BISADA, India — The vigilantes from Save the Cow sprang into action the moment they heard a rumor that a cow’s slaughtered remains had been found near an electrical transformer looming over the heart of this village. They quickly raised the alarm through text messages and phone calls. A local Hindu priest was asked to alert villagers from his temple loudspeaker.

Soon, about 1,000 men had gathered by the transformer. There was no sign that a cow, a revered holy symbol for Hindus, had been slaughtered. Nonetheless, the men proceeded through zigzagging alleys to the home of the suspected cow killer, Mohammed Ikhlaq, one of the few Muslims living in this village about 30 miles east of New Delhi.

Mr. Ikhlaq and his wife, Ikraman, were on their second-floor patio, dozing after dinner and prayers. Suddenly their home was swarming with men. Mrs. Ikhlaq heard someone shout, “Kill them.” She, her husband and their son Danish, 20, retreated inside, behind a thick wooden door. The mob shattered the door.

Photo

 

Relatives of Mohammed Ikhlaq in Bisara. Ten men have been charged in his killing.CreditManish Swarup/Associated Press

“What’s the matter?” Mrs. Ikhlaq cried out. An incredulous voice replied from the dark, “After slaughtering a cow, you are asking us what’s the matter?”

Men began to paw at Mrs. Ikhlaq, so she bit hard into a sweaty hand, broke free and fled downstairs, “too scared to even breathe,” she said in an interview. Upstairs, the mob bludgeoned her husband with her sewing machine and smashed her son’s head with a brick. Then they dragged Mr. Ikhlaq down 14 cement steps and out to the main road by the transformer, where he was left for all to see.

Mr. Ikhlaq was declared dead early Tuesday morning, hours after the attack; his son remains in critical condition. But in interviews last week, more than a half-dozen members of Save the Cow expressed little remorse for what happened at the Ikhlaqs’ home. Instead, they blamed Mr. Ikhlaq for inciting the mob’s fury by slaughtering and eating a cow — an allegation dismissed by the Ikhlaq family and the police, who have filed murder charges against 10 men.

“It was not our intention to kill him,” said Vichitra Kumar Tomar, a leader of Save the Cow who was not among those charged. “Our intention was to punish him, to slap him or beat him. Just a few slaps. But not to leave him dead.”

Members of Save the Cow said they were motivated to raise the alarm last Monday because of their religious devotion. “We are more attached to the cow than our own children,” Inder Nagar said.

There is also a powerful political motivation behind their activism.

Many leaders of Save the Cow here are also prominent local organizers in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, or B.J.P., which is vying to oust the socialist party that rules Uttar Pradesh, the vast northern state with more than 200 million residents, including the 20,000 in this village. Mr. Tomar, 24, for example, is the general secretary of the local B.J.P. youth wing. Mr. Nagar, 33, is the state secretary of the B.J.P. youth wing.

By week’s end, they and many other B.J.P. leaders were blaming the ruling party in Uttar Pradesh for the attack in Bisada. The state’s B.J.P. president, Lakshmikant Bajpayee, said in a telephone interview that while he “most definitely” disagreed with mob violence, “the blame for this incident lies squarely with the state’s administration and the law and order machinery, its police.” The failure by the police to respond quickly and forcefully to rumors of a cow’s slaughter understandably enraged Bisada’s Hindu residents, he said.

“This is a fight between the cow caretaker and the cow murderer in the state,” he said. “Had the administration done their job at protecting our cows well, these men would not have been forced to take the law in their hands.”

Save the Cow and B.J.P. leaders here have also roundly condemned the decision by the police to bring murder charges. In their view, the death of Mr. Ikhlaq was at most the unintended byproduct of a chaotic, highly charged situation of his own making. “He slipped and his head hit the road and he died,” Mr. Tomar said, adding: “These things happen. It’s a mob.”

Mr. Modi’s culture minister, Mahesh Sharma, who represents this area in the Indian Parliament, went so far as to tell The Indian Express that Mr. Ikhlaq’s death “should be considered as an accident.”

Beef consumption has long been a subject of controversy in India. It is not hard to find graffiti in rural villages calling for those who slaughter cows to be hanged. Yet the debate about cows has if anything intensified in the past year. At least two states have adopted or tightened bans on the slaughter and consumption of beef since Mr. Modi was elected in 2014.

Some trace this shift to Mr. Modi, who warned during his campaign that his opponents in the Congress Party would seek a “pink revolution” to vastly expand the slaughter of cows. In speeches, he angrily condemned “the widespread murder of our cows.”

sick people

Very sick. This must be condemned in no uncertain terms.

gOOD THING OUR ANCESTORS LEFT

A beef-eating Hindu demands his rights

As a beef-eating Hindu, I am utterly outraged at the killing of Mohammed Akhlaq in Dadri by a Hindu mob claiming the man had beef in his house. Even worse is the attempt of BJP politicians to sanitize the lynching.

Culture minister Mahesh Sharma claims it was just “an accident.” Former MLA Nawab Singh Nagar says those who dare hurt the feelings of the dominant Thakurs should realize the consequences. He claims the murderous mob consisted of “innocent children” below 15 years of age. Many BJP leaders blame the Muslims for eating beef. Vichitra Tomar wants cow-killers to be arrested, not Muslim killers. Srichand Sharma says violence is inevitable if Muslims disrespect Hindu sentiments. Sorry, but these are all lame excuses for murder.

Mob fury at Dadri began when a temple priest said a calf had been killed. Later, the priest admitted he had been pressured to make this false statement by two Hindu youths. So, this was a planned, murderous riot.

The claim that all Hindus oppose cow slaughter is false. Yes, there is a strong upper-caste tradition today against beef, but Dalits and tribals have always eaten beef. “Beef is one of the most affordable sources of protein for the Dalit community,” says Mohan Dharavath, president, Dalit Adivasi Bahujan and Minority Students’ Association.

Ancient Hindu scriptures establish beyond doubt that even upper-caste Hindus and great rishis ate beef in days of yore. For a quick primer, read Nirad Chaudhuri’s ‘The Continent of Circe’. He says, “Love of cows in the Vedas goes with every possible economic use of cattle, including, of course, their slaughter for food”. There was a long debate, says Chaudhuri, between opponents and defenders of cow slaughter.

[SOURCE: TIMES OF INDIA]

How many bulls were slaughtered on a daily basis to feed the armies during the Mahabharat war?

yuji? Answer the man!

Mitwah is a skunk. I do not respond to skunks.

I live and die by the Bhagavad Gita and not one mention of animals killed to feed any army is in the Bhagavad Gita.

The skunks can continue to stink.

Krishna tells people not to perform animal sacrifices although he says he will still accept the sacrifice since he resides in the soul of the sacrificial animal including bulls. NO?

Yugi stink up de place.

Mits...no need to get personal

Some people should stay in their villages and not step one inch out!!!!  IGNORANCE and ILLITERACY is ALL they know!!!!!!

What I doan get is people doan eat beef yet they eat buffalo meat and that of bison

You musta missed this.

Cows are slaughtered legally in some states of India. Though is it prohibited to kill cows in other states, beef is widely consumed. Overall, it's a traditional and religious custom to protect cows from slaughtering in India.

Fugly got personal first.

Manusmriti (Chapter 5 / Verse 30) says, “It is not sinful to eat meat of eatable animals, for Brahma has created both the eaters and the eatables.”

Manusmriti is grabage and written my man.

I live and die by the words of Krsna in the Bhagavad Gita. That is the final word for Hindus as much as the words of the Holy Prophet Mohammad PBUH is the final words for Muslims.

End of story.

Everything written by men are just garbage.

I never thought the Prophets were womenfolk, so now it's Ms Mohammad and Ms Krishna?

Was the Bhagvat Gita not written by men?

You are grossly ignorant.

The Bhagavad Gita is the final word of Krsna. Case closed. 

Believe whatever you want in all of your mode of ignorance. It is your right to do so. Sanatana Dharma is democratic.

Krsna was referring to the Demoniac like yourself.

This my final response to a skunk like you. Consider yourself fortunate that I responded.

Far as I am concerned yugi, you just piled a hot heap a shyte up there.

Fk you, Fk Krsna and fk your Baga shita or whatever the rass it's called.

Jai Shri Krishna!  Manusmriti is the law book for Hindus. The original Bhagavad Gita was written by man, Veda Vyasa. You made the statement :

Everything written by men are just garbage.

Mits..you beating a dead horse,when a person want to

understand the Hindu's you have to read all the older

texts,some individuals thinks the Johnny's come lately

translators and cult creators are authority,leave them to

wallow in their ignorance.

Yugi is following a cult. He does not think for himself, else he would think before he speaks. He lacks knowledge of the Vedas, Upanishads and the various Smritis.....

You shoulda just stopped at, "he lacks knowledge"

"Save the Cow organization slaughters a man"

Have they bunjaled him yet?

If his parents had cows in Guyana, most likely they sold them to the butcher to get passage money to leave Guyana.