BJP’s Cow Politics: Harnessing Gau Mata for Hindutva Agenda
The cow is deferentially regarded as a mother in Indian culture and is often called “Gau Mata”; an inviolable creature regarded as divine therefore Slaughtering cattle, or even possessing them with the intention of slaughter, has been criminalized in Hindu-majority India. The cow protection movement has been solely responsible for triggering violent confrontations between the Hindus and Muslims in India for decades, and in recent times, yet again became a thorny issue.
During the late 19th century, the widespread and deep-seated Hindu sentiment in favor of cow protection became the dividing line between the Hindus and the “Others”; a clear demarcation, smartly established between cow worshippers and beef consumers. This demarcation made Cow protection a major tool in politics to whip up the religious and communal passion for engendering political support. The Hate campaigns and organized propaganda against Muslims give the impression that Muslims deliberately eat beef to hurt Hindu sentiments, which resulted in an increase in violent attacks against Muslims.
“A worshipful attitude is necessary for protection. But it is improper to forget the duty of cow protection and indulging only in worship. The word ‘only’ used here is important. First, protect the cow and then worship it if you so desire.”
Savarkar in Vidnyan-nishtha Nibandha
The Gaurakshini Sabha (cow protection committee) was a potent force of Hindu revivalist movements that came into existence in 1882 in Punjab by the Hindu Nationalists. The responsibilities of this committee were to preach and regulate the matters related to cow protection. The well-propagated campaign resulted in the expansion of other such cow protection societies across the country.
These societies provided financial support to the gaushalas (Hindu-run cow shelters) by collecting charities from individuals in the cow protection fund. People were lured by assuring big rewards, paid preachers on the local level give lectures on the religious significance of the cow and religious sentiments were provoked through literature and other possible means, creating an atmosphere that was intensively hostile to the Muslims.
“Frankly not to have a law to prohibiting cow slaughter is a shame for every Hindu. the bad state of affairs of the country is the result of this very sin. God has come to earth in form of the cow. every bit of our existence is indebted to the mother cow.”
Extract from an editorial of Sar Sudha Nidhi
These campaigns gained an enormous audience and gradually sprang intolerance and hatred toward minorities which provoked a series of communal riots in Punjab in the 1880s and 1890s specifically on the day of Bakr Id. A night before the Bakr id, people were informed to be assembled with arms, and lathis to prevent sacrifice at any cost, proofs showed that the cow protectors communities managed by Hindutva outfits were directly involved in the riots. The sweeping riots, looting, and murders continued in major cities of India even in the first half of the 20th century.
With the gloomy past of Hindus and Muslims in British India, a never-ending rivalry kept the atmosphere tense, and cow protection was one of those nightmares that continue to haunt Muslims in post-partition India.
In contrast to the past, the frequency and severity of cow vigilante attacks that have been observed in the past decade are unprecedented. Since the BJP government has come to power in 2014, even before that this religious sentiment was used as a mere political tactic.
The BJP’s anti-Muslim manifesto is not a new thing in the political arena, for decades anti-Muslim rhetorics are used for taking long-term political gains which evidently, serve the purpose. During the Bihar Assembly election 2015, a political ad was published in newspapers featuring a woman hugging a cow a political stunt to deceive the voters. The senior BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi promised to frame legislation to ban cow slaughter in the state if the party comes to power in the Bihar Assembly elections. The Bihar election was a sweeping victory for BJP.
“The Bihar Assembly election is a fight between those who eat beef and those who are against cow slaughter… Now, people must decide whether they want beef-eaters or those who want to ban it.”
Sushil Modi, the leader of the BJP about 2015 Bihar Assembly election
Yogi Adityanath gained acceptability and popularity for his campaign against cow slaughter over the years and asserted on several occasions the severity of this matter. He founded Hindu Yuva Vahini to carry a campaign against cow slaughter. Before the state election of Uttar Pradesh, he ensured to take action against cow slaughter whenever his party BJP will hold power in the state.
Adityanath’s BJP party won the state elections of UP in 2017, soon after which the government’s crackdown on meat shops in the state, leaving many traders and butchers without much work and money. Most butchers are Muslims who perceive it as an anti-Muslim act as cow vigilante groups went further and burned down a number of meat shops.
“I have no money since my shop shut two weeks ago. I don’t know how to feed my children and aging parents. Is it because I am a Muslim or a meat trader?” Shakeel Ahmad meat trader
The cows seized from Muslims during these nocturnal vigilante raids and lynchings are then transported to nearby Gaushalas which later on sell them to Hindu buyers: a less noted dimension to the violence. The shelters traditionally operated as religiously-motivated charities, but are also on the state level, funded by BJP politicians through local government bodies.
“Seizing cattle is not legal and we know that well. We are not authorized to do this, it’s the police department’s work but our religion has given us the right to stop our mother (“gau mata,” or mother cow) from being butchered, We have forcefully taken that right.”
Dinesh Arya, State head of the Gau Raksha Dal
“If the sentiments of the majority community are respected, there would be no such incidents. Can we demand pork in any Gulf country?”
Surendra Jain, joint general secretary for the Vishwa Hindu Parishad
In the same year, RSS called for a countrywide ban on the slaughter of cows further the BJP promised to completely outlaw cow slaughter in India. The decision to ban trading cattle for slaughter, including not just cows, but also buffalo, Muslims, believes that the government is giving this lucrative meat industry a communal color. This step will further squeeze them out of the multibillion-dollar beef and leather industry with annual exports worth $4bn (£3.1bn), dominated by Muslims, and contributes to the employment of millions of people across the country. By doing this the BJP’s government also targets food habits to create a powerful marker of Hindu identity, critics have been calling this an example of “food fascism”.
But contrary to the claim that only Muslims eat beef a joint Research by US-based anthropologist Balmurli Natrajan and India-based economist Suraj Jacob revealed that 80% of the Indian population (Hindus), are major meat-eaters and only a third of the privileged, upper-caste Indians are vegetarian. Vegetarian households have higher incomes and are well-off than meat-eating households.
The lowest Hindu castes Dalits (the untouchables), tribes-people, Christians, and some 70 communities in Kerala are mainly meat eaters. Excluding the religious aspect of the issue the reason for meat consumption is that in India beef is significantly cheaper than any other meat i.e. chicken, goat, fish, etc. In some places, it is even cheaper than potatoes. Minorities and low-caste Hindus consume beef for their economic reasons rather than religious ones as it is the only affordable source of a wholesome meal and the staple diet for them by forcing them not to eat it means starving them to death.
But this atrocity is not limited to burning down shops and mere starvation. The kind of communal rhetoric used by BJP and allies had caused a surge in violent crimes against beef consumers and people associated with them.
A thorough 104-page report by Human Rights Watch titled Violent Cow Protection in India: Vigilante Groups Attack Minorities” examines the link between cow protection and the Hindu nationalist political movement, listing vigilante attacks that killed hundreds of people and injured hundreds of others, pointing at the failure of local authorities in relation to protecting vulnerable minorities. The listed cases in the HRW report are from different cities and victims are of different age groups and were mostly Muslims and all perpetrators were directly linked to BJP.
“Calls for cow protection may have started out as a way to attract Hindu votes, but it has transformed into a free pass for mobs to violently attack and kill minority group members.”
Meenakshi Ganguly, South Asia director at Human Right Watch
Countless policies introduced around cow protection by BJP-ruled state governments have enabled vigilante groups the “Gau Rakshaks”. These gau Rakshaks often consist of young, hardline Hindus, mostly members of militant Hindu groups like Bajrang Dal, Vishwa Hindu Parishad (World Hindu Council), and Shiv Sena. All of them attend local camps held by the right-wing Hindu nationalist Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (National Volunteers’ Organisation), which has close ties with the ruling BJP.
“We won’t remain silent if somebody tries to kill our mother. We are ready to kill and be killed.”
Sakshi Maharaj, BJP member of parliament, on the killing of Mohammad Akhlaq, October 2015“We have equaled the killing of a cow or cow progeny with the killing of a human being.”
Pradeepsinh Jadeja, State Home Minister of Gujarat
In almost all the cases Gau Rakshaks alongside police patrolled streets and highways at night, stopped vehicles, checked them for cattle, and reacted violently when they find any. Moreover, Police intentionally hindered investigations, ignored procedures, and were complicit in the killing and cover-up of crimes. BJP officials encourages and defended the assaults and instead of promptly investigating and arresting suspects, the police filed complaints against victims under anti-cow slaughter laws.
“The obvious impunity for the string of crimes that have taken place, and their hugely shameful valorization by some leaders, is distinctly a strong factor in their continuation.”
Maja Daruwala, senior advisor to the civil society organization Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative
In some cases, the polices themselves feel threatened by these politically protected groups influencing the investigation and proceedings related to cow vigilantism but dare not to intervene.
“Police face political pressure to sympathize with cow protectors, and do a weak investigation and let them go free. These vigilantes get political shelter and help.”
Richhpal Singh, a former additional superintendent of police, Rajasthan
In similar cases like Rakbar Khan, a Muslim farmer brutally killed by the “Gau Rakshaks” both police and local members of governing BJP was complicit in his death. 22 years Warish (murdered) and two other Muslim men, Shaukeen and Nafis were also assaulted and abused by a cow vigilante group in Haryana, in the presence of police, live streaming the whole incident to inflict fear among Muslims and this continued until now whereas Modi is in no mood to take any responsibility.
Ironically, the law also provides a safeguard to the culprits involved in such inhumane activities by criminalizing cow slaughter. There have been several occasions when the issue of cow protection has been in the legal light. BJP-led states banned the sale of beef in any form and proposed different severe punishments from a prison sentence to a heavy fine, making cow slaughter a cognizable and non-bailable offense. Human rights groups and civil society accuse the government of creating space for violent acts through such laws which turned into a disguise for Hindutva outfits to raid Muslim homes and properties while law enforcement agencies are alleged accomplices, leading to a huge spike in anti-Muslim hate crimes.
Over the years cow protection is becoming more of a planned revenge against those who are despicable in the eye of Hindutva and its followers a weapon to cleanse their land from unwanted people. But what is more alarming is that their manifesto is gaining popularity among the masses. The youth belong to all fields of life and are participating in hateful crimes despite the fact that their own financial condition is miserable. Interestingly Gau Rakshas often recruit young, unemployed, or poor working people to engage them in false issues to divert attention from the actual issues and channel their anger and frustration to achieve BJP’s political goals.
