Violence against beef eaters on the rise in India

JUST a few days before the Muslim festival of Eid, Junaid, 16, who was returning to his village in a suburban train, was lynched by mobs that accused him of being a “beef eater”.

Junaid is but one addition to the growing list of Muslims who have been lynched since the Narendra Modi-led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government came to power in 2014.

The violence against cattle traders and those who consume beef has picked up since the central government amended the law on animal cruelty and banned the sale of cattle for slaughter.

Such regulations have not only limited cattle slaughter; they have also threatened people’s constitutional right to food.

Ever since the law was amended, a panic has descended on the meat eaters. India is mistakenly seen as a vegetarian country – most Indians love their meat. However, the cow has become a symbol of the Hindu nationalism aggressively pushed by the ruling party and other organisations.

The upshot of this campaign has been a spike in violence by cow vigilantes against beef eaters. This violence increased after the BJP won a provincial election and appointed a Hindu monk – who heads a monastery (temple) famous for protecting cows (Gorakhnath) – chief minister of the state of Uttar Pradesh.

One of his first acts was to shut most of the slaughter houses, claiming they were illegal. The truth, though, was that no new licences for abattoirs had been issued by municipalities for years.

The state, famous for its Mughlai cuisine, was starved off even lamb or goat meat – which is not banned – until a high court ordered the government to respect people’s right to food. It’s still hard to get meat, especially buffalo meat, which is also not banned.

Modi had criticised the cow protectors or Gau rakshaks when they assaulted lower caste Hindus in his state, Gujarat. He suggested their ranks had been infiltrated by criminals, which he wanted law enforcement to weed out.

In a way, he had given licence to the real “vigilantes” to stop farmers and traders from ferrying their cattle to the market or even farms.

In the past few months, videos of these vigilantes beating men and women for either escorting a cow from the market or on the suspicion of eating beef have gone viral on social media.

Pehlu Khan, a cattle farmer returning from the market in Rajasthan, was beaten to death on a national highway.

It has been a month since the sale of cattle for slaughter was banned – and there are rumours of amendments to exclude water buffalo and camel, but the government has not moved on this.

The curb on the meat business is harming the economy. India is a major meat and leather exporter, with 2.5million workers employed in the leather industry alone.

Leather exports have begun to decline and face closure.

An agency reported that the closure of abattoirs in just one city, Kanpur, cost more than 400 000 jobs.

In response, Bangladesh and Pakistan are exporting more leather.

It’s estimated the meat trade is similarly down, from a high of $4.15billion (R54.1bn) to $ 3.32bn (R43.4bn).

Uttar Pradesh has imposed even more stringent laws to prevent cow slaughter and transport. Transgressors will be charged under the National Security Act – normally reserved for those who threaten the stability of the state.

There is a proposal to give cows national identity numbers or Aadhar similar to those given to citizens.

These bizarre moves have bred understandable cynicism all around with a Congress leader, Shashi Tharoor, quipping that a cow is safer in India than a human being.