A recent series of attacks by Hindus on Muslims in India have highlighted how sectarian 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.
Despite a close election victory in June by Prime Minister Narendra Modi that many interpreted as a rebuff, there have been numerous instances of such violence, according to India-focused human rights organizations and a New York Times tally of local news reports. At least a dozen involve so-called cow vigilantism — violence related to the slaughter or smuggling of cows, or the suspicion 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. Also that month, a group that describes themselves as cow protectors fatally shot a 19-year-old Hindu student because they thought he was a Muslim smuggling cows, according to his family.
The cow issue is deeply divisive because it pits the religious beliefs of one group against the diet of another. Cows are sacred in Hinduism, especially among its upper castes, and many Indian states ban their slaughter, as well as the sale or smuggling of beef. But beef is consumed by many Muslims.
Religious violence is not rare in India, where more than one billion Hindus, around 200 million Muslims, 30 million Christians, 25 million Sikhs and other religious minorities coexist, sometimes uneasily.
Under Mr. Modi, who has pursued a Hindu nationalist agenda since coming to power in 2014, Muslims have increasingly become a target for hard-line Hindu groups affiliated with his Bharatiya Janata Party, or B.J.P. Hundreds of instances of religious violence, including lynching, beating and abuse, occur every year, according to data from the National Crime Records Bureau.
Attacks are so common that they have almost lost their capacity to shock, said Harsh Mander, a human rights and peace activist.
Particularly, he said, violence against Muslims. “First it is normalized, second it is legitimized and third it is valorized,” Mr. Mander said. “So it is not only normal to do it, but it is good to do it.”
Cow vigilantism is a subset of religious violence, where squads of “gau rakshaks” (cow protectors) act as a de facto police force. Laws on cattle slaughter are set by states, but Mr. Modi has made cow protection a cornerstone of his national political strategy, emboldening a movement with deep roots in Indian history. . He seldom comments publicly on vigilante violence.
From 2019 until just before India started going to the polls in April, more than a fifth of reported attacks by Hindus on Muslims were related to cow vigilantism, the largest single category, according to an analysis by ACLED, an independent nonprofit that monitors crises and analyzes data.
Such episodes are unlikely to become less frequent in Mr. Modi’s third term, despite the narrower-than-projected victory for his party in the election, said Muhammad Akram, a researcher who coauthored a 2021 paper on cow vigilantism.
“Despite expectations that a politically weakened Modi might lead to a reduction in anti-Muslim violence rhetoric, there have been over a dozen incidents of vigilante violence during this term alone,” Mr. Akram said.
In what the victim’s family called a case of mistaken identity, Aryan Mishra, 19, was shot in the state of Haryana after a car chase on Aug. 24. The police arrested five men, one of whom was well known locally as a cow vigilante.
Siyanand Mishra, the victim’s father, told reporters this week that his son did not know the perpetrators, who assumed that his son was a cow smuggler. “We are not fighting with anybody,” he added, explaining that his family was from a top Hindu caste.
One of India’s largest Hindu supremacist groups, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, distanced itself from the recent attacks. “We condemn all sorts of violence and the tendency to take law into one’s hands,” said Alok Kumar, international president of the group. Mr. Kumar said his group trains workers o intervene only if cows are being smuggled and to report such cases to the police.
Mr. Kumar said it was important that Hindus abide by the same laws governing all Indian citizens. He said that the recent instances of violence were more a coincidence than a trend.
On Aug. 28, Haji Ashraf Ali Syed Husain, a 72-year-old Muslim man, boarded a train in Maharashtra State. Mr. Husain said he was traveling to visit his daughter when a crowd of young men 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 the meat of buffalo, which is generally allowed.)
“I asked them, ‘Who are you to ask?’” Mr. Husain told reporters. With that, the men — who were on their way to take qualifying exams to become police constables — began hitting him. He suffered from multiple injuries, including to the eyes, head and chest.
Four men have been charged with serious crimes including severe beating and looting, said Archana Dusane, a senior police officer investigating the case.
Often, the violence is caught on camera and widely circulated via social media, as in Mr. Husain’s case. “You are creating evidence of a crime under Indian law,” said Mr. Mander, the activist, adding that it was “performative” violence. “It means that you are sure that you will not be punished.”
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