Source: Washington Post

By Rama Lakshmi October 28 at 8:30 PM

YADAVNAGAR, India — Dozens of men spread across the moonlit farm, hiding behind trees and wielding long-handled machetes and hockey sticks. They are devout Hindus, ready to fight for their religion.

They are lying in wait for smugglers’ trucks carrying cows.

“I am a Hindu. It is my duty to protect the cows,” said Rajendra Prasad, 35, who makes religious statues. “I will not allow anyone to smuggle cows for slaughtering.”

“Either we die or they die. But we won’t let anyone eat beef here,” said Vijendra Singh, a 22-year-old farmer.

Almost 80 percent of India’s population of 1.2 billion is Hindu, and many Hindus avoid beef because they believe cows are sacred. Eating beef and slaughtering cows are banned in many states and always have been hot-button political issues in the country.

But the mob killing last month of a man wrongly suspected of eating beef has prompted a national debate and calls for tolerance from India’s civil and political leaders, as beef-related clashes have escalated.

Prasad and Singh are members of one of dozens of cow protection squads or “beef vigilante” groups operating across India. These aggressive Hindu squads patrol the streets for smugglers by night and work at charitable shelters for elderly cows by day.

India’s secular constitution directs the government to protect cows, and states that ban their slaughter impose varied punishments for violations. But many Hindu activists say they must step in because authorities are not enforcing the laws.

“Our gods and goddesses reside inside the body of the cow,” said Satya Pal Acharya, a Sanskrit school teacher and a cow protector. “As long as our cows are healthy and alive, our civilization will thrive. Sometimes we have to strengthen the hands of the government to implement the laws.”

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