There may not be a word for lynching in most Indian languages. We need one. | The Indian Express

There may not be a word for lynching in most Indian languages. We need one. | The Indian Express

Written by Saikat Majumdar |Updated: October 12, 2019 1:48:29 pm

Majumdar, author of ‘The Firebird’, teaches world literature at Stanford University, US.

There may not be a word for lynching in most Indian languages. We need one.

It is strange because it is new. Always. Even after 4,743 bodies — the number of people lynched between 1882 and 1968 in the United States, as estimated by the NAACP, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

“Lynch” came from the phrase “Lynch Law,” which was a term for this method of “execution” without trial. The two brothers who lent their names to this phrase were Charles and William Lynch, who lived in Virginia in the 1780s.

“Southern trees bear a strange fruit,” sang Billie Holiday, “Blood on the leaves and blood at the root.” What is this strange fruit? Quickly, we get the answer: “Black bodies swingin’ in the Southern breeze/ Strange fruit hangin’ from the poplar trees”