India's far-right cow vigilantes bolster clout before high-stake
elections
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[December 29, 2023]
By Rupam Jain
CHAMDHERA, India (Reuters) - Vishnu Dabad attributes his rise from
poverty to powerful local politician to an animal: the cow.
The 30-year-old is one of many Gau Rakshaks, or cow protectors:
activists who have taken Indian laws banning cattle slaughter and beef
consumption into their own hands since Prime Minister Narendra Modi came
to power in 2014 at the head of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata
Party (BJP).
Scores of cow protectors in recent years have been accused of using
violence to carry out extra-judicial activities, often finding
themselves at odds with law enforcement, even as many won acclaim for
defending the Hindu faith.
Now some of these operatives are transferring their clout into
grassroots political power, where they are pursuing a hardline
majoritarian agenda, according to interviews with more than 90
activist-vigilantes, as well as senior leaders of the BJP and other
parties, government officials and political analysts.
They described how cow vigilantism has become a finishing school for the
young men who mobilize large groups against alleged cattle smugglers and
used the resulting popularity to catapult into politics.
Many are now campaigning and preparing for elections in 2024 that the
BJP and allied right-wing parties are favored to do well in.
Forty-one of the cow protectors who spoke to Reuters have been elected
to positions such as village chief, town council member or local
legislator in the past six years, roles that can involve governing tens
of thousands of people.
Another 12 said they were lobbying their family members to seek local
office.
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"All of what you see: my success, my existence is only because cows have
blessed me," said Dabad, who started a cow protection force in 2014 and
was elected as village chief in 2016.
He is now a full-time political campaigner in the northern state of
Haryana for a party allied with the BJP, and is keen to seek higher
office.
Ancient Hindu religious texts praise cows, who are regarded as deities,
for their nurturing ability. But India's minority Muslims and
Christians, as well as some Hindus, consume beef as part of their diet,
generating some sectarian tensions.
There is no publicly available official estimate on the number of cow
activists nationwide, but activist leaders said they believe more than
300,000 Hindu men in the nation of 1.4 billion are directly involved
with their groups.
India's interior ministry, which oversees national law enforcement, did
not return a request for comment on that figure or the role of cow
activists.
Reuters previously reported that some of them have stopped cow traders -
many of them Muslim men - with deadly force, according to prosecutors,
witnesses and the families of victims.
Some states have enacted laws enabling cow vigilantes to patrol
alongside police.
While government data does not distinguish general violence from
cow-related lynching, Human Rights Watch found that at least 44 people -
36 of them Muslims - were killed in cow-related violence between May
2015 and December 2018.
The independent, New Delhi-based Documentation of the Oppressed database
found 206 acts of cow-related violence involving 850 victims, mainly
Muslims, between July 2014 and August 2022.
The proximity of cow activists to power has raised concerns among many
Muslims, who allege that some BJP members and their affiliates have
engaged in anti-Islam hate speech and violence.
Modi and the BJP have denied that religious discrimination exists in
India.
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Cow protectors "are very powerful men…and there is a climate of fear,"
said Jaan Mohammed, a Muslim man whose brother was one of the first
victims of a cow-related lynching after Modi took power. "I don't think
this can ever change now."
Legal proceedings are pending. Seventeen men accused of involvement in
his brother's 2015 killing were released on bail, and another suspect
later died. Police at the time of the slaying said the alleged
perpetrators behaved as if they had a "license to kill."
Modi has repeatedly criticized activists who engage in "criminal"
violence, even as his party courts their support.
Giriraj Singh, a BJP minister responsible for rural development, said
his party welcomed anyone who wanted to "genuinely serve the cows".
"Anyone who saves mother cow must be respected and recognized," he told
Reuters.
IMAGE OF MODERN-DAY HINDU WARRIORS
Half of India's 36 states and union territories have partial or complete
bans on cow slaughter - most of them governed by the BJP. But
enforcement has often fallen into the hands of activists. By posting
videos of their raids on alleged cow smugglers on social media, they
have mobilized money, as well as thousands of Hindu men.
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![](../images/122923PIX/news_n36.jpg)
Vishnu Dabad, 30, a Gau Rakshak or a cow protector and politician
with the regional political party Jannayak Janta Party(JJP), attends
to a cow at a shelter, run by him for injured and sick cows, in
Chamdhera village, Haryana, India, November 10, 2023. REUTERS/Anushree
Fadnavis
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Religious cow protection movements have a long history in India, but
many activists, including Dabad, said they were emboldened by Modi's
sweeping 2014 victory.
Dabad recounted bloody fights between his activists – who he said
are often armed with batons, stones, machetes, and sickles – and
alleged Muslim smugglers. He described spreading beds of nails on
the road to stop vehicles suspected of smuggling cows, as well as
high-speed chases and brutal attacks.
"The journey to protect cows has not been easy," said Dabad, who
previously spent more than a month in jail for his vigilante
activities.
Police responsible for the area around his hometown of Chamdhera
said Dabad has been the subject of nine criminal complaints related
to religious clashes and that he was arrested once for allegedly
beating up a Muslim trader.
Investigations continue on one complaint, while the other probes
have been dismissed, they said.
The image of lawlessness has not stopped politicians from seeking
the support of such activists.
Six officials from the party of Haryana deputy chief minister
Dushyant Chautala, who identified himself as Dabad's political
patron, said the activist was an effective campaigner and a rising
star.
Influential right-wing organizations such as the ruling
party-affiliated World Hindu Council have helped legitimize the
activists by depicting them as modern-day warriors waging a war
against cow slaughter.
Council spokesman Vinod Bansal likened cow protectors, some of whom
he said had been killed in clashes, to brave religious warriors. He
added that achieving political fame was only a side-effect of the
efforts of some activists.
Christophe Jaffrelot, a professor of Indian politics at King's
College London, said the Indian state cannot harass minorities
openly but by allowing vigilantes to do so, it keeps majoritarian
feelings satisfied.
"And now these private armies ... are being given a share in
governance and power at the local level," he said, adding that they
would continue their penetration of politics.
During an interview in his guesthouse, as his aides smoked on a
brass water pipe, Dabad looked at them and said: "We can all kill or
get killed to protect the cow."
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FORCE OF THEIR OWN
Of the 41 vigilante-politicians, eight said they joined the BJP at
its encouragement.
Another eight, including Dabad, joined other regional parties
because they said they had doubts about the BJP's commitment to cows
and Hindu values.
"If police would effectively identify and apprehend the alleged
violators of cow protection laws, then not a single Gau Rakshak will
be needed," said Ram Charan Pande, a cow vigilante leader who serves
as a village head in the northwestern state of Rajasthan.
Narendra Raghuvanshi, a member of a regional nationalist party and a
Gau Rakshak based in the central state of Madhya Pradesh said that
politicians often approached cow protectors for their support: "They
know we can tilt the Hindu vote in their favor".
Some of the activists-turned-politicians have created power bases of
their own. Dabad, the son of an illiterate farmer, now zips around
Haryana in a convoy of four SUVs, while running a centre for injured
and ill cows.
He said his political clout help him secure licenses and offices for
business ventures such as an alcohol store, an eatery and a real
estate company.
"I have been able to set all of these businesses because now people
know me as a man committed to protect cows," he said.
That has caused unease within India's opposition parties and the
country's security establishment, according to interviews with three
officials and one lawmaker.
A top Indian interior ministry official who was interviewed on
condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak with
media, said the cow vigilantes have managed to blend popularity with
nous on local issues.
"Even politicians feel threatened by the enormous network of cow
vigilantes," he said. "They have become a force of their own."
(Reporting by Rupam Jain; Additonal reporting by Shivam Patel in New
Delhi; Editing by Katerina Ang)
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