The controversy over the atrocities on Dalits by goons has become dirty with the members of the community asking the government to provide them with firearms to protect themselves. The demand of the Dalits comes against the backdrop of the thrashing of Dalit youths by self-proclaimed cow vigilantes for skinning dead cows.
This has sparked outrage, especially after a video of four Dalit youths being tied to an SUV and publicly flogged went viral. The incident, which took place in a village near Una town in the Gir-Somnath district in Gujarat, has become an embarrassment for Prime Minister Narendra Damodardass Modi’s party, the Bharatiya Janata Party, which is in power in the state.
The stripping and public flogging of the Dalits in Una, however, is not the only instance of atrocities against the community. Around 50 Bajrang Dal activists had allegedly attacked members of a Dalit family in Chikkamagaluru, Karnataka, July 17 after rumours spread about them consuming beef.
Three of the Dalits were seriously injured. This incident shows how brazen the cow vigilantes have become and highlights the blatant display of hooliganism that they are allowed to indulge in. The incident in Chikkamagaluru came at a time when the Dalits had taken to the streets to protest atrocities against them.
The cow protectors are a misguided lot. Their misdeeds and the terrible violence that they perpetrate are not off the cuff events. These pre-planned attacks bypass logic and sensibility. Hindoo society cannot afford to divide itself any further. Whether it is the Bajrangis or any other such religious sect, it would be wrong to label them as ‘fringe’ elements.
They seem to have become the main stay for Hindooism, just like soldiers of the Islamic State (IS) are now being viewed as mainstream Moslems. In the case of the Hindoos, the problem of cow protectionists is not superficial. It is usually noticed that poor Hindoo farmers, under economic pressure, are forced to part with their non-milching cows or non-working bullocks.
This poverty stricken farmer most likely buys another set of cows or bullocks with the money he gets by selling the older animals. In such situations, the only purchaser of discarded animals is the butcher. In a way, this has resemblance to the justice system bestowed upon earth by Mother Nature called the Food Chain.
In earlier days, people would desert unutilisable bovines outside human habitation. Because there were many wild animals in the forests, the slow and aged cow or bullock turned into food for the older carnivores. Something similar had happened in the Gir incident of Gujarat, where the cow had been attacked and killed by a lion.
The Dalit boys were noticed skinning a dead animal for which they were beaten and had to go through public humiliation by being tied to a vehicle. If we do not wish to acknowledge the systems worked out by Nature, we are surely heading fast towards a serious ecological catastrophe.
