Don’t believe the fluff. Hindutva IS the slippery slope that turns India into a Lynchistan.

Foreword:
July 2017. India is reeling under an ever-increasing spiral of violent hate-crimes. While many of the journalist-elite decry the bigotry that surrounds us, a few writers offer contrarian views. Opinions are always welcome in a democracy. However, when countless lives and livelihoods are being destroyed or threatened, one questions the use of sophisticated arguments that blur lethal ground-realities.
This piece is an attempt to engage with the false equivalences being churned out by the emergent right-wing literati, specifically:
- Hindutvadi hatchet man Swapan Dasgupta. ¹ ²
- Once-funny Rahul Roushan of Faking News fame. ³
- R Jagannathan & the “liberal right-of-centre” chaps at Swarajya. ⁴
- Multidisciplinary thinker and twitter-fiend Anand Ranganathan of Newslaundry, whose Lynchistan diatribe has overnight made him the right-wing’s knight in shining armour.
Ranganathan’s earnest and well-researched 15-point argument is a spectacular feat of intellectual acrobatics and deserves a “befitting reply”. In it, he implies that we the sheeple [naive liberals] are being led astray by our guard dogs [the media] who are needlessly crying wolf [Hindutva-Gautankwad] when in fact, all is perfectly well at the Animal Farm.

So what exactly is a lynching? An act of cowardice first and foremost. It essentially means: a clash between a large mob on one side, and a single person, or a handful of people on the other, which ends in the summary execution of the much weaker party.
Instant mob-justice, or lynching, is the unfortunate yet inevitable reality of poverty-stricken badly-policed tribalist societies across the world — and the most of India, steeped in age-old prejudices of caste, creed and religion, is still very much a tribalist society.
Lynchings are certainly not a recent phenomenon either, and have been happening since time immemorial. We’ve just never been specifically recording them. Now, allow me to throw some numbers at you.
In 2011, Kenya, whose per capita GDP and HDI are similar to India’s, added “lynching” as a separate category in its crime statistics — police officials recorded 543 victims; their population is 1/30 ours. If this rate holds true for India, we could be looking at 15,000 lynchings a year.

I agree that number sounds sensational, but now grasp this — India officially undercounts all crimes in a systematic manner. The National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) records only the ‘principal offence’ in every FIR — the charge attracting the maximum penalty. To put this statistical flaw into perspective, the Nirbhaya rape won’t even figure in NCRB data on rape as the victim died and the culprits were charged with murder.
Similarly, in Gujarat, you could rob a family at gunpoint, thrash the men, molest the women, but while fleeing the spot if you mistakenly run over a cow, NCRB would record your crime under the category of cow-slaughter (penalty: life-imprisonment). Not as assault, armed robbery or rape/molestation.
Rising above this minor flaw, India registered 65,000 riots in 2015.

India is a country of 1.3 billion people. When counting lynchings, we’re dealing with figures in the hundreds if not thousands. Not tens or twenties. NCRB’s own records show that 200 suspected witches alone are lynched in India annually.
But instead, self-proclaimed data-scientists have been presenting numbers in the range of a few dozen a year, or thereabouts, and trying to base arguments on them.
Coming back to the point… lynchings are mostly spontaneous outbursts of uncontrolled fury that occur when aggrieved groups believe they cannot expect adequate justice from the established law & order agencies of the state.
Frustration coupled with seething anger manifests itself in the form of bloodthirsty savagery. And occasionally, more than merely extracting justice, it is done with the intention of sending a message to deter others.
What drives people to such insanely violent actions?
Basic motives behind mob-fury are actions which clash against humankind’s innate values of right and wrong; extreme violations of natural law that stir up the primordial instinct to preserve one’s property, self and values.
Let us call incidents arising from these causes — organic lynchings.
- Theft: Child-snatching | Kidnapping | Stealing
- Threat to Life: Road-rage | Revenge-killings | Family feuds
- Sexual violence: Rape | Molestation | Paedophilia
- Crossed social boundaries: Honour-killings | Blasphemy | Adultery
- Existential Threats: Witch-craft | Caste-conflict | Property-disputes
What drives gau-rakshaks to such violent actions?
These incidents involve little other than the mere suspicion of:
- Threat to Cows: transporting / eating / skinning / possessing — Beef
Is it possible to draw a parallel between incidents of the two types?
Incidents of organic mob-justice are natural outpourings of sentiment. They are natural phenomena — the recent spate of cow-related violence is not. They are organised lynchings towards a religio-political cause. That, is the crucial difference.
This wave of gau-raksha-inspired violence didn’t just appear out of a vaccum. It is the disastrous outcome of a sustained campaign of majoritarianism by the BJP-RSS that asserts Hindu supremacy, and incites hatred towards minority communities.
Right now, it has taken the shape of nothing less than a crusade — one that has been legitimized by unnatural laws (religious and judicial) that prize an irrational belief of “bovine divinity” over fundamental rights. To one’s own property, choice of livelihood, diet and even life.

For a moment dwell on what natural laws are; and the unnatural nature of laws which encourage violence in the name of a “holy cow”.
What is the point we’re trying to establish here?
Relative numbers of organic lynchings or killings, whether in tens, hundreds or thousands are not relevant to this debate. Our current debate, and the widespread indignation that led to the #NotInMyName protests, concerns specifically the guilt of the ruling establishment in enabling terrorism, extortion and mob-justice by gau-rakshaks. Also, hate-crimes that occurred as a result of heightened animosity towards the “other” community, such as those of Junaid, Zafar Hussain, and Mohammad Ayub Pandith in Kashmir.
Specifically, the 25–30 odd killings in the name of the cow — starting from the horrific murder of Mohammed Akhlaq in 2015, till the cat-and-mouse-game which ended in the spine-chilling murder of Alimuddin Ansari which was taking place at the very same time Narendra Modi was giving his “don’t kill in the name of cow” speech from Sabarmati ashram on June 29th, 2017.
Their gautankwad, or our nautankwad?
While most ideologically sound people agree that cow-terrorism is a recent menace that has gotten worse after the rise of the BJP, gauraksha-apologists argued: it was always bad but is now being made to look worse due to biased reporting by the “left-liberal” English-language media after Modi ascended.
These delusions of self-righteousness were short-lived.
A few days after the Lynchistan debate broke our little corner of the Internet, IndiaSpend, a website focused on data-oriented journalism, picked up the gauntlet (no pun intended) and produced research which promptly shut-down the gauraksha-apologists. Their content analysis of the English media between 2010 to 2017 showed Muslims were the target of 51% of violence centred on bovine issues and comprised 86% of 28 Indians killed in 63 incidents.
Also, it must be noted, we only get to hear about the truly horrific ones, or those which are photographed or videotaped and are juicy enough to make the news. For every incident that makes the news there are possibly ten others that don’t; where innocents are thrashed, tortured, humiliated and left traumatized, mentally as well as physically.

The data-set is here, as clear as day. It places culpability on the current gov’t.
No one is disagreeing that even in the UPA years, stray gau-raksha squads did patrol the roads wreaking mild havoc. And if we’re on that topic, 2013 is hardly a base year to begin. These guys have been at it for a half-century now. The first attack on parliament was by gau-rakshaks in 1966!
The point being made is — whereas before they were just one of India’s infinite lunatic fringe, now under the current regime they have been emboldened, organised and their thuggery has increased exponentially. The IndiaSpend study goes a long way in proving that vital point.
Also, shockingly, in a fifth of the incidents, police registered cases against victims/survivors — showing just how sympathetic the state is to the cause of these cow-terrorists.
2017, unsurprisingly, is on track to be the worst-ever year for cow-related violence.
So is this evidence enough to call India ‘Lynchistan’?
Well, not quite. Numbers prove only so much. India has a recorded crime rate that is 50 times lesser than rich European nations. That doesn’t mean we’re a peace-loving law-abiding country — it means a large majority of crimes are simply not reported in India.
For instance, in 2014, Bihar reported 574 assaults on women “with intent to outrage modesty”, to use legal parlance. MP reported 9,618 such cases while Rajasthan had 6,015. Kerala, with one-third the population of Bihar, and a better place for women, reported 4,412 assaults, about eight times as many.

Various studies reveal that only 10–15% of major crimes are actually registered by Indian police. All official statistics are probably just the tip of the iceberg. The vast majority of Indians are too uneducated, marginalized or just too poor to understand their basic rights and expect or even demand justice from a predatory police force.
Recent police reforms and easier registration of FIRs have seen crime rates surge annually.
Read this non-partisan article,or this one, for an idea of how enormous is the mismatch between incidence of crime and its eventual recording.
So how do
At the core, gau-raksha violence and religious hate-crimes are not a ordinary quantifiable law and order issue.
They are not simple criminal acts but calculated killings in the name of ideology — the product of a much deeper malaise; the toxic fallout of a sustained campaign that seeks to unleash the inherent bigotry that lies chained deep within us all.
The term Lynchistan is relevant in the current context not because of greater or lesser frequency of lynchings or the increased crime-rate, but because — and this is the crux of the matter — there is now ample proof to make a watertight case that the ever-increasing bovine-related assaults and murders are the direct result of the state-sanctioned policy of militant Hindutva — a policy whose prime objective is to consolidate majoritarian identity and win political power, irrespective of the humanitarian cost.
As a nation is defined by its policies (some say by how it treats its minorities), thus the relevancy of the suffix -istan for a state which chooses to, tacitly and explicitly, empower lynch-mobs.


Manifest Destiny
India is currently in the grip of Hindutva — an all-encompassing religio-political ideology that asserts the moral supremacy of Hindus to stake their sole claim over the rightful motherland, that is India. It is a different matter altogether that Sanskrit was first spoken in Syria and the creators of Rig Vedic “Brahmanism” entered in 1500 BC after the Indus Valley Civilisation died out.
But hey, all that is water under the bridge. Right now, nothing short of a Hindu-Rashtra is the ultimate goal of the many-headed Hydra that is the Sangh parivar. Post 2014, the stars have aligned. A vikas-purush has come to the fore. The time is come, after a whole millennium of subjugation, for the “true people” of this land to take back their country.
So how exactly do the anointed go about taking back control, within constitutional limits that is. To systematically disempower and disenfranchise the enemy communities, is a great way to start. Here’s how it’s done.
Note: All statements made below are linked to relevant national-media reports.

1Worship of the Cow, or the gau-mata, has always been central to uniting the myriad castes and cults that constitute Hinduism. During India’s growing years, a then right-of-centre Congress co-opted the cow/bullock as its electoral stamp to steal a march on the subdued sangh parivar. Furthermore, it enacted numerous cow-protection laws to placate right-wing factions perennially threatening to break out on their own. With the rise of the BJP in the 90’s, these laws have been strengthened to the point of absurdity.
Below: Tweet from Gujarat CM after making cow-slaughter punishable by a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.
2Most cow-belt states have now completely banned cattle-slaughter. As a result, to earn much needed revenue, poor farmers are forced to sell their old and unproductive cattle to a network of middlemen, who then have to surreptitiously transport these cattle to the slaughter-houses in other states (with less-draconian laws) to get them processed for consumption, export and industrial purposes.
All these issues arise solely from these most unnatural and irrational of laws — cow-slaughter bans; which make life harder for ordinary agriculturists who constitute 50% of our population, just to appease a cabal of upper-caste groups who seek to to gain votes by herding Hindus towards the BJP.
3In 2014 during the run-up to the general elections, Narendra Modi repeatedly brought up the issue of a so-called “Pink Revolution” which claimed that the Congress was party to an insidious plan to facilitate the rampant slaughter of cows, for profit. Modi used it as a key theme in his speeches and campaigns across northern India (specifically post-riot UP), raising the bogey of cow slaughter to whip up religious fervour and an anti-Muslim sentiment.
4Meanwhile, on the ground level, RSS shakhas aided by youth organisations of the Sangh parivar such as Hindu Yuva Vahini, gently indoctrinate (read: relentlessly feed communal propaganda to) young children — unfortunate enough to find themselves in these “camps” — in the supremacist ideology of Hindutva.
Furthermore, economic stagnation in the northern-Indian states coupled with warped notions of patriarchy and an unrelenting hierarchical caste system gravitate poorly-educated upper-caste youths towards groups like the Bajrang Dal, VHP and of course Gau-Raksha Dal.
Excerpt from a BBC News Report, 29th October 2015
…(gau-raksha) “soldiers” are a rag-tag, but committed bunch of vigilantes who are mostly members of militant Hindu groups like Bajrang Dal, Vishwa Hindu Parishad and Shiv Sena. All of them attend local camps held by the right-wing Hindu nationalist Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, which has umbilical ties with the ruling BJP.
These quasi-fascist rogue outfits offer impressionable young men opportunities to increase their social standing, achieve positions of power (the promise of a ticket into BJP) and serve the Hindu motherland; with… the added bonus of thrashing Muslims and Dalits (always an excellent way to reinforce their asli mard value).
5Gau Raksha Dals/Samitis have now been formed in almost every district across the cow-belt. Members are often issued ID cards, some paid salaries and the top performers are rewarded with public shows of approval by BJP/RSS top brass. These armed vigilantes, programmed with hate and empowered by the Modi-wave’s new-found political hegemony, fearlessly roam the highways with police in tow, hunting for cattle-vans to extort and ‘deviants’ to penalize.
6Numerous articles and reports conducted by an entire range of media groups have exposed gau-raksha rackets for what they essentially are: glorified extortion syndicates. While many of the youngsters involved earnestly believe in the religious sanction for “saving” the cow from slaughter (at any cost), the fact remains that the larger design is one of extracting maximum hafta from those involved in the cattle industry.
If extortion alone isn’t bad enough, investigations have revealed that a black market exists and “recovered” cows are often routed temporarily to gaushalas before being sold by the gau-keepers themselves.
7Gov’t functionaries today, at the centre and in various states, operate as direct enablers of this violence by drumming-up hysteria over how the cow is central to Hinduism, and how Muslims and other deshdrohis are involved in a sinister cow-killing conspiracy which must be stopped at all costs.
When faced with instances of violence, they resort to either victim-blaming or equivocating, thus extending support tacitly as well as explicitly.
Excerpt from an piece by Basant Rath, 2000-batch IPS officer. IE, 30.06.17.
It represents the contrived, cool, calculating deliberation of intelligent criminals who know that they’ll get away with their inhuman deeds and that they have enough political and police protectors to take care of the legal consequences..
8If you still aren’t convinced of the insidious grand strategy, here’s a special selection of vitriolic remarks and affirmative actions by BJP heavyweights:
This incitement is done by draping the tricolour around the corpse of Akhlaq’s murderer by a Union Minister; by ‘beef’ being repeatedly made an issue in State elections; by the appointment of virulent bigots as chief ministers.
- “Let him eat beef…If he does so, he will be beheaded. We won’t think twice about that”, BJP leader threatens Karnataka CM. DH, November 2015.
- “We warn them against a Dadri-like incident in Telangana. We can both give our lives and take life for the sake of protecting the cow”, DNA, Dec. 2015.
- “No regret over Pehlu’s death”, Gyandev Ahuja, BJP MLA. IE, April 2017.
Bloodthirst: An Accquired Taste
Like an infestation of termites, these constant calls to violence in the name of religion chip away at the moral foundation of this nation. Doubly so when they come from those occupying positions of power and authority (as quoted above). When those making these calls are shockingly rewarded with plum posts, as Adityanath was, it’s like taking a chainsaw to the roots of the modern secular republic.
Towards #NewIndia
In the heartland of this country, seeds of distrust are being sown by cadres, rabble-rousers and agent provocateurs, directly, through speeches, rumours, posters, and virally, through alarmist posts, images and videos shared on centrally-administered Whatsapp groups (hundreds per district). Entire armies of paid pseudo-nationalist “trolls”, many followed by the PM and other BJP honchos, vilify all those opposed to them on Facebook, Twitter and other social media platforms; while mushrooming fake-news portals and an obliging BJP IT-cell provides them with fuel-soaked fodder — inflammatory enough to light up the nation.
However — and this is the most sociologically distressing part of all this — the greatest damage to the syncretic ethos of our nation is done by an entire range of amoral TRP-driven politically-embedded hate-spewing TV news channels & print media. These guys aren’t even philosophically committed to the Hindutva cause or anything of the sort. They’re just a bunch of random chaps casually destroying social harmony for higher salaries and bonuses.
Harvesting hate
This multi-pronged strategy of bombarding impressionable, ill-informed hearts and minds with divisive religious propaganda has culminated in the slow brutalization of entire populations. And now, the fallout of this sustained campaign of deliberately demonizing the other, is beginning to pile up, and stink.
Across the nation, beneath the veneer of countryside calm, wariness between Muslims and Hindus is apparent. Suspicion and paranoia reside in every neighbourhood, with minor scuffles quickly degenerating into a deadly communal clashes.

The thing with hate is that it’s not something you can just switch on or off; or control. Like a malignant cancer it spreads wildly, atrophying everything in its path.
In the last 6–8 years this pernicious campaign of mainstreaming religious hatred has once again let loose an epidemic witnessed only during the time of partition and then Ayodhya in ’92; where notions of civility and humanity were ruptured and overpowered by a bloodlust — quenched only by the sense of satisfaction derived from the physical extermination of the enemy.
It is in fact delusional and extremely dangerous to pretend, and convince thousands of others, that there isn’t a serious goddamned problem here.
The Economic Costs of Bigotry as State Policy
For a moment, let us pause and absorb the enormity of the issue. It is not just the mere loss of life. The worst part of it is the unnecessary ruin of industries and the jobs they provide. Threatened are millions working in the —
- Beef/buffalo-meat export industry: $5 billion worth.
- Leather industry: $13 billion worth. $6 billion export.
- Dairy industry: $12 billion worth. $1 billion export.
- Allied industries — Soap; Glue; Powder etc.: $1 billion +
For an import-dependent economy like ours to intentionally lose out on precious export income is nothing short of macro-economic hara-kiri.
Next, take in the social cost. Victim’s entire families have to forever endure the trauma of knowing their loved ones was brutally and mercilessly beaten to death. For no good reason! Is it even possible to imagine what that feels like? I can’t. Moreover, this trauma causes depression which seriously impairs one’s ability to function optimally, as in, like a normal person.
Also, the one or two dozen people who committed the act are booked for murder and have to spend decades in prison, or fighting court cases. And then factor in the man-hours lost by the police and judiciary in processing these cases. The sheer and futile loss of productivity! We talk of Make in India. But, at the end of the day, the only thing all these angry young people will be making is a lot of trouble, for their employers, if they can find any.
Finally — when the country is already hopelessly mired in poverty, illiteracy and poor health — consider the absurdity of writers, activists and ordinary people wasting time and energy trying to convince people to unequivocally resist behaviour that is already blatantly illegal to begin with.
But then, for most of us it is impossible to empathise with the plight of those endangered by these policies. Their lives and vocations are so far removed from ours that its hard to imagine what disenfranchisement feels like. Read this next para and reflect on legitimacy of taking away the entire occupations.

The same way we now look back at failed project of Communism, its futile ideological battles and the wasted decades they spawned, perhaps a hundred years down the line, when India boasts an educated, well-off and more atheist populace, writers will certainly look back at this era dominated by the counter-productive coercive ideology of Hindutva and place the guilt of complicity on these apologist writers and their attempts to rationalize policies of hate and exclusion.
By needlessly bickering over petty nomenclature, we the citizen elite are doing a great disservice to the eternally suffering poor. It’s not like India has all the time in the world. Precious resources — land, water, forests, minerals — are all running thin as we speak.
It is imperative that we, who have knowledge, which is power, single-mindedly help steer national discourse towards the vital issues of providing better nutrition, healthcare, housing, sanitation, education, justice and employment for those in desperate need. Instead, we wile away our energies squabbling over ludicrously flawed notions of ‘bovine divinity’, ‘emotional treachery’ and ‘hurt national pride’.
Reach me on twitter. Your thoughts are welcome.
