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New Delhi: In 2025, India continues to grapple with a surge in violence perpetrated by so-called cow vigilantes, many of whom have evolved into armed thugs operating with alarming impunity.<\/p>\nNew Delhi: In 2025, India continues to grapple with a surge in violence perpetrated by so-called cow vigilantes, many of whom have evolved into armed thugs operating with alarming impunity.<\/p>\n
According to Kashmir Media Service, these groups, closely linked to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS)\u2014the ideological parent of the ruling BJP\u2014are responsible for numerous attacks targeting Muslims and other minorities under the pretense of protecting cows and combating the alleged threat of \u201clove jihad.\u201d<\/p>\n
A chilling illustration of this violence occurred in Gujarat on March 14, 2025, when a woman was brutally assaulted simply for possessing meat. Similar incidents have erupted elsewhere, including Uttar Pradesh\u2019s Saharanpur district on January 25 and Rajasthan\u2019s Alwar district on June 7, underscoring a widespread pattern of mob brutality fueled by sectarian rhetoric.<\/p>\n
Adding to the list, an incident in Bihar\u2019s Gopalganj district on August 20 exposed the ongoing intimidation of minorities over livestock rearing. An elderly Muslim couple was threatened and falsely accused of cow smuggling by Pradeep Maurya, a local Hindu leader, despite their clear explanation that the animals were bought for milk and rearing. A video of the confrontation went viral on social media, sparking outrage over blatant religious profiling and harassment.<\/p>\n
The Human Rights Watch World Report of 2018 revealed that the RSS explicitly announced plans to recruit 5,000 \u201creligious soldiers\u201d tasked with controlling cow smuggling and \u201clove jihad.\u201d This recruitment campaign signified a concerted effort to mobilize vigilante cadres, some of whom are reportedly armed, thereby institutionalizing vigilantism as a method of enforcing communal ideologies. Although this figure stems from an RSS announcement, it remains one of the clearest indications of the organizational scale behind such groups.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the United Nations has repeatedly condemned these vigilante groups as a direct threat to India\u2019s Muslims and minorities, highlighting their growing aggression and the failure of law enforcement to hold perpetrators accountable. The 2024 UN experts\u2019 statement urges immediate corrective action against these RSS-backed vigilantes who operate with virtual immunity from prosecution.<\/p>\n
Compounding the crisis, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has publicly praised the RSS, lauding it as the world\u2019s largest donor organization.<\/p>\n
The unchecked violence by these groups and the state\u2019s complicity severely undermines India\u2019s democratic foundations and endangers the safety of minority communities. International human rights bodies continue to call for accountability, yet the government prioritizes political consolidation over justice and protection for all citizens.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
New Delhi: In 2025, India continues to grapple with a surge in violence perpetrated by so-called cow vigilantes, many of whom have evolved into armed thugs operating with alarming impunity. According to Kashmir Media Service, these groups, closely linked to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS)\u2014the ideological parent of the ruling BJP\u2014are responsible for numerous attacks …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":181788,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-181782","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-india"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181782","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=181782"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181782\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=181782"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=181782"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=181782"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}