India’s Cow Vigilantes
Since the victory of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's BJP in 2014, a wave of Hindu chauvinism has swept India, bringing with it not just new cow-protection laws, but also vociferous demands for their strict enforcement. Worse, citizens are taking the law into their own hands – at the expense of Dalits and Muslims.
NEW DELHI – Indian politics continues to amaze and appall. The surge in cow vigilantism – a uniquely Indian phenomenon that has lately begun to flourish under the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government – is no exception.