In face of large scale mob violence, the city collapses and reverts to its most basic service – security – by utilizing federal small specialized paramilitary units and large military units for patrolling. This is what occurred in Kolkota this past week.

This brief collapse was the result of a build-up of the six days of compounding bandh initiated and enforced by various communist groups. These forced banked on the relative inexperience of the opposition farmer groups to achieve the objective of an urban overreach .

This strategy paid off when farmer efforts resulted in large scale visible violence. The sum result of the short lived campaign included hundreds of injured protesters and policemen, dozens of torched vehicles, and the burning of two ruling Communist Party offices.

Some 500 federal troops were deployed throughout the city within an hour of being called into action by the state government to quell the unrest. They were pulled out several days later, after order was restored.

Farmer groups are now facing an imperative to innovate beyond loosely coordinated mob violence. It will be interesting to see how this plays out.

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