Cow vigilante violence in India
[8] Recently emerged cow vigilante groups, claiming to be protecting cattle, have been violent leading to a number of deaths.
According to a Reuters report, a total of 63 cow vigilante attacks had occurred in India between 2010 and mid 2017, most after Prime Minister Narendra Modi came to power in 2014.
[10] Research by Armed Conflict Location and Event Data concluded that cow vigilante action by Hindus was the primary reason for violence against Muslim civilians between June 2019 to March 2024.
[11] There has been a rise in the number of incidents of cow vigilantism since the election of a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) majority in the Parliament of India in 2014.
[15][16] The Supreme Court of India in September 2017 ruled that each state should appoint a police officer in each district to take strict action against cow vigilantism.
Following Narendra Modi's rise to power, extremist Hindu groups have led attacks across the country that have targeted Muslim and Dalit communities.
[23] In 2017, Bloomberg reported that according to meat industry representatives, cow vigilantes have been stopping vehicles, extorting money and stealing valuable livestock.
It pointed to an Indian Express investigation that found that vigilantes in Punjab charge cattle transporters 200 rupees ($3) per cow in exchange for not harassing their trucks.
Analysing the reasons for the vigilantism, academic Christophe Jaffrelot has said that the RSS is attempting to transform society from within through a sense of discipline which it believes is needed for defending Hindus more effectively.
The moral and political economies of this arrangement are even more sophisticated: The state cannot harass the minorities openly, but by letting vigilantes do so, it keeps majoritarian feelings satisfied.
The private armies, which may be useful for polarising society before elections are also kept happy—not only can they flex their muscles, but they usually extort money (violence mostly occurs when they cannot do so, as is evident from the recent cases of lynching).
[30] The vigilantes often have a network of informers consisting of cobblers, rickshaw drivers, and vegetable vendors, who alert them to supposed incidents of cow slaughter.
In April 2017 the governments of six states: Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Jharkhand, Karnataka, and Uttar Pradesh were asked by the Supreme Court to answer a request to ban cow-protection related vigilantism.
He pointed out that after some vigilante attacks, the BJP officials attempted to convince the police to charge the victims (or their families) for provoking the assault.
According to a June 2017 Reuters report, citing a data journalism website, a total of "28 Indians – 24 of them Muslims – have been killed and 124 injured since 2010 in cow-related violence".
[41] Many people protested at Jantar Mantar in Delhi and more 16 cities across the country, including Mumbai, against forming lynch mobs in the name of cow vigilantism.
[46] An editorial in The New York Times stated that BJP is partly to blame, as they have stoked inflammatory rhetoric over cow slaughter.
[47] Siddharth Nath Singh has denied allegations that the BJP administration condones vigilantism and said that illegal attacks would be punished.
[48] In August 2016, Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed his displeasure at the rising frequency of incidents of cow vigilantism and condemned the practice.
