Gau rakshak or cow protectors, whose vigilante bands now number over 200 in Gujarat alone, are terrorizing innocents. Their attacks on meat-eating Dalits, who skin carcasses for sale to the leather tanneries, and on Muslims have led to several deaths hitting the headlines lately.
Thus on April 1st this year, a dairy farmer from Haryana was transporting cows purchased legitimately at a cattle fair in Rajasthan back to his home, when he was set upon by gau rakshaks. Beaten mercilessly, Pehlu Khan died from his injuries two days later. The police have done nothing to apprehend the suspects despite the man's family traveling to the capital, New Delhi, and holding a vigil demanding justice.
Last year on September 13, 2016, two men again legally transporting a cow and a calf were attacked by a cow-protector gang and also severely beaten. One of the men, Mohammad Ayub, died from his injuries shortly thereafter at a hospital in Ahmedabad. The police first registered a case of attempted murder naming the vigilantes as Janak Ramesh Mistry, Ajay Sajar Rabari and Bharat Nag Rabari. But as Pratik Sinha, a human rights activist, reported in a Facebook post after Ayub's death, the police filed a second case underlining India's present-day reality. This time, instead of naming the assailants, they wrote down 'unknown'. The license plates of the cars involved in the attacks are also known. Dalits and Muslims can expect little in the way of justice. Except for a belated word, Mr. Modi has remained notoriously silent on the issue.
Overall figures for minority communal violence according to official statistics are averaging 700 per year, leading to thousands of deaths. In such an environment of hate, it is not surprising some were celebrating Pakistan's recent victory over India in the 2017 ICC Champions Trophy finals by a record margin. For this 15 celebrants were arrested in Madhya Pradesh and charged with sedition -- an unsustainable farce later altered to disturbing 'communal harmony'.
Legislators in the U.S. became concerned enough to send Indian Prime Minister Modi a letter. Dated February 25, 2017 and signed by 26 congressmen and 8 senators, it expressed grave concern over the 'intolerance and violence' against religious minorities. They specifically cited the killings of Hasmat Ali in Manipur, Mohammad Saif in Uttar Pradesh, and two Sikh men during demonstrations protesting the desecration of their holy book. Innocent Sikhs were also the target of revenge attacks after Indira Gandhi was assassinated by a Sikh bodyguard. Almost 2000 were killed.
In the April 2015 issue of National Geographic, a magazine few would call political, an eye-popping map of India is displayed in its signature graphic style. A rusty, dried-blood light brown, mapped carefully adjacent to areas of government control, it reveals almost a quarter of the country where the Naxalite rebellion coupled with the Adivasi (another minority) struggle for land rights has taken hold. The area runs south from the Nepal border, to Kolkata (Calcutta), then along the Bay of Bengal almost to Chennai (Madras). Westwards, it approaches close to Varanasi (Benares) on the Ganges, then towards Nagpur in Central India and to Bangalore (India's IT capital) in the south. Add the insurgencies in Assam, Manipur (minorities) and Kashmir (minority Muslim) which is bleeding again, and fully a third of the country is in strife. Figures vary but frequently quoted is 100,000 dead in Kashmir with no end in sight.
Post independence the promise of the first prime minister's socialist secularism brought forth a focus on education and heavy-industry development. Flourishing first class technological institutes and rapid industrial growth was one result. Yet illiteracy proved stubborn, and the country mired by corruption and strife became bogged down in an inequality stasis with crushing poverty , where it still remains. Jawaharlal Nehru had fought for India's independence, and as India's first leader strongly emphasized a secular state. Wealthy and highest caste (Brahmin), educated at elite Harrow and Trinity College Cambridge before taking law and the bar exams through Inner Temple, he became a Fabian socialist. One can only wonder if he is turning over in his grave .
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