It is clearly the politics of cultural domination and racial hatred under the guise of cow protection, which have killed many since the cold-blooded murder of Mohammed Akhalq in Dadri. Rather than seeing it as an attack of certain Hindutva mobs, it should be seen and analysed as the domination and growth of the perception that only particular cultural forms and beliefs are allowed to survive in this country. It was not an isolated incident, and one also has to see the deeply ridden Brahmanic justification given to this politics of cultural supremacy. Rather than calling it and including this phenomenon under the umbrella term of fascism, it is high time to see how cultural symbols and faiths are strategically used by the propaganda politics of Sangh Parivar Hindutva forces.
In the case of Pehlu Khan of Alwar, his son clearly said that the mobs didn’t do anything to the driver of Pehlu Khan, as he was not from Muslim community, and here one also has to see that it’s not actually the politics of cow vigilantism or the desire for the protection of cows which works here, but rather a planned and orchestrated hate campaign and the project to target and annihilate a particular community, which is already deprived and historically marginalized community in India. Without properly addressing the Muslim question, all the movements and efforts for democracy and justice in this country, would produce nothing but mere rhetoric, and in fact, one also need to look at what kind of politics and collective conscience is being created within the larger public of the country due to this hate campaign against a community.
Rather than cow becoming a symbol of Brahmanic value, in this country, it has become a symbol of annihilation of the minority communities. Not only that there are narratives in Hindu epics itself regarding the consumption of cows and its sacrifice, and as Kancha Ilaiah has pointed out, the politics of cow protection is nothing but a symbol of the hegemonic politics of Brahmanism in India, and it is also a pertaining question, why only cow and not buffalo becomes a symbol of prosperity, as it is obviously the animal which provides more milk and more helpful for agricultural purposes.
Indeed, the accession of power by the Sangh Parivar forces at the Centre has aggravated this politics of hatred, and it is also evident in the recent decision to shut down all the ‘illegal’ butcher shops in Uttar Pradesh by the Yogi Aditya Nath government. At the same time, it won’t be a proper analysis to narrow down this politics of cow symbolism and underlying hatred, only to the rise of power by the Sangh Pariwar forces in this country, as one can see the case of consumption of cows being either banned or restricted in most of the states from earlier on itself. It is not necessarily that the BJP government did it throughout the years, but rather mostly it was done by the Congress led- government claiming to be secular and democratic. One also has to remember the history and continuation of soft-Hindutva politics being played by congress not only in relation to the question of allowing idol installation in Babri Masjid, but also the history that Congress itself had its symbol as ‘Cow and calf’ during the election times of post-independence years.
In fact, it is not only the right wing forces in the power, but the politics of soft-Hindutva being played by claiming to be secular political forces in this country, and the politics of impending Brahmanism that we are supposed to confront at this juncture. In fact, it is also not related only to or limited to the issue of cow vigilantism that this practice of mob lynching prevails in this country, as there were even reports of people being stabbed to death merely by alleging they have disfigured various other symbols of hegemonic Brahmanic politics. Also, one has to see the expansion of this symbolist politics beyond the Muslim community, as the recent incident in Kerala shows, where during the Easter celebrations, mud was thrown on the prepared meat food. The Savarna Social hierarchy has always made Dalits in the strata of untouchability, who have been involved in the work of skinning dead animals. In the Una incident of Gujarat, Dalit youths were beaten by the upper castes and it also created remarkable resistance, as they could make huge confrontation against the BJP government.
The list of the victims of Gau-Rakshaks is enlarging day by day throughout the landscape from Kerala to Kashmir and Gujarat to Assam. The recent incidents have seen the phenomenon of terrorizing these communities in various levels from eating beef to herding it. The Hindutva mobs earlier murdered Mohammad Akhlaq on the suspicion of storing/eating beef, then lynched Mazlum Ansari and Imteyaz Khan of Jharkhand for carrying cows, killed Pehlu Khan for dairy farming, and recently murdered two Muslim youth Abu Haneefa and Riyazuddin of Assam in the name of ‘smuggling cows’. Here they want to convey the message of terror to the minds of the marginalized communities that, “whatever you do related with Cow is an offense and punishable with capital punishment by our lynching mobs, if it is even for your livelihood”.
Students Islamic Organisation of India (SIO of India) has been actively supporting the families of Hindutva victims with legal and medical assistance. SIO delegation visited Phelu Khan’s residence at Mewat, Haryana and handed over a milch cow as a mode of protest and the source of livelihood and currently taking care of their medical expenses. SIO wants to raise this concern across the country by cooperating with other like-minded movements against the Sangh Parivar propagandas. Obviously, these all incidents clearly point at the larger agenda of creating and projecting the supremacy of the hegemonic Brahmanic culture. It is the need of the hour to strive for a united struggle of all diverse groups with a firm base of larger fraternity.
