? And how?

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