Who will bell the cow? Beef ban: Decoding its cultural, social and economical aspects in India

Ganapatye, Shruti. 2022. Who will bell the cow? Beef ban: Decoding its cultural, social and economical aspects in India. Notionpress.com.

The author introduces the book with the attempt by the then BJP government to bring in an amendment to the Maharashtra Animal Preservation Act 1976 in an effort to bring in a complete ban on the slaughter of cow progeny, i.e., bulls and bullocks.

She highlights how Maharashtra never had a major problem with cattle slaughter and beef consumption with many restaurants serving the food. After the amendment was introduced in 2015 “For the first time, many restaurants and small slaughter shops displayed boards of No beef and the cheapest protein source for many poor, including some from the dalit and Hindu communities, was seized. This same year the first case of mob lynching took place on September 22, 2015 in Dadri, UP – the first of several.

Violence in the name of the cow was witnessed in Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Haryana, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand –“the headlines for the next five years were dominated by hate crimes targeting Muslims, dalit and other marginalised people and cow related violence”.

She says “Narratives like Muslims are killing our cows for years, Hindus never ate beef, India is a vegetarian country etc. are accepted as facts.” She references DN Jha’s book (The myth of the holy cow) and Dr. Ambedkar’s (The Untouchables: Who were they and why they Became Untouchables) and many other historians on ancient India who have presented evidence on beef eating practices among Hindus.'

She traces the roots of the cow protection movement to the mid of 19th century which was initially against the British but transferred to the Muslims. She challenges some of the pet beliefs of the Hindutva nationalist. She explains how this nationalism is not only destroying the rural economy and other livelihoods, but has in fact not helped the cattle population either, even threatening them with extinction.

She gives examples of how “Muslims are the pre-decided culprits of cow killing” and “Muslim hatred is the basic qualification to become a gau rakshak and they spur Islamophobic instincts.” In the last week of April 2021, the Punjab and Haryana High court directed the Haryana State’s Additional Advocate General to address the court on the power/authority of vigilantes to raid the houses of the citizens. The Bench of Justice Sudhir Mittal also observed “Such actions are prima facie illegal and amount to taking law into their own hands by private individuals. This is contrary to the Rule of Law.” The court remarks came based on an FIR registered in Haryana’s Nuh area where a Gau Rakshak dal allegedly raided one Mubbi alias Mubin, the petitioner.

These gau rakshaks have emerged as a parallel system to the police and receive support from the police and ruling party. In fact when a cattle trader Alimuddin Ansari was barbarically murdered on June 29th 2017 in Jharkhand, not only where the accused released on bail, but the eight men were felicitated by the former BJP Union minister Jayant Sinha.

She documents the horrific murders under the pretext of cow protection with the attackers getting blanket immunity. Even women and children have not been spared from this brutality. She describes how these gau rakshaks are organised and are enabled by various wings of the BJP. They belong to the brahmin, Gujjar, Jat, Yadav, Bania, Agrawal, Thakur and Rajput communities. These men organise and plan attacks and have a good network on various apps including Whatsapps. Police and even Dalits act as informants for these violent pre-planned attacks.

She says ‘The system has been developed in such a way that gau rakshaks end up doing work wihc only police are authorised to do. They act as extra-judicial body by punishing the traders and farmers in the name of instant justice. Therefore the attacks are never sudden but a planned conspiracy in connivance with the state players.”

This blurring of boundaries between the state and anti-social elements is particularly concerning. As we see even now, the victims are often treated as the criminals and the criminals are treated as heros. These acts of violence expand to accommodate many other prejudices which is being played out even now across the country in many different forms.

Because of these acts of terror, even a natural death of the animal has become stressful for farmers, particularly for Muslim farmers. There is also documentation of how the cattle population has dwindled following these violent attacks.

“Gau shala has become a medium of land grab at many places in the absence of an audit. There is no accountability over funds raised and spent, there is no monitoring of the number of cattle residing in the gaushala, their condition if they get required fodder and health check up. Even various government schemes meant for gaushalas have not monitoring mechanism at all.”

“After speaking with a few traders and slaughterhouse owners, it was confirmed that those cows and bulls in gaushala which are not used for milk or farming, are sold to slaughterhouses clandestinely. Gaurakshaks prevent traders and farmers from carrying the cattle and fine them. These seized animals are kept in gaushalas for some days and then, the fit ones are sold off to the slaughter houses through the back door. So, gaurakshaks end up making twice the money on the same cattle. The cattle are smuggled to neighbouring states like Punjab, Bihar, West Bengal and even Bangladesh for slaughtering.’

The author has also traced the historical context of the relationship between the cow and humans which is clearly much more nuanced and different from what is being projected by vested interests.

Reading some of the historical context that the author has alluded to would be a good start for those who wish to have an alternate viewpoint to what the current government and its henchmen are projecting. Attributing beef eating and cow killing to Islamic invasion is not factual but the narrative has been used to vilify the community and mobilise the majoritarian community to rally under one homogenous umbrella of cow protector. Reading actual history would be very important.

Shruti Gayapatye has also explored the way ahimsa has been perceived and implemented by Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism.

“A churning process within the Hindu religion had begun after Jainism and Buddhism challenged its core values. The patronage from wealthy communities and the ruling class to these new religions threatened the Sanatan Dharma. So the new religions were resisted at various levels. “

“There was huge resistance from the Hindu religion to the non-violence principle because it was a direct attack on the Yajna culture. Several attempts were made to show the futility of the non-violence principle by Hindu priests….it ultimately made a section of upper caste Hindu vegetarians to protect its dharma.”

Although laws have been brought in for cow protection, there seems to be very little accurate and reliable data in the public domain and even through RTI (right to information) applications. This seems more by design rather than oversight and seems like a way of targeting Muslim and dalit community with the law being so friable that most cases fall through without any impediment to anti-social elements. The author has laid out how difficult it has been for her to access even minimum data around the cattle slaughter bans and their implementation. This is concerning and its adverse impact will only get worse as the government gains more power and impunity.

The report “Cow Vigilantism: Crime, community and Livelihood January 2016 to march 2018,” by the People’s Union for Democratic Rights (PUDR) is a damning indictment of how this law has become the legal umbrella to target the Muslim community which seems to be the only consistent long term agenda of the current Government.

A very grave finding of the report says “sexual violence against Muslim women has emerged as one of the forms of cow vigilantism aimed at teaching the community a lesson.”

The author in Chapter 16 has a scathing criticism of the ‘cultural policing’ which is so strong that lakhs of people sleep on an empty stomach everyday while the political system is busy dictating what not to eat.

“Currently food politics in India has a new dimension due to Hindu nationalism snatching a particular food from people’s plates and forcing vegetarianism down their throats. The food of upper castes is considered superior while others are inferior. There is no freedom left to choose your food. One needs to change food habits suited for ‘brahmanical vegetarian’ food norms.”