THE GREAT INDIAN MAFIARAJ

‘Rules and regulations are meant to be broken’ – an adage, which by now, every literate and illiterate Indian citizen have adapted to consciously or subconsciously. Schools and colleges have also played a great role in helping one to imbibe the same in one form or the other. And then you have the natural nurturing environment back home, among family members or friends, in your professional lives, in relationships and so on. At every step, in your daily routine life, you indulge in breaking rules and regulations. It somehow gives you a ‘great kick’ – a feeling of immense satisfaction, a sense of euphoria, an incomparable achievement orientation.

The way, every individual strives to raise the bar in achieving a bigger goal, a greater fortune and a more comfortable lifestyle, similarly do we, raise the bar of bending rules to the extent that they are not broken, but gouged out from the very rule books in the most notorious manner.

The recent headlines on sand mafia in Gautam Budh Nagar district of UP and the suspension of SDM Durga Shakti Nagpal, add to a multitude of small and large scale conscious acts of ‘legalised crime’ over the decades, ever since licensing or other control mechanisms have been employed in any commercial system in India. The media has only glorified the so-called ‘rule breakers’ by branding them as Mafias - doing a greater favor of boosting their self-esteem to a higher pinnacle. So, let me also stick to the same term, only to extend its usage as a generic term for ‘a group of conscious law breakers with an intent to cause immense damage to public exchequer and public livelihood to attain their own selfish motives.’

Now that I have already generalized the term, let me enlist the different types of Mafia who are actively operating in India currently:

Political Mafias – A group of decrepit, old men, who subvert the common man’s conscience by the most inglorious means with an objective to stay in total power and control as the sole decision maker of the country’s future course of action. (example – Laloo Prasad Yadav, Sharad Pawar, etc.)

Corporate Mafias – A group of well groomed, white collar corporate big-wigs, who, in the name of selfless contribution and CSR, stack up hoard of money for their political bosses, in return favour of lucrative tenders, at quarter of a cost of the actual prices. (example – Mukesh Ambani, Anil Aggarwal, etc.)

Education Mafias – A group of ‘world-class’ institutions, which in the name of offering ‘a life-changing experience,’ change the lives of the students once and for all. These students finally seek respite by making their presence felt in another world, not frequented by mortal beings. In the meantime, these institutions make a lot of money, change more lives and continue to offer newer means to change many more lives. (example – IIPM, Sharda, Lovely Professional University)

Aam-admi Mafias – A group of people, with or without any political affiliation, generalized as the common man or aam-admi, enjoy the privilege of being represented by the most powerful political leaders, while they themselves take a lot of pride in quashing every possible rule on the streets, at the workplace, at home, at almost every conceivable place on earth. (example – seen in the mirror)

Bureaucratic Mafias – A group of highly educated, erudite individuals, who occupy the highest seats of governance, with little or no authority of their own. This breed enjoys getting recognized in the eyes of the aam-admi, by making a hell of their lives. (example – visit any government office to find one)

Defence Mafias – A group of individuals, vested with the authority and power to maintain the sovereignty of the homeland, enjoys flexing their muscles in building houses, orchards, resorts on properties of the state or stashing cash out of illegal sale of arms, ammunition or secret information. (example – there are many donning the olive greens)

Media Mafias – A group of institutions, a part of the 4 pillars of democracy, who likes to create breaking news to subdue/criticize someone or something at the behest of the political or corporate mafias. The mostly illiterate aam-admi mafias take onto the streets to protest, thereby helping the media mafias to gain more TRPs and their political/corporate bosses more mileage in the entire cycle of events. (example – Kolkata TV, News India, etc.)

Student Mafias – A group of individuals with bloated egos and high self-notion of worldly knowledge, who feel they are the next generation to look out for, when it comes to politics, corporate world or social sphere, takes pride in disrupting everything – from education to public life – at the slightest wink of the political mafias. Although they symbolize youth power, but the incumbent executive councils comprise mostly of grey-haired, forty somethings. (example – all college unions)

Social Service Mafias – A group of individuals from different walks of life, who desire to bring about a social change in different spheres – education, public policy, poverty alleviation, malnutrition, etc – but end up becoming cronies of the political or corporate mafias. Their ‘hand-in-glove’ approach to serve as the secret treasury of their political or corporate masters, have made them a safer bet for investments with higher RoI. (example – GIDF, SoS Village, etc)

Medical Mafias – A group of individuals or institutions in the profession of providing medical healthcare – doctors, hospitals, clinics, pharma companies – who can get subversive, while wrenching out money from your pockets, at the cost of providing world-class medical healthcare. Their blackmailing tactics, while sometimes subtle, are mostly loud and on the face. They are very closely networked with the political and corporate mafias as well. (example – Apollo, Max, Fortis, etc.)

Understanding the psychology of mob behaviour: A case on Maruti mob attack (July 2012)

Burnt and vandalised cars left in the 

Manesar plant of Maruti

 It was a black day for the industrial community in India, the day when a young HR personnel at the rank of a GM suffocated to death in his office due to a fire put on by workers, who had no respect for law or order, least to say any worth for human life. Media reports also stated that the same person was first beaten up by the workers with steel rods and blunt auto parts, which resulted in multiple fractures in both legs, thereby making the person an easy prey to the engulfing inferno. Left to perish, with no help in sight, he finally succumbed to his injuries and was reported death by suffocation along with 100% burnt.

This was no one-off incident, which took place in a factory in the depth of rural India – away from the civilized urban world. Unfortunately, this incident took place in the very heart of civilization within 50 kms from Delhi NCR in Maruti Suzuki’s plant in Manesar – one of the fastest growing industrial townships in North India. And, this GM was not the only prey in this mob-frenzy that broke out that day, in that doomed Maruti plant. Some 40 other executives, many of them at the ranks of GM and some at the ranks of VP were predated upon by hordes of workers, with little knowledge of what they were up to.

The above-cited incident reflects on to an action, which can be commonly termed as mob-attack. Let’s first try to understand the meaning of the term ‘mob.’ A mob is a crowd of people with no defined objective, although the group is big, most-often leader-less and highly emotionally charged. What starts off as a systematic protest, in the above case, by a trade union, actually moves on to become a disoriented, mass movement, with a goal to cause unwanted destruction of life and property.  

According to social psychologists, there are various factors, which come into play when the term mob mentality or mob behaviour is referred to. Two of the main factors are the greater anonymity that exists within a group and the distribution of responsibility for the group's actions. These factors sometimes make a person believe that they can act a certain way within a group and not have the same consequences that the same actions would have if he or she acted alone. For example, if a person is in a group that is vandalizing a building, he or she might believe that there is less of a chance of getting caught than if he or she was acting alone, because it might be difficult to identify every person who was involved. He or she might also feel less guilt because other people also vandalized the property.

Another factor in mob mentality is the sense of confusion or even panic that can exist in a large group. An example of this can be seen when people in crowds suddenly begin rushing in one direction. Although many people in the group might not know why this is happening, they see the urgency in the group and begin rushing in that direction, too. In extreme cases, the urgency and panic increases, creating a sort of crowd hysteria, and some people might even get trampled as a great number of people try to move in the same direction as quickly as possible. Even for something as seemingly innocent as a department store sale, a mob mentality might be evident as dozens of shoppers rush toward the sale items, push each other out of the way and fight over the items.

According to Floyd Allport (1924), noted social psychologist, "there is no psychology of groups which is not essentially and entirely a psychology of individuals". When it come to collective action, Allport declared, still more famously: "the individual in the crowd behaves just as he would behave alone only more so". Crowd members lose their unique and idiosyncratic identities and behave in terms of a primitive animal substrate.

Crowd members who take part in violent action or action against the social order might be expected to have violent or anti-social personalities - or, at the very least, to be under- socialised or marginal to society. As the official US Riot Commission report of 1968 acknowledged, the most prevalent view was that "rioters were criminal types, overactive social deviants or riff-raff - recent migrants, members of an uneducated underclass - alienated from the society." Drawing analogy to the incident that took place at Maruti with the commentaries shared above, it can be very well justified that the vandalism that took place there was ignited by the demands of the working class – a demand to reinstate a suspended worker – which was not to be accepted by the management. Although the workers were not marginalized in terms of their numbers – the media had quoted around 2000 workers – but their sense of feeling marginalized was evoked by their social class order (working class). When the long negotiations in the plant failed to get any peaceful resolutions, the workers erupted in the most antagonistic manner.

Most mob attacks or acts of vandalisms are caused by
mindless, brain-dead individuals who have no concern
for life of property

As a common man, one can only wish to stay away from such mob-attacks, but one never knows when he gets dragged into one. The incident that took place in Maruti’s plant at Manesar is no doubt one of the most horrendous incidents to have happened in my lifetime. My heartfelt sympathies go out to the family of the bereaved as well as to all the workers, for whom the future employment in the plant seems bleak. One miscalculated, misjudged and mistimed step taken by an immature group of brain-dead people has lead to undesirable consequences – most often turning sour, rather than getting any sweet results out of such unwanted actions.