Mark Twain, in his response to a racial lynching in Missouri in the year 1901, has given one of the rawest descriptions of the dangers mob violence poses. He saw the threat of America turning into “The United State of Lyncherdom” in that incident. A century later, the Secular Republic of India appears to be in the shadow of a similar threat.
In recent years, since 2014, cow vigilantism has become the primary cause of violence against Muslims by extremist Hindutva Vadi groups. Recently, a 37 year old Muslim man named Mohammad Shahideen Qureshi, from Moradabad became a victim of the same. On the 30th of December, 2024, Qureshi and his friend Mohammad Adnan were attacked by an aggressive Hindutva mob shouting the slogans of “Jai Shree Ram” alleging that Qureshi and Adnan had slaughtered a cow. Meanwhile Adnan escaped, Qureshi, who suffered serious injuries after the attack and was admitted in the Moradabad district hospital, succumbed to those injuries.
A report in the Indian Express quotes the Station House Officer where he states, “We took suo moto cognizance and registered an FIR against Qureshi and Mohammad Adnan (29) for cow slaughter,” said the Majhola Station House Officer Mohit Chaudhary. Another FIR has been registered by Mohammad Shahjad (the brother of the deceased) against unidentified individuals under Section 103(1) (murder) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) as per a report in the Hindustan Times.
Police has arrested the accomplice of the deceased who was allegedly with him at the time of the assault for cow slaughter. SHO Mohit Chaudhary said that Adnan fled the spot after locals found him and Qureshi slaughtering an ox in the early hours of December 30, 2024. However, it must be noted that so far, the Police has not been able to make any arrests in the murder case. The Additional Superintendent of Police (City) Kumar Ran Vijay Singh said investigations are ongoing, however “We have not been able to arrest anybody in connection with the killing of Qureshi so far.”
Qureshi transported goods on rented hand carts for a living. His sister-in-law Masooma jamal said “This was no age to die. Is the value of human life so less today? Even if he killed an animal, they could have called the police. He could have been in jail, but why did people beat him up so badly that he died.” This question of Jamal raises the fundamental concern of how cow vigilantism has increased in the recent years becoming a primary reason for violence against Muslims.
This incident brings the dire state of law-and-order enforcement into focus. According to a research conducted by the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data reported by Statista, the primary cause for violence against Muslim civilians between, June 2019 to March 2024, has been cow vigilante actions by Hindus. Further, according to a Reuters report, between the year 2010 and mid-2017, a total of 63 cow vigilante attacks have occurred in India, most after Prime Minister Narendra Modi came into power in the year 2014. In these attacks, 28 individuals were killed, of which 24 were Muslims, and 124 were injured. Furthermore, the Human Rights Watch has observed that there has been a surge in cow vigilante violence in India since the year 2015 and the same is attributed to the recent rise in Hindu nationalism in India. As per an analysis by the Observer Research Foundation, cow related violence has spiked up drastically from 5 percent of the total incident of lynching or public disorder in the year 2011, to 20 percent in the year 2017. Cow vigilantism can be perceived as an expression of latent communal prejudice born out of palpable remains of the India-Pakistan partition memories. It is also a result of the strategy of communal-polarisation adopted by the Hindu-right-wing creating a false sense of fear and threat to the Hindu community.
The action of Moradabad police of filing an FIR against the deceased reflects the deep-rooted bias and extreme Hindu nationalist ideology that has become deeply ingrained even in the law-enforcement machinery of India. It is pertinent to note and understand that anarchy, chaos and disorder ensue when any group of people under the garb of self-assumed and self-appointed protectors of law take the law into their own hands, which would then lead to the emergence of a violent society.
The Supreme Court in the case of Tehseen S. Poonawalla vs. Union of India [(2018) 9 SCC 501] and Ors. has expressed its concerns over the rising number of cases of what can be categorized as “cow vigilantism”. The apex court in this case observed that “Lynching and mob violence are creeping threats that may gradually take the shape of a Typhon-like monster as evidenced in the wake of the rising wave of incidents of recurring patterns by frenzied mobs across the country instigated by intolerance and misinformed by circulation of fake news and false stories. There has been an unfortunate litany of spiralling mob violence and agonised horror presenting a grim and gruesome picture that compels us to reflect whether the populace of a great Republic like ours has lost the values of tolerance to sustain a diverse culture.”
Further, in the case of Shubham Singh Baghel vs. State of Madhya Pradesh and Ors. [MANU/MP/1610/2020], the Madhya Pradesh High Court has held that “the acts of vigilantism may be construed by the State as acts threatening the stability of Public Order”.
While the Judiciary has time and again highlighted the dangers of mob violence and how the same affects the secular fabric of India, there has been little to no action taken by the law enforcement bodies to ensure public order and peace.
It also becomes pertinent to understand the response of the government machinery towards cow vigilantism. In the infamous Dadri case, which has been deeply covered by CJP, where a Muslim man was murdered by a Hindutva mob after entering his house on the allegations of possession of beef, as per a report by Newslaundry, the then Tourism Minister Mahesh Sharma belonging to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) said, “(the murder) took place as a reaction to that incident (cow slaughter). You must also consider that there was also a 17-year-old daughter in that home. Kisi ne usey ungli nahin lagaayi (nobody touched her).”
The then Chief Minister of Haryana, Manohar Lal Khattar called the lynching a misunderstanding and reinstated sectarianism by claiming, “They can be Muslim even after they stop eating beef, can’t they? It is written nowhere that Muslims have to eat beef, nor is it written anywhere in Christianity that they have to eat beef.”
While the acts of cow vigilantism have instilled a fear, the inappropriate and inadequate response of the government and law-enforcement machineries have perpetuated the belief that such fanaticism is beyond the reach of law.
Related:
November 2024 Surge in Cow Vigilantism: Rising Violence and Legal Apathy in North India
Muslims in the new India: How one week showcases their escalating persecution