On 16 June 2026, in a remote village of Odisha’s Rayagada district, two young NGO workers travelling on an unfamiliar route stopped to ask for directions. According to police accounts and victims’ testimonies, they interacted with local children and distributed biscuits. Soon rumours spread that they were child kidnappers. What followed was not merely an act of mob violence but a collective collapse of civic reason. A mob gathered, assaulted the two workers, and allegedly stripped and molested the young woman despite her repeated attempts to present her bona fides. Police have arrested more than 20 people in connection with the incident.
The brutality of the Rayagada incident is disturbing in itself. Yet its larger significance lies elsewhere. In the last two years, after the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) came into power, Odisha has witnessed 54 communal riots and 7 mob lynchings; this incident may count as the eighth. It forces us to ask a deeper question: what is happening to Odisha’s public culture under saffron rule? Why is a state once regarded as relatively peaceful increasingly in the national headlines for incidents of public humiliation, vigilantism, mob justice and social violence?
The answer cannot be found solely in criminal law. It lies in the weakening of what may be called civic virtue – the moral foundation upon which democratic societies survive.
Beyond law and order: A crisis of public culture
The incident is not merely a law-and-order problem; it is a crisis of public culture. When rumours mobilize violence faster than facts, civic trust begins to erode. Civic virtue requires patience and recognition of human dignity. When a crowd becomes investigator, judge and executioner, democracy begins to lose its ethical foundation.
Odisha witnessed a historic transition when the Bharatiya Janata Party came to power after decades of Biju Janata Dal rule under Naveen Patnaik. Supporters expected stronger governance and development. Now, a series of troubling incidents has given rise to fears that the state’s social climate is becoming volatile.
Supreme Court advocate and social activist Gyanadutta Chouhan expressed this anxiety thus: “We are shocked and outraged by the recent attack on a girl in Rayagada – a shameful act that exposes rising lawlessness and growing impunity in our state. Since the new government took office, such incidents appear to have increased, suggesting failures in public safety, law enforcement responsiveness, and political will. Arrests have been made, but we must ask: why are these attacks happening more often, and who will be held accountable for creating – or allowing – this environment?”
Mob violence predates parties and governments. Yet governments are judged by the atmosphere they create, the signals they send, and the confidence they inspire. Citizens assess a regime not only through economic and legal indicators but through everyday experiences of security, dignity and justice. Philosopher Martha Nussbaum argues that democratic institutions like courts and penal systems are meaningless if its citizens do not have the “narrative imagination” to understand and uphold the dignity of the marginalized. Without a robust public culture which stimulates deep empathy and fellow feeling, law and order becomes cold and punitive.
Erosion of public trust
Why are communities increasingly vulnerable to such panic? Part of the answer lies in a growing culture of suspicion. The stranger is no longer seen as a fellow citizen but as a potential threat. Trust – the foundation of civic life – gradually gives way to anxiety.
This anxiety is not distributed equally. Women, Dalits, Adivasis, migrants, religious minorities and other vulnerable groups often bear its heaviest burden. When institutions appear distant or ineffective, social prejudices gain strength, and rumours become vehicles through which deep-seated fears are expressed.
Such repeated experiences of public humiliation, violence, and exclusion create what may be called social hurt—a collective emotional injury that extends beyond individual victims. Social hurt emerges when communities lose faith in the ability of institutions to protect their dignity.
For women across Odisha, the incident described above is not simply the story of one victim; it becomes a symbolic event generating anxiety about public safety. Civil society workers will think twice about venturing into remote regions. Among the marginalized, vulnerability has been reinforced and made permanent.
The need for a moral public culture
The debate over Odisha’s future cannot be reduced to partisan competition between the BJP, BJD, or Congress. The larger question concerns the kind of public culture being produced. Are political actors encouraging constitutional citizenship or deepening social polarization? Are institutions building trust or merely reacting after tragedy occurs? Are citizens learning democratic responsibility or becoming increasingly comfortable with vigilantism?
The challenge before Odisha is therefore not merely administrative but moral. Law and order or economic growth alone cannot sustain democracy. A republic survives because citizens internalize democratic values long before they encounter courts or police stations. Therefore the administration or civil society of the region needs to cultivate public emotions that enable the people to treat each other as friends. The constitutional idea of fraternity could be a great exemplar if it could be cultivated among the ordinary people through folklore or local idiom.
The Rayagada assault should serve as a warning. Civic virtue often erodes quietly – through rumours, fear, and everyday prejudice. But once normalized, these forces shatter public life itself. They create social hurt: a condition in which citizens no longer experience the republic as a source of protection but as a space of uncertainty.
Forward Press also publishes books on Bahujan issues. Forward Press Books sheds light on the widespread problems as well as the finer aspects of Bahujan (Dalit, OBC, Adivasi, Nomadic, Pasmanda) society, culture, literature and politics. Contact us for a list of FP Books’ titles and to order. Mobile: +917827427311, Email: info@forwardmagazine.in
