The making of lynchistan and the cow cabinet

Earlier this year, the documentary  The Making of Lynchistan: Inside India’s Deadly Gau Raksha Network won the prestigious Ramnath Goenka award.  This documentary informs how mob lynchings by cow vigilantes in India are a pre-planned organized crime supported by politicians and police. Asmita Nandy and Meghnad Bose, the documentary makers said: 

“Our documentary The Making of Lynchistan: Killing in the Name of the Cow is an explainer on the nexus between the police, politician and the gaurakshaks,” said Nandy. “We spoke to gaurakshaks, who told us how these attacks are carried out. Sitting in front of people who proudly claim to have resorted to violence is intimidating,” said Bose.

In this blog, I have been writing about the rise of Hindu nationalism and increasing focus on saving cows and violence against Muslims. Some of the blogpost related to it are as follows

Hinduism and Hindutva Debate March 2019

A national ministry of cows? September 2017

Gau rakshaks' (cow protectors) rise under Modi/BJP: Is there a more sinister agenda? November 2017

More recently, another event demonstrated the increasing power of Hindutva, Hindu nationalism, and cow rakshaks. Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan after praying at a temple announced on 18th November 2020 the formation of a "cow cabinet." It consists of ministers of the following departments: farmer's welfare, animal husbandry, forests, panchayat and rural development, revenue, and home. The significant point to note is that the Congress, which claims to secular and is the main opposition party in Madhya Pradesh, did not oppose this measure but tried to say that they were better cow rakshaks. They claimed that the Congress government had started the work on the construction of 1,000 cow shelters.

Former Chief Minister and state Congress president Kamal Nath said that Chouhan did not keep his promise made before the 2018 Assembly elections.

Shivraj Singh, who announced the formation of a separate cow ministry (department) in the state before the 2018 assembly elections, is now talking about setting up a cabinet for cow protection and fostering...He has forgotten his old announcement..."There has been no work for cow protection and promotion during the 15 years' BJP rule in the state. On the contrary, they reduced the money given for cow shelters. 

Source: The Times of India

To be fair, the Congress government did pass laws against cow vigilantism after two incidents in 2019 and also amended the anti-cow slaughter law, making provision for the transport of cows with permission. 

Hinduism and Hindutva debate

An interesting debate on the differences between Hinduism and Hindutva between Shashi Tharoor and Vinay Sahasrabuddhe. Shashi Tharoor is a member of Lok Sabha member from Congress Party while Vinay Sahasrabuddhe is a Rajya Sabha member from the BJP. 

Issues discussed are triple talak, Sabarimala temple,  cow slaughter ban, lynchings, Gandhi's use of religion, Muslim appeasement, citizenship in Northeast India, etc.

Shashi is a well-versed scholar on this subject. He has published a book, Why I am a Hindu, on this subject that has been well-received and praised by many for the succinct analysis of a very complex subject. Some excerpts from Urmi Chanda-Vaz's review for Scroll.in are copied below. The review can be read here. 

Why I Am A Hindu, running close to 300 pages, is divided into two sections, the first of which offers a brief history of Hinduism. The first chapter is titled “My Hinduism”, presented in what can be called the Devdutt Pattanaik mode. It is a clever and necessary disclaimer underscoring subjectivity – especially useful for times when religious sentiments are easily hurt. Tharoor acquaints us with the kind of Hinduism he was raised with, and, along with a sprinkling of anecdotes, gives an overview of the religion...

The second part of the book is titled “Political Hinduism”. This is where Tharoor’s meticulous context-building through the history of Hinduism is particularly useful. He starts building his case with the idea of secularism, which becomes a moot point when viewed through the prism of Western political theory. The right term in the Indian context, he argues, is “pluralism”, for India is and has long been a land of many religions. Further, he says, religion when defined as “dharma” is impossible to divorce from the Hindu way of life...

The author explains the BJP’s brand of Hindutva politics as being based on a victim-turned-avenger complex, a narrative of failure and defeat, and hatred for the Muslim community. Even if one were to turn a blind eye to the clear lack of Muslim representation (at least in the Lok Sabha) in this government, one can hardly ignore visible and worrying trends such as lynching and cow vigilantism. Ideas like ghar waapsi and love jihad, and groups like gau rakshaks and “Anti Romeo squads” operate and thrive under the aegis of the ruling party, and Tharoor correctly echoes the alarm of peace-loving Indians in this context. 

He also critiques the “cultural project” of Hindutva, which aims to “nationalise and spiritualise”. By all means acknowledge the great accomplishments of ancient Indian science, but keep fact and fiction separate, he enjoins. 

“We should take pride in what our forefathers did but resolve to be inspired by them rather than rest on their laurels. We need to use the past as a springboard, not as a battlefield. Only then we can rise above it to create for ourselves a future worthy of our remarkable past.” 

He also strongly condemns the whitewashing, or saffronising, of India’s cultural past vis-à-vis the actions of vigilante groups such as the Bajrang Dal and, most recently, Karni Sena. Not just tolerance, but acceptance, is the hallmark of Hinduism, he reminds the reader again and again.

BJP's cow cabinets, cow ministries and cow departments to create cow-friendly ecosystem

Cow protection is a controversial but old issue in India. Under the British Raj, some sections of Hindu society pleaded for laws to prevent the slaughter of cows in India. After Independence, there was more pressure and so the rationalist and socialist Nehru agreed to introduce cow-protection in the Directive Principles of State Policy. The Article 48 of the Indian Constitution declares, “The State shall endeavour to organise agriculture and animal husbandry on modern and scientific lines and shall, in particular, take steps for preserving and improving the breeds, and prohibiting the slaughter of cows and other milch and draught cattle.”

Cow protection has achieved prominence since Prime Minister Modi took control of the national government in 2014. There have been new laws, the extension of quondam bans and public lynchings to protect cows. Hard-line Hindu organizations, like Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP, trans. World Hindu Council) and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS, trans. National Volunteer Organization), have long campaigned for cow protection and cow protection was one of their major demands from the BJP (along with building of Ram Mandir (where once Babri mosque stood) and legislation for a common civil code).  Currently, the BJP's popularity and control of the national government and many state governments have made the once unthinkable, possible.

In January 2014, the state government of Rajasthan, belonging to the BJP, decided to set-up a separate ministry for the protection and preservation of cows. Cow protection was part of the BJP manifesto for the December 2013 state elections and it has been part of the BJP national program and overall Hindutva agenda, so it was not surprising but still a first. Previously, leaders of many Indian states have come up with cow protection laws that impose a fine or prison term for not only the killing of cows/cattle but also for transporting them to the slaughter houses. However, there was no department/ministry for cows (See India’s First Ministry for Cows). It was the Gujarat state that had the distinction of establishing the first Gopalan Department in India. The name Gopalan comes from Hindu religion. Lord Krishna was the eighth avatar of Vishnu (one of the principal deities in Hindu religion) and a supreme Hindu god in his own right. According to the legend, he was a cow herder and one of his names was Gopala which means “the protector of the cows.” 

Source: http://hindutva.info/lord-krishna-and-holy-cows/

The vision-mission of the new Gopalan Department is "To improve State's cow wealth so in near future cow rearing will emerge as a major economic activity offering immense employment opportunities."

The objectives of the department are:

Encourage Research to popularize use of Panchgavya.

Gaushala Development and conservation, up-gradation and improvement of cattle in gaushalas.

Value Addition of Cattle Products through processing.

Regulation of temporary Migration or Export of Cattle.

Fodder Management during Scarcity.

Registration of Gaushalas and their development towards self-sufficiency. (See Directorate of Gopalan)

After the establishment of Gopalan department in Rajasthan, there was a fear that other BJP-ruled states would follow suit but it did not happen, although some states increased sentences for cow slaughter and cow trafficking. For instance, Gujarat made the slaughter of cows punishable with life imprisonment in March 2017.

Now (September 2017), there is a talk of a national ministry of cows. Perhaps this new initiative was the result of the India's Supreme Court's suspention of a newly passed national law that banned the sale of cattle for slaughter nationwide (See India Supreme Court suspends cattle slaughter ban).

The push for a national ministry has come from hard-line Hindu organizations. It was reported that the VHP would petition Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Utter Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath for cow ministries at the center and the states. VHP’s Ayodhya-based spokesman Sharad Sharma said, “The issue of cow protection has always been dear to us. Now, we expect a dedicated ministry to support and boost an entire cow-friendly ecosystem.” Responding to questions about the VHP suggestions, BJP chief Amit Shah said, “Various suggestions have come. Discussions are on” (See VHP to push for separate cow ministry at the Centre and states).

Angshukanta Chakraborty has written a scathing critique of the impending decision (See No, Modi government. Cow ministry is ridiculous)

But a Union cow ministry for the whole of India? Is it really that unthought-of, given the broad tendencies that the Modi government has been displaying with brazen aggression, perfectly in line to promote and deliver by 2019 the dreamed-of goal of turning India into a Hindu Rashtra?

We have seminars on cow urine, dung being organised in hallowed institutions such as the IITs. IIT Delhi, last year, had a three-day seminar on the fabled anti-cancer properties of panchagavya, the concoction comprising cow dung, urine and other bovine derivatives. As we had said on DailyO then, it’s one thing to chance upon the anti-cancer properties, if any. It’s simply quite another to steer the whole course of research at a publicly-funded premier technology institute.

But again, not unexpected. Because we have a bevy of ministers and BJP leaders singing paeans to cow urine, including Nitin Gadkari, who wanted hospital floors to be washed with cow urine, to Devendra Fadnavis, and the latest joinees Shaina NC and Meenakshi Lekhi.

The logic behind cow ministry is all the more shrouded in mystery (beyond the usual political trappings) given we already have a National Institute of Animal Welfare, the Animal Welfare division under the Ministry of Environment and Forests. We have the Animal Welfare Board of India. In addition, we have the department of animal husbandry, dairying and fisheries under the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare. The rationale behind a cow ministry – not a cattle or livestock ministry – is unavailable, when not viewed through a highly saffronised cow protection-tinted lens.

Then why the sounding out of the BJP-led Centre’s plans of setting up a cow ministry? The historian Mukul Kesavan writes: “The cow is so totemic for the BJP that the murder of human beings in this animal's cause makes responsible leaders resort to silence, deflection, denial, defensiveness or arguments in mitigation that would shame the moral sense of a three-year old.” ...

In the new scheme of things, the gau rakshak is on the same pedestal as the soldier, and is therefore unchallenged in the nationalist pecking order. And even as PM Narendra Modi gently admonishes the fake gau rakshaks in his speech and tweets, after a highly impactful #NotInMyName protest in Delhi’s Jantar Mantar against Junaid’s murder, he nevertheless ensures the fake gau rakshaks are regularly confused for the good gau rakshaks, thereby making justice beyond reach for those at the receiving end of the cow zeitgeist.

Exactly as the foreign press writes disparagingly of the India story, calling Modi a “constant tinkerer”, “not much of a reformer”, ridiculing “Modi’s strongman economics”, repeatedly underlining that foregoing the economics of a secular, tolerant India would be tantamount to an economic downward spiral, such bitter pills are being spat out with the newfound arrogance of this fast becoming bovine theocracy such as ours. Only the cows themselves have little to gain from the politics in their name.

The ministry is still a suggestion and it may remain so for a long time but Hindu nationalism is definitely increasing as a separate ministry for cows is primarily based on Hindu religion. A separate ministry is also justified and considered necessary to:

• Increase milk production;
• Save several Indian cow breeds that are near extinction;
• To save cattle/cows from cruelty;
• To save Gou Mata (mother cow) that is the symbol of life in Indian culture.

But all these reasons camouflage the real reason, which is the rise of the religious right and religious nationalism. The irony is that despite all the laws, bans and lynchings, India is still the largest exporter of beef. Most of the beef is of buffalos but it is still beef:

Despite the various bans, India is the world’s largest exporter of beef, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. India exported 2.4 million tons of beef last year, compared with 2 million tons by Brazil. India alone accounts for nearly 24% of global beef exports. (See Why an Indian Hindu Group Wants a Ministry of Cows?)

Previously, The Haryana state, under a BJP government, established Haryana Gau Seva Aayog ( Haryana Commission for Serving Cows) in 2010 after passing The Haryana Gau Seva Aayog Act, 2010. The main objective was to oversee the strict implementation of laws that prohibit the slaughter and/or cruelty to cows. 

In November 2020, Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan established a Cow or Gau Cabinet. It consists of six departments and five ministers, all suppose to work together for the "conservation and welfare of cows".