Cow vigilantism and lynching in the name of cow protection have once more spread their venomous tentacles across the country. In less than a week’s time, three hair raising incidents have shaken the already torn so-called secular fabric of India. The Hindu reported about a 26-year-old migrant worker from West Bengal, named Sabir Malik, who was beaten to death in Haryana’s Charkhi Dadri on August 27. Sabir, a scrap dealer, and another migrant from Assam, Asiruddin were summoned by a group of vigilantes to the Bus Stand and both were mercilessly beaten up by the miscreants. Sabir’s dead body was found near a canal, whereas Asiruddin is being treated at a hospital.
Again, on September 2, The Indian Express reported a gruesome story of a 22-year-old Wasim from Haridwar area in Uttarakhand, who was brutally murdered in the backdrop of smuggling beef. The police state that Waseem jumped into a pond in Roorkee while fleeing from them. The police add that the cow protection squad intercepted a scooter rider on the suspicion that he was carrying beef and the rider (Wasim) ran away and jumped into a pond. Waseem’s cousins, Alauddin and Afzal claim that the well-built Waseem, a gym trainer, and an AC mechanic, was brutally assaulted by the policemen. His legs were tied before he was thrown into the pond. The truth is yet to come out.
Likewise, a 72-year-old Ashraf Ali Syed Hussain from Chalisgaon, Maharashtra was manhandled by a group on board the Dhule-Mumbai train on August 28 on the suspicion that the meat he was taking for his daughter, living at Kalyan, was cow meat. At first, the group of youths, quarrelled with the super senior citizen over a seat issue, and then beat him black and blue at Igatpuri railway station. They didn’t let him get down at Kalyan, which was his destination, and forced him to continue up to Thane. Ironically, Thane is the home-place of the Chief Minister of Maharashtra, Eknath Shinde. The old man was harassed, intimidated, and threatened that he would be thrown off the running train while the co- passengers remained merely mute spectators. Thane railway police registered a case against the culprits. But Jitendra Awhad, an MLA from Mumbra-Kalwa constituency and former Minister of Housing, Maharashtra lambasts the Maharashtra police for booking the perpetrators on merely petty sections instead of framing them under more stringent sections.
The Cow-Beef madness has got overdosed to such an extent that even a 12th class student Aryan Mishra, who had nothing to do with cow or beef was shot dead by a squad of cow vigilantes in Faridabad, just a few kilometres away from the national capital. The 19-year-old guy was travelling in a Duster car when he was shot dead.
Gourakshak’s activism or cow vigilantism has been on rise since 2014, the year of BJP’s coming to power at the centre. The violence includes murders of Akhlaq, Junaid and many more.
However, the socio-religious and politico-cultural dynamics of our country manifest a totally paradoxical outlook in this respect. The Rigveda, the basic document of the Hindu community, states, “On the occasion of a girl’s marriage, oxen and cows are slaughtered” (Rigveda:10.85.13) and that “Indra used to eat the meat of cow, calf, horse and buffalo” (Rigveda 6.17.1). “Then they offer an ox or cow to Prajapati; for Prajapati is the deity of the earth”(Taittiriya Brahmana: 3.9.8).
Context: The Taittiriya Brahmana, part of the Yajurveda, discusses the practice of animal sacrifice, including the sacrifice of cattle. This text has been used to argue that the consumption of beef was part of certain Vedic rituals.
“Then they kill a cow or an ox and cook it, and they offer the animal in the fire.” (Shatapatha Brahmana: 3.1.2.21)
Context: This text, part of the Yajurveda, describes the ritual of offering oxen and cows in sacrifice. Some interpret this as evidence of the permissibility of consuming beef in certain ritual contexts.
Vaibhav Purandhare in The Times of India, 4 September 2024, in his write-up, entitled “The cow and Savarkar: Where the bovine is not divine, but the framework is still hardline Hindutva” comes out with astounding fact. He states that Vinayak Damodar Savarkar had written: “If the cow is a mother to anybody at all, it is the bullock, not the Hindus.”
RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat also reprimanded the operations in the garb of cow protection. “If a Hindu says that no Muslim should live here then that person is not a Hindu. Cow is a holy animal, but the people who are lynching others in the name of cow protection are going against the Hindutva. Law should take its own course against these oppressors without any partiality,” he observes.
When it comes to law, there is no total ban on animal slaughter in India. In 1955 a bill was proposed in the Parliament to impose ban on cow-slaughter. The then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru did not side with the ban saying that it was individual states to decide laws on it. To slay a cow is of course prohibited in many states now. In Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Goa, Gujarat, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Orissa, Pondicherry, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, and even in Uttar Pradesh slaughter of Bull or Buffalo is allowed on “fit for slaughter certificate” to be issued when the animal is not likely to become useful for the purpose of breeding or agricultural operations.
In Meghalaya and Nagaland, there are no legislations that prohibit animal slaughter. In Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh, cow-slaughter, export and sale of beef are forbidden. The website of Government of India, Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying Annexe-II (8): Gist of state legislation on cow slaughter, paragraph 17.4, the Uttar Pradesh prevention of cow-slaughter act 1955, reads:
‘Beef means flesh of cow and such bull or bullock whose slaughter is prohibited under the act, but it does not include such flesh contained in sealed containers and imported into UP.’
Ban on slaughter: slaughter of cow, totally prohibited, slaughter of bull or bullock permitted on ‘fit for slaughter certificate’ provided it is over the age of 15 years or has become permanently unfit for breeding drought and any agricultural operations. Transport of cow outside the state is not permitted for slaughter. Prohibition on sale of ‘Beef.’
Further, it seems the ruling BJP itself does not subscribe to the idea of prohibiting Beef throughout India. In states like Goa, where it rules, the BJP promised its voters to supply Beef at cheaper rates. When the lynching in the name of beef assumed a dangerous proportion, Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself observed: “Killing people in the name of cow is unacceptable. No one has the right to take the law into his hands.”
In the same way, during the BJP regime-I the then Minister for Minority affairs, Mr. Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi remarked that those who cannot survive without eating beef should go to Pakistan. His colleague Minister of state for Home Affairs, Kiran Rijiju sharply reacted to his views by saying “I eat beef. I am from Arunachal Pradesh. Can somebody stop me? So, let us not be touchy about somebody’s practices.” He also indicated that on issues such as Beef laws must be enacted as per wishes of the people of that state. “If Maharashtra, Gujarat or Madhya Pradesh is Hindu majority state, … if they make laws conducive to the Hindu faith, let them be but in our place in our state, where we are majority, we make laws which are conducive to our beliefs.” He stressed on the fact that India is a multi-racial, multi-religious and multi-communal country and people must respect each other’spractises.
Ironically, the world’s largest beef exporting companies in India are run by non-Muslims. Al Kabir Exports Private Ltd. is run by Mr Satish and Mr Atul Sabharwal; Arabian Exports Pvt. Ltd. by Mr Sunil Kapoor and MKR Food Exports Pvt. Ltd. by Mr Madan Abott. Why don’t the cow vigilantes and beef-haters go and direct their onslaught on them?
Slaughtering animals is neither a taboo in Hindu scriptures, nor is it disapproved by the champions of Indian culture and tradition, nor is it a forbidden fruit for the ideologues of Hindutva. More importantly, when it is permitted by the law, with certain conditions, who are cow vigilantes to take the law into their hands? And murder the innocents? This is the question. The rulers of India and the law enforcing agencies need to answer this question. Further, all the Indians who have given the constitution to themselves must ask themselves a more pertinent question: “What is the meaning of the words: JUSTICE, EQUALITY, LIBERTY, and FRATERNITY, which are written in uppercase in the Preamble of our Constitution?”