Propaganda Videos, Religious Fervor And More - The Making Of A Cow Vigilante

A video recently emerged showing volunteers of Gurgaon Gau Raksha Dal (Cow Protection Group) forcing two alleged beef smugglers to eat cow dung and drink cow urine on June 10. In another such incident, seven members of a Dalit family in Gujarat were allegedly beaten by self-proclaimed cow vigilantes for skinning a dead cow in Una town of Gir Somnath district on July 18. The list of brutalities witnessed in the recent past in name of cow protection is indeed long.

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Indiatimes tried to find out how self-appointed cow vigilantes are brain-washed, instigated for public lynching, arson, extended torture and lashings? We spoke to these cow warriors and here's what they have to say.

Propaganda videos 每 an important tool to inspire and attract volunteers

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'Brave' vigilantes record their 'heroic' acts on video. Soon, the recordings are released on social media to make them viral. The same happened in both the incidents cited above.

Youth with inclination towards religious extremism are first identified. They are then instigated with video footage and photographs of 'crime against cows' - the holy animal living in unhygienic holding pens, hooked up to electric milking machines at milk parlours, waiting in line to be killed at slaughter houses, images of their throats slit and the skinning process. They are told living cows are put in hot water for skinning etc.

Stirring soundtracks are added with the propaganda videos. Songs such as Hindu Jage To, Vishwa Jagega (When Hindus arise, the world will wake) bravery and courage and plaintive odes on desecration of cows like Kat Rahi Hai Dekho Gai Apni Bharat Mein (See, cows are being slaughtered in our own country) are used. It is hard to tell how effective these videos are as a medium of radicalisation, but they do fall well short of ISIS benchmarks of production and brutality.

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The vulnerable youth are also taught that hundreds of Gods live in a cow and therefore, slaughtering it amounts to attack on religion. They are told unscientific and baseless incidents, with witnesses to testify their claims, that those who lost their lives while saving cows were given back their lives to serve the holy cow forever.

※Regular meetings of Gau Raksha Dal are held at village, district and state levels. There, videos showing crime against Gau mata (holy cow) are played: how badly they are treated at milk parlours and mercilessly slaughtered by butchers. We are told when we cannot pay the debt of our natural mothers who breast feed us just for six months, how can we return the favours of mother cows who cares for us throughout our lives? How we can tolerate the brutalising of our mother. Our shastra (religious scriptures) say those who are indulge in crime against cow should be shot at. We worship cow and it's our duty to protect, no matter how many lives are lost in doing this,§ Ajay Garg, a volunteer of Gau Raksha Dal, Punjab, told Indiatimes.

'We don't stop vehicles carrying cattle or beef, it's done by God'

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When asked about the risk attached to chasing vehicles suspected of carrying cattle, he said it is a holy work. ※God somehow stops the vehicles some way or the other and makes our job easier,§ he said describing a bizarre incident where he suffered severe head injuries when his ※bullet motorbike collided with a smuggler's truck loaded with cows and he got another life after dying in the hospital where he was undergoing treatment§.

※I was chasing a truck. Suddenly the driver jammed the break and my motorbike collided with the vehicle. I suffered serious head injuries and excessive loss of blood. I was declared dead a day after the incident. I saw myself pleading Yamraj (God of death) to send me back on the earth where I have left my family and small children. Yamraj was not at all ready to listen me. When I told him that I met with the accident to save Gau mata, he was ordered by the God to send me back on the earth so that I can keep saving Gau mata. Now, I have devoted rest of my life to the service of holy cow,§ he said.

'Nothing wrong in taking law in hand'

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When we asked them about the legality of their work, another volunteer justifies all sorts of attack on butchers, cow and beef transporters. He says there is nothing wrong when it comes to protecting cows which is like mother in Hindu religion. ※If someone attacks my mother, I won't wait for the police. Cow slaughter is banned in most states of the country and therefore, violators of laws against cow slaughter deserved to be killed. It is the duty of the police to check cow slaughter and its smuggling. Since cops are not doing their duty honestly, we have to do their job,§ he said in aggressive tone.

Asked why all incidents of physical assaults inflicted on alleged cow smugglers or transporters are filed, he said videos ※inspire and attract§ youth to the banner of Gau Raksha Dal. It is a synopsis for the fainthearted.

'It's a fight for our survival, not for cows'

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Satish Kumar, national president, Gau Raksha Dal 每 Punjab said, saving cows from butchers is directly associated with the survival of people. ※When there will be no cow, there will be no life on the earth. Therefore, the war against cow butchers in India is a fight for our survival,§ he said.

He claims to have saved 50,000 cows and lodged 1,000 cases against butchers, cow and beef smugglers and transporters. Asked how do they recruit volunteers, he said everyone knows that cow is their mother and have religious sentiments attached to it, they only need a platform to work for the cause.

※We operate in 22 states of the country. We hold regular meetings in different states and interact with youth. They are informed about the religious sanctity of cow and its advantage. We educate our youth to do their best to save the endangered creature which has already lost most of it good breeds. Once they are convinced and want to join us, they are administered an oath that they would not hesitate in risking their lives if needed to save cows. They are then imparted formal training,§ he added.

This is how gau raksha is done

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Gau Raksha Dal activists have a band of informers who pass them information about vehicles loaded with cattle passing or schedule to cross through a particular route. The 'brave warriors' of cow are alerted. Roadblocks put in place at regular intervals to stop 'infidel trucks'. Once it is intercepted, the chase begins.

Trucks are stopped at gunpoint, cattle are discovered and liberated. Trucks are torched and then the real fun starts. The cattle transporters are dragged and bound, sometimes hung by their feet or held down and thrashed mercilessly with sticks.

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Sometimes their mouths are forced open for the warriors to urinate into. Then they are thrashed some more with particular attention to their knees and the soles of their feet.

Asked whatever is being done in the name of cow protection is justified, Kumar counters saying - how long will Hindus tolerate desecration of their mother whom they worship on their own land. ※We are instigated with continued cow slaughter. We will do whatever we can to save cows. We will keep fighting,§ said Kumar adding that ※our volunteers generally do not indulge in violence. It is done by the agitated mob§.

'They eat entire cow but raise hue and cry on being fed cow dung'

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※Cow dung and its urine are holy in our religion,§ said Haryana Gau Raksha Dal chief Dharmendra Yadav asking what's wrong in this if butchers are cleansed with it. ※They eat an entire cow and no one says anything but raise a hue and cry over cow dung if it's fed,§ was his bizarre remark.