Haryana: Loot in Name of Cow Protection! Can't Muslims Rear Cows?

Harassment of people on the streets in the name of cow protection has become common in the country in the past few years, but on June 30, a shocking new case came to the fore wherein alleged cow vigilantes committed a kind of 'robbery' in the name of cow protection. In Faridabad, these men took away more than 50 cows, 17 goats and six donkeys tied in the house of a cattle herder farmer of Khori Jamalpur village.

On Wednesday, four days after the incident, Newsclick visited Khori Jamalpur village and met the victim’s family as well as other villagers to get a feel of the atmosphere there after the ‘robbery’.

There was a sense of fear in the village. At the sight of the NewscClick vehicle, the women went to inside their homes with their children. Most of the men sitting there also refrained from talking about “cattle loot”. When told that we were from the media, they said they don't want to talk now, as a “settlement” was in the works. “Let’s first get back our cows”, they said. After some effort, some people agreed to talk, but fear was palpable. Notably, in this incident, the victim's family has also been booked for alleged cow slaughter, which explained the fear.

The Case

On June 30 night, a case of snatching of 56 cows and 17 goats of Haji Jamal Ali, a resident of Khori Jamalpur village situated on the Faridabad-Gurugram border of Haryana, was in the news. The village is situated amid the Aravalli Hills.

Most of the people in this village are cattle-rearers, which is their main source of income. For eight to nine months in a year, these villagers people keep their animals on the Aravalli Hills, but when it gets really hot,  they bring all their animals down to the fields of local farmers, as after wheat harvesting, the fields remain vacant. The farmers themselves urge them to tie their cattle on the fields because they get natural manure from animal dung.

This is one reason why the farmland owners also make drinking water and other arrangements for these animals. Many people said they even pay the cattle herders. The villagers say this is not a nothing new thing, and has been going on here for many generations.

Following the old system, on June 30 night, Haji Jamat Ali had kept his cattle in a farmer's field in Bai Kheda village in Gurugram district, three to four kilometers away from his village. His children were present there to look after the cattle.

For the past two-and-a-half months, the animals were living in the field, when suddenly on June 30, some youths wearing saffron scarves around their necks came there shouting communal slogans and took away all the cattle tied in the field with them.  Jamaat Ali's family alleged that "they were all Bajrang Dal people."

When Newsclick met the family, they said, "We have lost everything we had earned our whole life. A cow is worth Rs 30-50,000. They took away 56 cows. We used to support our family by selling cow milk. Apart from this, we have no work, what should we do now?"

A lady in the family offered us some water and said in a sad voice, "We cannot even ask you for tea right now because we do not have enough milk after the cows were snatched.”

She said, “The incident took place when there was a wedding in our house and we all were preparing for our daughter's wedding on July 2. But, everything changed on July 1. Earlier there was an atmosphere of happiness in the family. After this incident, we got our daughter married but could not send her home properly. Neither did any relative attend, nor was there any marriage procession. We quietly took our daughter to her in-laws' house and got her married there.”

Can't a Muslim Rear Cows?

One of the other villagers sitting outside Jamaat Ali's house asked, "Can't a Muslim now rear a cow in this country?" Shahzad, Jamaat Ali's younger brother, said, "We have been doing the same thing for generations."

On the allegations of cow slaughter by Right-wing Hindu organisations, he said, "We have never slaughtered a cow or a buffalo because we respect them as much as much as any Hindu brother."

Shahzad further said, “They are looting and terrorising people in the name of cow slaughter, it hurts us a lot. We have lived our whole life here but we never even thought about being Hindu or Muslim. There are 12 villages here where Hindus and Muslim live together and participate in everything, from marriage to other works. Non-vegetarian food (meat) is never cooked in our weddings because half of our guests are Hindus.”

“There are 36 fraternities here and there is a lot of brotherhood among all. This is the first such incident. Some bigots are instigating young boys,” he added.

Efforts to Restore Brotherhood

Shahzad said, "We don't want any ruckus. We want brotherhood to be maintained among all our 36 fraternities. After this incident, everyone is trying to settle the issue. All the responsible people are meeting. We want our animals to be back and peace to prevail. The entire village fraternity is engaged in this effort."

When asked whether justice is not necessary along with the settlement, Shahzad said, "Look, the more you create an issue, the bigger it will become. We all have a sense of belonging, those were some outsiders who wanted to make our children fight with us. But, but we want to get back what we lost, and life in the village to get back to what it was.”

NewsClick also visited Bai Kheda (the village where the cattle was tied). The Hindu population of that village said it one voice that what had happened was wrong. On the condition of anonymity, a farmer said, "It is true, they tie cattle here. They have never done anything wrong. Everyone comes and goes in our homes. There is brotherhood here, these are some misguided children who are doing this wrong thing."

Azhar, 57, a labourer, said, "There are no factories in this entire area, so those who have land work in the fields and those who have cattle sell milk. Earlier, there were more numbers of cattle-rearers, but the younger generation is now shying away from this work.”

The village is situated between the forest and the hills. There is also a huge lack of basic facilities, like health, education and employment. Most of the people here depend on agriculture and animal husbandry. There are some families who have more than 60 cows and buffaloes and survive by selling their milk.

Another cattle herder from Jamalpur told us that he has 50 milch cows. He said after this incident, he was also worried and had taken his animals out of the field back to the hills. People in the village also keep donkeys because they are used to carry milk down from the hills. There are allegations against the alleged cow vigilantes of taking away goats and donkeys along with cows.

What is the administration doing?

On June 30, the alleged cow vigilantes registered a case of cow smuggling against Haji Jamaat Ali in Gurugram. Sohna Gurugram's ACP Naveen Sindhu confirmed to the media that a case of cow smuggling had been registered against Jamaat Ali. Ali put in his complaint two days after the case was registered. The police have also registered a case against Bittu Bajrangi and others for spreading religious frenzy.

However, amid the police action, the process of settlement is also going on between the two sides, with village heads and elders holding meetings.

In this whole incident, on one side there is the victim's family which seems to be scared, while on the other side, there are the accused who are not showing any kind of fear.

Pankaj Jain, the Bajrang Dal leader from Faridabad and an accused in the case, in a phone conversation with Newsclick, admitted that he had brought the cattle along with his colleagues as they had received information about cow slaughter there. He said he had no remorse about the act. However, when we tried to reach him, he did refused to meet us.

Bajrang Dal, Similar Organisations Emboldened

Bajrang Dal, Hindu Right organisation, is the youth wing of Vishwa Hindu Parishad. It was founded in 1984 by Vinay Katiyar. Significantly, for the 1992 Babri Masjid demolition, Bajrang Dal had gathered a large number of people.

In 2015, the Haryana government implemented the Cow Promotion and Protection Act. To strengthen this law, a Cow Protection Taskforce was formed in 2021, which includes non-government persons. This Gau Raksha Dal tracks incidents of cow smuggling, cow slaughter in the area and informs the police.

Violence in the name of cow protection has increased in Haryana in the past few years under the guise of this law. There are often allegations that Hindu organisations harass Muslims by taking the help of this taskforce. In many cases, these ‘cow vigilantes’ have also been accused of murder.

The Khori Jamalpur incident reflects a new trend. While earlier, fear of these ‘vigilantes’ was limited till the roads, now these people have started lifting animals kept in the villages and houses. Although this incident took place in the name of religion and cow protection, but its very nature is no less than robbery.

Translated from Hindi.