Lynching - India

India

In India, lynchings generally reflect internal tensions between numerous ethnic communities in the country. Recent examples include the Kherlanji massacre, where four members of the Bhotmange family belonging to the Dalit caste were slaughtered in Khairlanji, a small village in Bhandara district of Maharashtra, by members of another caste group, the Kunbi. Though this was reported as a stereotypical example of "upper" caste violence against "lower" caste, it was found to be communal violence. The incident occurred as a retaliation for opposing the Eminent Domain seizure of their family fields to build a road that would have been beneficial to the attacking group. The women of the family, Surekha and Priyanka, were paraded naked in public, before being mutilated and murdered. Sociologists and social scientists reject the identification of caste with racial discrimination and attribute it to intra-racial ethno-cultural conflict.