Vanniyar

Lynchings: Public Celebration of the Suffering of the Marginalized

On 15th October 2002, between 9 pm and 10 pm, five Dalits — Dayachand, Virender, Totaram, Raju and Kailash — were lynched in Duleena village, Jajjar district, Haryana, by a frenzied mob for the “speculated crime” of cow-slaughter, while the police and administrative officials – DSP, SHO Sadar, Jajjar, and three executive magistrates: the City Magistrate, BDO, Naib Tehsildar – stood by and watched.1 These Dalits, who were leather traders and were arrested on t