The cow protection movement has been a religious and political movement aiming to protect the cows whose slaughter has been broadly opposed by Hindus, Buddhists, Jains and Sikhs. While the opposition to slaughter of animals including cows has ancient roots in Indian religions, the cow protection movement traces to the colonial era British India. The earliest activism is traceable to Sikhs of Punjab who opposed cow slaughter in the 1860s.The movement became popular in the 1880s and thereafter, attracting the support from the Arya Samaj founder Swami Dayananda Saraswati in the late 19th-century, and from Mahatma Gandhi in early 20th-century.

Current scenario:-

Today, “Cow vigilantism” is commonly used in India to describe the current lawlessness happening under the rubric of Cow protection. The word “vigilant” means keeping lookout for possible difficulties or danger. The term “vigilante” refers to a self-appointed person or a group of persons that undertakes to enforce the law without any legal authority. It also includes persons who take the law into their own hands to avenge what they may perceive to be crime. No definition of “vigilante” includes what is happening in India: Murder and violence of men by other men in illegally and extra-judicially enforcing religious beliefs.

In contemporary times, according to media reports, cattle theft for beef production in India has increased, as well as cow-protection groups and cow protection-related violence.

In the present day, Gau Raksha Dal and cow vigilantes continue to spread the cow protection movement in India, but some recognised organisations are also working on this cause widely. Pawan Pandit, the chairman of Bhartiya Gau Raksha Dal, is leading the cow protection movement currently.

Recent incidences of cow vigilantism :-

• Attack have been reported from Daltonganj in Jharkhand to Una in Gujarat to Mandsaur in Madhya Pradesh to Sonepat on Delhi-Haryana border to Chittorgarh in Rajasthan.
• A review of media reports shows 32 cases of attacks by mobs or vigilante groups on Muslims since May 2014.
• The incidences of lynching of Akhlaq in Dadri in 2015 or the stripping and beating of dalit youths in Una, Gujaratin 2016 are disturbing.
• On 9 October 2015, a truck was attacked by petrol bombs by alleged Hindu extremists after rumours of it carrying dead cows emerged. Zahid Ahmad, the truck driver succumbed to his injuries 10 days later, while another man suffered serious burn injuries.
• As news of the death in Delhi spread, mobs took to the streets in the southern district of Anantnag in the Kashmir Valley and blocked the Jammu-Srinagar highway by burning tyres.
• Madhya Pradesh that hogged headlined for the assault on women meat traders in Mandsaur and Ratlam districts on suspicion of carrying beef has seen about 50% increase in crime against Dalits between 2013 and 2015.
• Two men, who were forced to consume cow dung in Kundli on Delhi-Haryana border by Haryana Gau Rakshak Samiti earlier this month, were Muslim cattle traders from Mewat region.
• Junaid Khan, 16, was stabbed and killed on a train while he was on his way home in Ballabhgarh after shopping for Eid.
• Recently Indian Prime Minister spoke publically about it. Speaking at a public event in western Gujarat state, PM Narendra Modi said that “killing people in the name of [cow worship] is not acceptable.” “No person in this nation has the right to take the law in his or her own hands”

How vigilantism affecting Indian Society :-

• Promoting violence :- Cow vigilantism conceals more than it reveals. It bestows a measure of social, moral and legal legitimacy to the so-called Cow protectors. More tragically, and to a large degree, it hides their criminality: It conceals the truth of men killing other men in the name of the Cow.
• Damaging secular inclusive fabric of Indian society :- (Targeting the Dalits and Muslims in society) Increasing cow vigilantism in India has a few common threads: rise in crimes against Dalits, fall in conviction rate, assaulters belong mostly to politically-linked influential Hindu upper castes and the victims are mostly Dalits or poor Muslims with no political voice. Dalits and Muslims in the past year have faced the ire of emboldened cow vigilante groups under the aegis of right-wing Hindu groups: Vishwa Hindu Parishad and Bajrang Dal.
• Economic impact:- By 2014 the cattle trade was worth around Rs 2,500 crore whereas it is now hovering around Rs 200-250 crore. Cow vigilantes have badly damaged our trade and economy. The people like tanners, leather makers and beef producers have been hit very badly.
• Constitutionally & Politically :-Its like mockery of democracy. It potentially violates right to freedom of speech and expression and profession (Article 19) and right to life and personal liberty (article 21). It undermines rule of law and causes irreparable harm to the democracy in long term by undermining state institutions and eroding the trust of citizens in them.

Government should take following steps to stop cow vigilantism :-

• Need of strong political will :- Speech is better than silence and our Prime Ministers recent remarks may help sharpen the focus on how determined governments are to uphold the rule of law — firmly, decisively, and in a manner that deters cow vigilantism. Government must walk the talk and take concrete prohibiting and remedial steps.
• Complete ban order must be checked against its economic impact and it must be re constituted based on rational inputs. .The states which have a cow slaughter law should promote some other form of trade so that illegal trade does not takes place because economic issue always imbalances the society.
• A speedy trials and fair justice must be ensured to victims of cow vigilantism. Affected families must be compensated.
• Identifying high risk areas in every state and enforcing law and order, moral and community policing there, setting examples by catching anti social elements will help.
• Empower Public: People who are campaigning against cow vigilantism should be encouraged and empowered in bringing any wrong incidents to respective governments notice.

Conclusion :- “In killing men and women in the Cow’s name, the killers desecrate the Cow,” is what Bapu the Mahatma would have said. Cows are sacred to many; and one respects that. But violence by humans upon humans – regardless of the reason being sacred or profane – is inhumane; in any civilised society that much is common ground – at the very least it should be – among the killers and the killed in the Cow’s name. If this much can’t be presumed in a civil society, the society is uncivil and the continuing slaughter in the name of the Cow then is a much larger tragedy than previously feared. Once before, during the Independence movement, India had allowed itself to be overtaken by the zealotry and politics of religion. The deep, deadly and divisive wounds of such zealotry and politics tormented and forever wounded the soul of the country ending in the deathly debacle of partition of 1947. Once again, the slaughter of men in the name of Cows threatens to slash and slice the soul of India. In the matters Sacred or Profane, India can no longer afford to be a mute spectator to the brutal assassination of its multi-religious, multi-ethnic and multi-racial soul. It must speak out, speak up and, for all to see, stand up for its