Delhi Violence

Delhi is known as the protest capital of India. At any point in time, at least 10 to 20 groups are found protesting against social and economic policies of the government at places like Ram Leela Maidan or Jantar Mantar. However, this February was a little different. Recently, Delhi saw one of its worst violence. Nearly 43 people died in communal fights. It made me wonder why do people take part in a violent protest? What is the psychology behind these violent protests?

Some of the key observations were most of the participants were people in the age group of 16 to 30 years who did not even know why were they protesting? Second is most of the participants are either jobless or identityless people suffering from some sort of inferiority complex deep within. The third is individually none had the courage to come forward and protest. They were throwing stones and petrol bombs and quickly hiding in the crowd. Most of them had their faces covered. Fourth, some were retaliating and mourning against personal losses. They had little to no understanding of the issue at hand. Like in this lack of education for the citizenship amendment act.  And lastly, none of them seemed to be a religious person. From the above perspective, the psychological profiling of protestors is a fearful illiterate, identity-less, inferior, crowd of people with a low sense of esteem and self-worth. And thus herein lies the answer to the question of how to deal with these people. 

The first solution could be to use the technology to capture their human identity and as soon as they know that they are under watch, they will disappear. Second is to quarantine the area of violence and strictly regulate the entry and exit of people from the violence zone.  Third would be to provide a sense of worth and self-esteem to its people by providing them swift justice on matters of interest. Job, education, access to resources are some of the easier and meaningful long term ways of inculcating trust and worth with the citizenry but providing immediate help on matters of law and order could give them a sense of immediate justice. Fourth would be the education of the crowd on the issue of interest. If pro-supporter could challenge the anti-supported of CAA into public debate then it would have resolved any doubts. The larger responsibility lies with the government. The government should challenge the peaceful protestors into public debates and increase the public outreach program on the issue. Fifth and more credible way would be to bring on board religious leaders and prominent personalities in dissolving the protestors. Hence, those could be some simple methods.