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NOIDA/DELHI

EDITORIAL

THE HINDU MONDAY, JULY 25, 2016

The charge of the cow brigade

The cow rakshak syndrome needs to be analysed and exposed as a threat to Indian democracy
groups see little connection between the
cow and the future of agriculture. In fact, the
cow, which is an icon, honoured in festivals,
and considered as a totem, becomes a symbol that leads to irrational violence. The high
caste Hindu, instead of seeking harmony between nature and culture in which the cow is
cosmologically represented, now brutally
disrupts both.

SHIV VISVANATHAN
M O N D AY , J U LY 2 5 , 2 0 1 6

Erdogans
coup

urkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogans

vengefully disproportionate response to the
failed coup of July 15 is hardly surprising.
Given the authoritarian streak in his government,
many had warned that he would capitalise on the
opportunity to purge his enemies and critics. Unfortunately, that is exactly what is happening now.
Mr. Erdogan blames Fethullah Gulen, a U.S.-based
Turkish cleric, for the coup, though he has yet to
furnish any evidence. But the government has already arrested, fired, suspended or served notice
on about 58,000 people, largely Gulen supporters.
Media groups are under pressure not to carry reports critical of the President. A three-month state
of emergency declared last week gives Mr. Erdogan
sweeping powers; one of the first presidential decrees was to close down institutions linked to Mr.
Gulen. Given the depth and breadth of the crackdown, Turks must wonder whether this is the kind
of democracy they wanted restored when they risked their lives on the streets of Ankara and Istanbul
on July 15 and 16 in fighting back the coup-plotters.
The failed coup was a chance for Mr. Erdogan to
genuinely explore the reasons that led to the military revolt and take steps to address systemic failures. It was also an opportunity to strengthen democratic institutions and address the concerns about
his dictatorial policies, and the threats to constitutional secularism, one of the founding principles of
modern Turkey. Instead, Mr. Erdogan appears convinced that the political capital he gained is best
used to oust his enemies, real and imagined, from
influential sectors. This marks a dangerous turn. A
large-scale crackdown on a society that has strong
democratic currents within it and a history of revolts against rulers will only invite public resentment. In the case of Turkey, every junta regime in
the past was forced to hand over power to civilian
leaders. Even the brutal military takeover of 1980
didnt last long. So if Mr. Erdogan and his supporters think they will emerge stronger with the purge,
they could well be proved wrong. Secondly, the
crackdown has already damaged Turkeys standing
globally. From a leader who survived a coup attempt, Mr. Erdogan has transformed his international image into that of a revengeful strongman.
Even his allies in the West have asked him to act
within the rule of law. Thirdly, while it is important
to hold those responsible for the coup accountable
for their actions, an all-out attack on the military
roughly a third of the command structure has been
purged could be counterproductive. Heightened
tensions between the civilian government and the
military can only have a destabilising effect.

One of my friends, who is an anthropologist,

argues that the middle class Indian does not
need to be psychoanalysed on a couch. A
crowd, he claims, is a better method of analysing Indian repressions. Indias politics of
anxiety emerges more at the level of the
crowd. Crowds, he adds, are for negative
democracy, the public for citizenship.
For him, the psychology of India unravels
at two levels. The first is at the level of the
family, and where violence is more patriarchal. The second is at the level of an imaginary Jajmani system a socio-economic system more predominant in rural areas and of
its interaction between the upper and the
lower castes. In this caste bundle, there is
constant shuffling which provides a sense of
order and disorder. But the fact is that what
looks like order at one level might be mayhem at the second level. For this he uses the
example of the cow and the politics around it
which are very much in the news. At the domestic level, the cow is a god and represents
something sacred. Simultaneously, it is the
embodiment of an agricultural way of life.
The cow is Gau Mata representing mans
oneness with nature and is embodied in his
totemic relation with the animal.
Now, a symbol of social fissures
But this domestic arrangement acquires
political overtones. The nature of the symbol, the cow, changes and it soon comes to
represent the worst in the caste system. The
political battles around the cow soon become deep. Let me put it this way. The cow
expresses the social tensions within an agricultural society that is turning urban in its
ways. Here, local panchayats disrupt what is
normal by becoming vigilantes. Ironically,
the cow becomes a symptom of the deep fissures within a society. Brahmins, Muslims
and Dalits are fast losing their moorings in
agriculture and the cow becomes a source of
violence. Ironically the cow, instead of representing the best of agricultural values, embodies the tension between a changing caste
system and the ideals of a constitutional
India.
As a result, we are soon inundated with
images of and reports about social violence.
In such moments of change, the Constitution
becomes an empty document. Neither the
rule of law nor law and order is maintained.

It is not sacred cows that the

regime is protecting. What it is
desacralising is the Constitution.
The idea of a cow of seeking
harmony stands emasculated
Vigilante groups play kangaroo courts while
the rest of the nation can only watch. It is this
sociology of violence that we must confront.
One thing is clear. The Government of India is blissfully deep in slumber as this process plays out. As victims protest the violence, the regime plays a game of being
indifferent. I must add that I am not reporting one singular event but a cascade of
events. As the urban social landscape flares
up, one even begins wondering whether the
much talked about smart cities of the future
will have a civic place for the cow, even as
imagination. Given the nature of Twitter and
the Internet, every act soon goes viral.
Events in even the remotest corners of the
country soon become a global spectacle.
They become a part of the ecology of everyday memory and are difficult to shrug off.
It is not as if these cow protection
groups protect the cow. They are not like the
Jain goshalas where there is deep respect for
animal life and cattle are given shelter. These

Minorities at the receiving end

I go to the incident which lies at the heart
of all this. It was a scene that even went viral,
which is perhaps how the world got to know
about it. Mota Samadhiyala, 20 km from Una
town in Gujarat, is a village of around 3,000,
comprising the upper-caste Patidars, and
other castes such as Kshatriyas, Kolis, Valand and Dalits. While there are no visible
lines that demarcate the upper caste areas
from this basti, the divide runs deep. People
in the basti mostly work as farm labourers
and supplement their income by skinning
dead cows.
On July 11, a cow protection group attacked a group of Dalits who were skinning a
dead cow in Mota Samadhiyala. Four of them
were then brutally beaten with steel pipes
and iron rods, stripped, tied to a sport utility
vehicle and paraded in the main market near
the local police station in Una by members of
local cow vigilante group, Gau Raksha Samiti. The flogging was filmed and posted on
Facebook as warning to other Dalits were
they to repeat such acts. The incident has
since led to an eruption of protests and unrest across Gujarat, and even political turmoil.
What has added to the brutality is the socalled piety of the cow rakshak who is pretending to be protecting the ideals of a fading
society. It is not as if gau rakshaks do not understand the Jajmani system or the political
economy of a society where the lower castes
play a scavenging role. In this case, the four
Dalits were taking away a dead cow to be
skinned. This has been a part of tradition and
is a social function. What is worse is that
these vigilante groups have been further encouraged by the rhetoric of government spokespersons who periodically announce elaborate plans for cow protection. Stopping
illicit cattle trade between India and Bangladesh is understandable, but using this as a
pretext to inflict atrocities on Dalits is not.
Such atrocities have been recurring with
impunity and Dalits are deeply frustrated.
Some have even gone to the extent of ending
their lives.
In all this, one realises that vigilante-spon-

CARTOONSCAPE

The sullying of
scientific literature

n a rare and highly commendable move that has

sent out a strong message to the Indian scientific community, the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research has dismissed a senior scientist
working at its Chandigarh-based Institute of Microbial Technology (IMTECH) over serious charges of data fabrication in at least seven papers published in peer-reviewed journals. At least three
papers published in 2013 in the journal PLOS ONE
were retracted once preliminary investigation carried out at IMTECH revealed that the data were
cooked up. Though Swaranjit Singh Cameotra was
not directly involved in data fabrication, his complicity in the scientific misconduct became clear.
The scale of misconduct by Dr. Cameotra is way
lower in comparison to the South Korean stem cell
researcher Hwang Woo-suk and the Japanese stem
cell researcher Haruko Obokata, but it is nevertheless significant. A senior member is responsible for
data produced by his team. As the U.S. Office of Research Integrity (ORI) has laid down, being complicit in multiple instances of scientific misconduct
merits firm action. An editor of one of the retracted
papers said the reviewers were unable to spot the
fabrication as the data appeared solid, though all
the three papers had the same theme of a bacterium
isolated from a natural environment metabolising
certain chemicals. It is, however, quite surprising
that no one at IMTECH suspected any foul play as
the scientist published 15 papers in 2013.
The only bright spot in the otherwise sorry episode has been IMTECHs readiness and willingness to get to the root of the problem rather than
brushing the allegations under the carpet, as many
scientific institutions in India regularly do. One of
the biggest handicaps that journal editors face
when confronted with evidence of scientific misconduct by Indian researchers is non-cooperation
by institutions in thoroughly investigating such
matters. This is the reason why certain fraudulent
practices by Indian scientists have seldom been exposed. One of the best ways to tackle this ill is to set
up a nodal body on the lines of the ORI in the U.S.
Any case of scientific misconduct brought to its notice should be investigated by the respective institutions and the matter taken to its logical conclusion. A body on the lines of the ORI should also be
actively involved in preventing misconduct and
promoting research integrity through expanded
education programmes. This will go a long way in
reducing instances of misconduct by scientists. It
will also greatly help to reduce the amount of trash
that sullies scientific literature and prevent other
serious researchers from wasting their time repeating meaningless experiments.
CM
YK

sored violence is not sporadic but involves

organised networks. They even patrol highways looking out for trucks ferrying cows
and then attack those in the vehicle, using
weapons to mete out instant justice. In turn,
the Centre remains silent, almost tacit in
what it considers an informal validation of
government policy. It is not sacred cows that
the regime is protecting. What it is tacitly desacralising is the Constitution. The so-called
rights of a cow are getting precedence over
the rights of Dalits. The very sacred idea of a
cow which seeks harmony between nature
and culture now stands emasculated. It is
here that fundamentalist movements get
some of their energy from. It appears that the
Modi government is operating on split levels, with one entity suggesting modern proposals for policy, while the other wants all of
this to be anchored to a fundamentalism. It is
this which makes the violence so overt. Oddly, the function of policing is being handed
over to these groups and the regime sees
them as arms that are helping to consolidate
the ideology of the government.
A structure of violence
Let me look at another incident which
happened last year where a 50-year-old man,
Mohammad Akhlaq, was beaten to death and
his 22-year-old son severely injured in Dadri
in Uttar Pradesh, allegedly by residents of
Bisara village, after rumours spread in the area about the family storing and consuming
beef. In fact, if one looks at the lynching of
Akhlaq and the attack on the four Dalit men
for skinning a cow, one sees similarities.
There is a third incident I will look at. This
time it is on a video that emerged in late June
this year which showed volunteers of the
Gau Raksha Dal forcing two beef smugglers to eat cow dung and drink cow urine.
According to reports, their leader admitted
that his group had forced the two Muslim
men to eat cow dung on June 10. The man
claimed that volunteers, acting on a tip-off,
intercepted a vehicle transporting 700 kg of
beef from Mewat to Delhi on the KundliManesar-Palwal Expressway. He said the
group chased the car for a few kilometres before stopping it near the Badarpur border.
When we caught them, they had 700 kg of
beef in their car. We made them eat panchgavya, a concoction of cow dung, cow urine,
milk, curd and ghee, in order to teach them a
lesson and also to purify them, the man said.
Thus there seems to be adequate evidence of
a new fundamentalist rule of law. The sad
part is that the political Opposition, especially the Congress party, is reading all this as
sporadic events rather than as an emerging
structure of violence that does need to be
confronted.
We must understand that there is a style to
the violence and its staging. In one way it is
plain bully boy brutality, where brute majoritarianism seeks to make a point to some minority group, be it Dalit, Muslim or tribal and
that they must be taught a lesson. Vigilante
and policeman literally mirror each other
even as the government appears to be instructing the victims to be restrained!
The unending sequence of probes being
demanded matches the widening cycle of violence. It is almost as if it takes only one sacred cow to kill another in this case, democracy. In all this, middle class India
watches silently as it is overcome by atrocity fatigue and wants to get back to aspiration and desire mode.
In the end, the Muslim and the Dalit are violated twice. Riots first displace the Muslim,
and vigilante groups then forbid him from
pursuing his occupation. In the case of the
Dalit, he has to face never-ending atrocities.
Thus in the roster of democracy, both Muslim and Dalit are less than equal. What needs
to be exposed is the sanitised hypocrisy behind these acts of brutality. The cow rakshak
syndrome needs to be analysed and exposed
as a threat to Indian democracy.
Shiv Visvanathan is Professor at Jindal School of Law.

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Letters emailed to letters@thehindu.co.in must carry the full postal address and the full name or the name with initials.

A watershed moment
The economic liberalisation
unleashed in 1991, a historic moment
in Indias history, faces the threat of
fading away from memory owing to
a lack of media interest and the
ambivalence of the political class
towards the significance of reforms
as a driver of economic growth and
poverty alleviation. The Editorial of
1991, Jairam Rameshs write-up and
the juxtaposed infographics weld
together different perspectives and
bring into sharp focus a watershed
moment that changed our economic
trajectory forever (Manmohan
Singhs 1991 Budget Twenty five
years ago this year, all July 24).
Liberalisation was not consciously
designed to make India better; it was
a desperate effort to avert the
humiliation of bankruptcy. Left to
itself, the Congress would have
preferred to perpetuate the licencepermit raj that it installed in 1947 as
it helped the party to cultivate a
pro-poor image.
It is inexplicable and mystifying that
reforms acquired pejorative
connotations over the years despite
empirical evidence of their
beneficial impact on the economy as
well as the lives of the people. The
Congress is guilty of refusing to own
up to its role in unshackling the
economy from stifling controls and
lifting millions above the poverty
line. The arch-reformer, Manmohan
Singh, who led the government from
2004 to 2014, became a prisoner of
his partys opportunistic power

games while the two UPA regimes

failed to build on the momentum of
the reforms, thus depriving India
the chance to implement structural
reforms that would have
significantly dented poverty levels.
V.N. Mukundarajan,
Thiruvananthapuram

The Editorial of 1991 presented a

balanced and lucid assessment of
the economic situation at that time.
While the proponents of economic
reforms may claim victory, the
ground reality is that the poorer
sections of society are virtually
standing where they are with no
solutions to their clutch of
problems. A major difference
between the manner in which the
reforms process was carried
forward by the Congress and the
present government is that the
former spared some thought for the
deprived sections due to its socialist
moorings while the latter is
pursuing mindless economic
reforms with little or no care for the
aam aadmi. The series will help
educate the young generation,
which is now so enamoured of
so-called reforms.
J. Anantha Padmanabhan,
Tiruchi

Rahuls RSS remark

Most newspapers, which includes
this daily with its report, SC chides
Rahul for denouncing entire RSS
(July 20), have created an
impression that Congress vice-

president Rahul Gandhi has hurt the

feelings of not only leaders in the
RSS but also the judges dealing with
the case about his collective
denunciation of the Rashtriya
Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) as being
behind the murder of Mahatma
Gandhi. At a poll rally in 2014, Mr.
Gandhi had said that Gandhiji was
shot dead by RSS people.
No one appears to have thought
about the mental agony the Gandhis
faced following the brutal killings of
Mahatma Gandhi, Indira Gandhi
and Rajiv Gandhi. How could any
one have missed the fact that some
right-wing leaders had proposed
constructing a memorial for the
assassin of Mahatma Gandhi? There
are media reports on this.
Perhaps Mr. Gandhi can tell the
judges that if all the top RSS leaders
tell the court that they condemn the
killing of Mahatma Gandhi, Indira
Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi and do not
support their killers, he would have
no hesitation in apologising for his
remark.
A. Narayanan,
Chennai

Missing IAF aircraft

The search for the missing Indian
Air Force An-32 aircraft in the Bay of
Bengal once again rekindles the
debate over current radar
technology (Rough weather,
salinity of waters pose hurdle in
search operations, July 24). One
would have thought that we would
have improved technology after the

bizarre mystery of Malaysia Airlines

Flight 370, but alas. The IAF also
needs to upgrade the electronics on
all its aircraft.
Prabhat K. Mishra,
Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh

My heart goes out to the families of

those on board the missing aircraft.
Their anxious wait reminds me of
the deep trauma my family faced in
the late 1990s when we received
news from the authorities that
radio contact had been lost with
my fathers helicopter (Mi-17).
Flying in the monsoon requires skill
and experience. One hopes that the
IAF holds a fair and transparent
inquiry into the incident as the
families need to know the truth. The
IAF also needs to upgrade its
maintenance.
Abhishek Ranjan Singh,
Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh

Given the volatile conditions in

Kabul, where terrorists and
gangsters are merciless towards
their victims, Judith DSouzas
release would not have been
possible but for an iota of divine
providence and the sincere
cooperation and involvement of top
officials of the Afghan government
and our Ambassador. Her release is
one of our greater diplomatic
victories and is something to be
taken note of. At the same time, the
government should also refrain
from issuing comments about her
life in captivity lest they jeopardise
the prospects of other captives
(Judith was tortured by captors,
says BJP MP, July 24).
M. Somasekhar Prasad,
Badvel, Andhra Pradesh

Omar on J&K agitation

One is happy that Indian aid worker

Judith DSouza, who was kidnapped
by the Taliban in Afghanistan, has
been released (Sushma thanks
Afghan govt., Indian envoy, July
24). Kidnapping high-profile foreign
nationals has proved to be lucrative
for the Taliban. As a precautionary
measure, the Indian government
must regularly issue updated
advisories on developments in
war-torn countries to help our
professionals, workers and NGOs.
Gregory Fernandes,

Former J&K Chief Minister Omar

Abdullahs remark, that India had
been dishonest with the people of
the State in fulfilling the conditions
of accession in 1947, is both
irresponsible and inflammatory. Has
he forgotten that his father and
grandfather were also Chief
Ministers of the State and could
have turned things round for the
State? Being a member of one of the
most influential and politically
prominent families of Jammu and
Kashmir for generations, he needs
to be honest and look at his track
record as well.
G. Chittibabu,

Mumbai

Madurai

Judiths release

ND-ND