In post-apartheid South Africa, police ignored attacks on Indian shopkeepers in Durban’s 1949 riots, dismissing them as “minority squabbles.” By 1985, Zulu gangs used identical tactics to torch homes of mixed-race families in Phoenix. The officers who once shrugged now faced a wildfire of vigilante justice consuming all communities. In the mist-shrouded hills of Myanmar’s Rakhine State, a Rohingya village was torched as neighbours watched in silence, believing this violence targeted only “outsiders.” Within years, the same tactics silenced democratic activists in Yangon. When non-Rohingyas who once averted their eyes from Rohingya suffering found their monasteries burning in the later violence, they learned a brutal truth: impunity granted against one group trains perpetrators to see all boundaries as permeable. This pattern echoes globally.
India’s Crucible: The Birth of a Predator
Nowhere is this cycle more visible than in the villages of India’s caste. Consider Jitendra, a 21-year-old Dalit carpenter in Uttarakhand. At a wedding in April 2019, he committed an “unforgivable crime”: sitting on a chair while eating in the presence of upper-caste men. Enraged Hindus dragged him outside, beat him with iron rods, and left him bleeding in the dirt. Police refused to register the case for hours. Jitendra died nine days later, his mother Geeta Devi begging for justice in vain.
This incident birthed a predator. Lets delve into possible psychology post such crimes and offshoot effect of such crimes
- Stage 1: Laboratory of Impunity
Village musclemen and murderers saw police dismissing Jitendra’s murder as a “dispute.” Emboldened, he led raids on Dalit homes—stealing land, burning crops. When victims will complain, officers mock them: “Stop provoking trouble.” - Stage 2: Tactical Evolution
Village musclemen and murderers learned to weaponize vulnerability. His gang will perfect extortion tactics on Dalit laborers—threatening acid attacks if payments lapsed. After some time, why not they demand “protection money” from Brahmin, thakur and others. why not the same police who ignored Dalit pleas, will now call it a “business dispute”. - Stage 3: Societal Contamination
After perfecting their laboratory test on Dalits and few of Hindus, along with police. Why not they will target all communities.
Why Your Turn is Inevitable
Village musclemen and murderers have promoted themselves from “caste fanatic” to an entrepreneur of violence and crime whose business model thrives on one input: societal permission through silence and community support later mixed with general fear.
- Psychological Rewiring: Criminals who rape Dalit women with impunity (knowing police won’t intervene) learn that vulnerability and fear determines targets—not caste. Study found majority of serial rapists began with low-caste victims before assaulting upper-caste women.
- Economic Logic: Extorting Dalits yields pennies; terrorizing all communities brings riches. Land stolen from Dalits (who own just 2.2% of India’s land) funds drug networks later used to addict all youth.
- Institutional Collapse: Police who ignore Dalit complaints become enforcers for organized crime. In Bihar, officers protecting landlord militias in the 1990s later facilitated kidnappings of businessmen—their skills at evidence destruction perfected on “low-priority” cases.
The Global Echoes
From America to Asia, the poison spreads:
- United States, 2020-2023: Police who faced no consequences for killing Black men like George Floyd later shot white protesters in Portland. A study found 82% of officers involved in racial violence had prior complaints ignored.
- COVID-19 Backlash: Authorities who dismissed early anti-Asian attacks as “isolated” enabled mass assaults. In New York, Korean storeowners and Indian tech workers were equally targeted by 2022. And later crimes against Latin Americans were dealt with impunity.
- Rwanda Genocide: Conflict between Tutsi and Hutu community, Hutus first targeted Tutsi women later Hutu’s and another group’s women, Twa’s, not involved in conflict were also targeted for inflicting sexual violence. Musclemen who were main preparators were feared within the same community who they belonged to. Why not they will be?
The Unavoidable Truth
Violence generated based on differentiation and discrimination is not a single crime in isolation but a spark and ignition for chain of events leading perpetuation of further violence and breeding crimes as a destructive fire to damage whole of the society. That boy you ignored while he kicked a Dalit child? He’ll kick down your door tomorrow. The police who mocked a Dalit mother’s rape complaint? They’ll mock your stolen jewellery. From Tutsi women, Black men like George Floyd, Rohingya villages to Jitendra’s bloodstained chair in India, the evidence screams: Violence granted impunity against the few becomes currency against the many. Protect the weakest, or watch the chain strangle us all. When the well is poisoned, every sip kills.
