A recent series of attacks by Hindus on Muslims in India has shown how communal violence remains a serious problem, even as the country seeks to define itself on the world stage as a robust democracy with equal rights for all.
However A close election victory In what many interpreted as a rebuke by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in June, there have been numerous cases of such violence, according to local news reports from India-focused human rights organizations and the New York Times. At least a dozen involve so-called cow vigilantism — violence related to the slaughter or smuggling of cows or suspicions of such acts.
In August, a group of Hindu men beat up a 72-year-old Muslim man because they believed he was carrying beef in his bag. That month, a group that described itself as cow protectors fatally shot a 19-year-old Hindu student because they believed he was a Muslim who smuggled cows, according to his family.
The cow issue is very divisive because it pits one group’s religious beliefs against another group’s diet. Cows are sacred in Hinduism, especially among its higher castes, and many Indian states prohibit their slaughter as well as the sale or smuggling of beef. But many Muslims consume beef.
Religious violence is not rare in India, where more than a billion Hindus, nearly 200 million Muslims, 30 million Christians, 25 million Sikhs and other religious minorities sometimes coexist uncomfortably.
Under Mr. Modi, who has adopted a Hindu nationalist agenda since coming to power in 2014, Muslims have increasingly become targets of radical Hindu groups affiliated with his Bharatiya Janata Party, or BJP, with hundreds of cases of religious violence, including lynchings. According to data from the National Crime Records Bureau, assaults and abuses occur every year.
Human rights and peace activist Harsh Mander said the attacks are so common that they have almost lost their ability to shock.
Especially, he said, violence against Muslims. “Firstly it’s common, secondly it’s legal and thirdly it’s valuable,” Mr Mander said. “So it’s not only normal to do it, but it’s good to do it.”
Cow vigilantism is a subset of religious violence, where squads of “Gau Rakshas” (cow guards) act as a de facto police force. Laws on cow slaughter are decided by states, but Mr. Modi has made cow protection a cornerstone of his national political strategy, giving impetus to a movement with deep roots in Indian history. . He rarely comments publicly on vigilante violence.
From 2019 until India goes to polls in April, more than a fifth of attacks by Hindus on Muslims were related to cow vigilantism, the largest single category. Analysis by ACLED, an independent nonprofit that monitors emergencies and analyzes data.
Muhammad Akram, a researcher who co-authored 2021, said such episodes are unlikely to become less frequent in Mr. Modi’s third term, despite a smaller-than-expected victory for his party in the election. paper On cow vigilance.
“Despite expectations that a politically weakened Modi might lead to a reduction in anti-Muslim violence rhetoric, there have been more than a dozen incidents of vigilante violence during this period alone,” Mr. Akram said.
In what the victim’s family called a case of mistaken identity, 19-year-old Aryan Mishra was shot dead in Haryana state on August 24 after a car chase. The police arrested five people, one of whom was known locally as a cow vigilante. .
The victim’s father Siyanand Mishra told reporters this week that his son did not know the criminals, who assumed his son was a cow smuggler. “We don’t fight with anyone,” he added, explaining that his family was from the top Hindu caste.
One of India’s largest Hindu supremacist groups, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, distanced itself from the recent attacks. “We condemn all forms of violence and the tendency to take the law into our hands,” said Alok Kumar, the group’s international president. Mr. Kumar said his group trains workers to intervene only if cows are being smuggled and report such cases to the police.
Mr. Kumar said it is important that Hindus obey the same laws that govern all Indian citizens. He said the recent cases of violence are more a coincidence than a trend.
On August 28, Haji Ashraf Ali Syed Hussain, a 72-year-old Muslim man, boarded a train in the state of Maharashtra. Mr. Hussain said he was traveling to meet his daughter when a group of youths began taunting him after identifying him as a Muslim by his beard and skullcap and accused him of carrying beef in his bag. (According to his son, it was buffalo meat, which is generally accepted.)
“I asked him, ‘Who are you to ask?'” Mr Hussain told reporters. With that, the men – who were about to take the qualifying exam to become police constables – began beating him. He suffered multiple injuries including eye, head and chest.
Senior police officer Archana Dusane, who is investigating the case, said that four persons have been charged with serious crimes including aggravated assault and robbery.
Often, the violence is caught on camera and widely circulated through social media, as in the case of Mr. Hussain. “You are creating evidence of a crime under Indian law,” said Mr. Mander, the activist, adding that it was “functional” violence. “It means you’re sure you won’t be punished.”
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