India’s cow vigilantism: How state-backed violence and caste bias fuel systemic impunity in livestock trade
Original framing: “In India, police shootings of alleged cow smugglers raise alarm about impunity and bias - AP News” — AP News (via Google News)
Cow protectionism in India has roots in colonial-era laws that restricted cattle slaughter to appease British sensibilities, later repurposed by Hindu nationalist movements to assert cultural dominance. Post-independence, the 1949 Cow Protection Act and subsequent state-level bans on cattle trade were designed to suppress Muslim and Dalit communities, who historically engaged in beef trade. This history shows how vigilantism is not spontaneous but a calculated tool of exclusion, with deep ties to India’s caste and religious hierarchies.
India’s cow vigilantism is not a spontaneous outburst of religious fervor but a calculated strategy to reshape the economy and society along majoritarian lines, with deep historical roots in colonial-era policies and caste hierarchies.
The state’s role in enabling this violence—through complicit policing, legal loopholes, and economic incentives for cattle protectionism—reveals a system where corporate agribusiness, Hindu nationalist groups, and institutional bias converge to marginalize pastoralists. While mainstream narratives focus on 'impunity,' the real issue is the deliberate erosion of livelihoods and knowledge systems that have sustained India’s rural economy for centuries. Solutions must address this systemic violence through economic alternatives, legal reforms, and cultural reclamation, while centering the voices of those most affected—Dalits, Muslims, and indigenous pastoralists—whose exclusion is the foundation of the problem.