India relies on cows for dairy products, plowing fields, and fertilizing the fields with their dung. For these and other reasons the cow is venerated, and a majority of Indian states outlaw eating or possessing cow meat.
But the cow creates significant tensions that may pose a risk to India’s social fabric. Under Modi’s administration, extremist groups have increasingly relied on violent force to uphold the sanctity of cows, which number above 300 million, according to US Department of Agriculture data.
Most recently, a police task force raided street vendors in the state of Haryana, confiscating the meat of cows before it could be consumed. "They picked out meat pieces from my biryani," referring to a local rice dish, Shaukat Qureshi said, before placing the unidentified pieces of meat in plastic bags. Selling cow meat can earn offenders a five-year prison sentence, while slaughtering cows can send perpetrators to jail for up to 10 years.
Qureshi said he only sells chicken and buffalo, which are legal. Still, when the Cow Protection Task Force (CPTF) learned that street vendors in Mewat, a predominantly Muslim district, were profiting from the flesh of the sacred animal, they rushed to the scene. Police labs have yet to announce whether the seized meat is from the cow.
CPTF relies on "gua rakshaks," or 'cow protectors' for information on possible legal violations. Gua rakshaks also provide cows with sanctuary, if they catch people smuggling the animals across India’s borders.
Critics argue that Modi’s administration allowed gua rakshaks to flourish to the point where they resemble paramilitary outfits. Social unrest surrounding the protection of cows reached a tipping point in 2015 during the Dadri mob lynching, during which Hindus killed a 52-year-old Muslim man and badly wounded his son over allegations that the family killed a cow and ate its meat.
