|
|
| Line 1: |
Line 1: |
| {{Use dmy dates|date=March 2020}}
| | #REDIRECT [[1966 anti-cow slaughter riot]] |
| {{Use Indian English|date=March 2017}}
| |
| {{Indira Gandhi series}}
| |
| On 7 November 1966, a group of [[Hindus|Hindu]] protestors, led by [[Asceticism|ascetics]], [[naga sadhus]] and backed by [[Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh]] and [[Bharatiya Jana Sangh]] (aka Jan Sangh), approached the [[Parliament of India|Indian Parliament]] to threaten legislators to criminalize cow slaughter.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iVsfVOTUnYEC|title=The Hindu nationalist movement and Indian politics: 1925 to the 1990s; strategies of identity-building, implantation and mobilisation (with special reference to Central India)|last=Jaffrelot|first=Christophe|date=1999|publisher=Penguin Books|isbn=0-14-024602-9|pages=205–209|chapter=The Mixed Strategy|oclc=255173890}}</ref>
| |
|
| |
|
| The episode was the culmination of a long-term movement by the Hindu Right to protect the cow, a traditional symbol of reverence in Hindu society{{uncited|date=May 2021}}
| | {{Redirect category shell| |
| . A meeting in late 1965 involving lobbying groups, [[naga sadhus]] and many religious dharma acharyas and influential Hindu religious orders initiated a year-long program of demonstrations and picketing, culminating in the planned march to the Parliament. Jan Sangh was a participant in the march. The march attracted hundreds of thousands of people{{uncited|date=May 2021}} for that peaceful{{uncited|date=May 2021}} march outside the parliament.
| | {{R from move}} |
| | |
| The protest was targeting the key leaders of then government. The police responded with tear gas and cane clubs, but their resistance proved futile.<ref name="save-the-cow">{{Cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/48432319/save-the-cow-mob-in-delhi-rampage/ |title='Save-the-cow' mob in Delhi rampage |date=8 November 1966 |page=1 |work=[[The Sydney Morning Herald]] |via=Newspapers.com |access-date=23 December 2019 |location=Delhi}}</ref> As waves of demonstrators armed with tridents attacked the police and pelted them with stones, a policeman was stoned to death. Police were slow to respond,<ref name=":15" /> but at around 1:30 pm, they engaged in rifle fire and mounted a charge with lead-tipped clubs.<ref name="save-the-cow" /> While the charge was successful in dispersing the immediate mob, it caused fatal injuries, and having failed to succeed in breaching the Parliament gates, the mob merely scattered to attack other less-protected areas of Delhi.<ref name="Holy Men" /><ref name="save-the-cow" /><ref name=":15" /><ref name=":16" /><ref name=":17" /> Houses of prominent legislators from the ruling party ([[Indian National Congress]]), including that of [[K. Kamaraj]], were broken into.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":0">{{Cite web|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=0klj8wIChNAC&dat=19661108&printsec=frontpage&hl=en|title=The Spokesman-Review – Google News Archive Search|date=8 November 1966|access-date=5 April 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160313065024/https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=0klj8wIChNAC&dat=19661108&printsec=frontpage&hl=en|archive-date=13 March 2016|url-status=live}}</ref> Passengers were forced out of vehicles before being set on fire, high-profile government buildings were ransacked, and random arson was indulged in.<ref name="save-the-cow" /><ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/48432473/hindu-mobs-on-rampage-in-new-delhi/ |title=Hindu Mobs On Rampage In New Delhi |date=8 November 1966 |page=1 |work=[[The Times (Shreveport)|The Times]] |agency=AP |location=New Delhi |via=Newspapers.com |access-date=23 December 2019}}</ref>
| |
| | |
| Two weeks later, influential saints began their hunger strikes in protest; however, fissures in the front began to appear, and Gandhi chose to incorporate a Parliamentary Committee to analyze the feasibility of imposing a ban on cow slaughter. The front was consistently outvoted, the nominees eventually resigned, the committee never produced a report, and the politicians successfully shifted the focus of national politics away from the issue. The episode had significant effects on the national polity for many years. This was one of the few breachings of parliament, along with the 2001 Indian Parliament Attack.
| |
| | |
| == Background ==
| |
| | |
| === Cow slaughter and religion ===
| |
| The scope, extent, and status of cow slaughter in ancient India has been a subject of intense scholarly dispute.
| |
| | |
| [[Marvin Harris]] notes the Vedic literature to be contradictory, with some stanzas suggesting ritual slaughter and meat consumption, while others suggesting a taboo on meat eating; however, Hindu literature relating to cow veneration became extremely common in the first millennium [[A.D.]], and by about 1000 A.D., vegetarianism had become a well accepted Hindu tenet.<ref name="harris201">Marvin Harris (1990), [http://academic.regis.edu/rlumpp/PDF%20files/RT%20201%20India%27s%20Sacred%20Cow.pdf India's sacred cow] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170329091317/http://academic.regis.edu/rlumpp/PDF%20files/RT%20201%20India's%20Sacred%20Cow.pdf|date=29 March 2017}}, Anthropology: contemporary perspectives, 6th edition, Editors: Phillip Whitten & David Hunter, Scott Foresman, {{ISBN|0-673-52074-9}}, pages 201–204</ref> [[D. N. Jha]], [[Romila Thapar]], Juli Gittinger et al. assert that cows were neither inviolable nor revered in the ancient times; the contemporary sacredness was a result of multiple factors including the development of ''[[Ahimsa]]'' philosophy during the [[Upanishads|Upanishad spans]] and increasing influence of Brahminism.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Gittinger|first=Juli L.|date=2017|title=THE RHETORIC OF VIOLENCE, RELIGION, AND PURITY IN INDIA’S COW PROTECTION MOVEMENT|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/26671533|journal=Journal of Religion and Violence|volume=5|issue=2|pages=131–150|doi=10.2307/26671533|issn=2159-6808}}</ref> There have been rebuts.
| |
| | |
| The "protection of the cow" policy has commanded huge political significance in the subcontinent in precolonial spans;<ref name="Veer1994p90">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=p29ArJ7j6zgC|title=Religious Nationalism: Hindus and Muslims in India|author=Peter van der Veer|publisher=University of California Press|year=1994|isbn=978-0-520-08256-4|pages=90–91|access-date=23 December 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150331184232/http://books.google.com/books?id=p29ArJ7j6zgC|archive-date=31 March 2015|url-status=live}}</ref> the Mughal emperor [[Akbar]] had banned the killing of cows, and cow slaughter was treated as a [[Capital punishment|capital offense]] in many Hindu and Sikh-ruled states.<ref name="McLane2015p276">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=efp9BgAAQBAJ|title=Indian Nationalism and the Early Congress|author=John R. McLane|date=8 March 2015|publisher=Princeton University Press|isbn=978-1-4008-7023-3|pages=276–283|access-date=23 December 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191204194157/https://books.google.com/books?id=efp9BgAAQBAJ|archive-date=4 December 2019|url-status=live}}</ref>
| |
| | |
| === Cow protection and national politics ===
| |
| The first organised cow protection movement was started by Kukas of [[Sikhism]], a reformist group, during the [[British Raj]] in the late 1800s, which framed cows as a "sign of the moral quality of the state".<ref name="Veer1994p90" /> Their ideas soon spread to Hindu reform movements,<ref name="metcalf152">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=c7UgAwAAQBAJ|title=A Concise History of Modern India|author1=Barbara D. Metcalf|author2=Thomas R. Metcalf|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=2012|isbn=978-1-139-53705-6|pages=152–153}}</ref> with [[Arya Samaj]] playing a tremendous role in converting this sentiment into a national movement<ref>{{cite journal|last=Freitag|first=Sandria|date=October 1980|title=Sacred Symbols as Mobilizing Ideology: The North Indian Search for a "Hindu" Community|journal=Comparative Studies in Society and History|volume=22|issue=4|pages=597–625|doi=10.1017/s0010417500009567}}</ref><ref name="Partition p. 240">''From Plassey to Partition, a History of modern India'', Śekhara Bandyopādhyāẏa, p. 240, {{ISBN|81-250-2596-0}}.</ref> and extensively lobbying for criminalizing cow slaughter.<ref name=":15">{{Cite journal|last=Copland|first=Ian|date=April 2014|title=History in Flux: Indira Gandhi and the 'Great All-Party Campaign' for the Protection of the Cow, 1966–8|journal=[[Journal of Contemporary History]]|volume=49|issue=2|pages=410–439|doi=10.1177/0022009413515535|issn=0022-0094|jstor=43697306|s2cid=154959158}}</ref> The first ''Gaurakshini sabha'' (cow protection council) was established in the Punjab Province in 1882.<ref>''The Making of an Indian Metropolis, Colonial governance and public culture in Bombay, 1890/1920'', Prashant Kidambi, p. 176, {{ISBN|978-0-7546-5612-8}}.</ref> The movement often manifested as brazen Anti-Muslim riots<ref name="Tejani2008p49">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6xtrPKa59j4C&pg=PA49|title=Indian Secularism: A Social and Intellectual History, 1890–1950|author=Shabnum Tejani|publisher=Indiana University Press|year=2008|isbn=978-0-253-22044-8|pages=43–49}}</ref><ref name="Gene R. Thursby 1975 76–88">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=abcfAAAAIAAJ|title=Hindu-Muslim Relations in British India|author=Gene R. Thursby|publisher=BRILL Academic|year=1975|isbn=90-04-04380-2|pages=76–88}}</ref> claiming thousands of lives across the country, especially on the occasions of Islamic festivals of sacrifices.<ref name="Menon2012p22">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QRmJCwAAQBAJ|title=Riots and After in Mumbai: Chronicles of Truth and Reconciliation|author=Meena Menon|publisher=SAGE Publications|year=2012|isbn=978-81-321-1935-7|pages=22–37, 55–58, 73–82}}</ref><ref name="Gene R. Thursby 1975 76–88"/><ref name="Sengupta2011p347">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kVSh_TyJ0YoC|title=Land of Two Rivers: A History of Bengal from the Mahabharata to Mujib|author=Nitish K. Sengupta|publisher=Penguin|year=2011|isbn=978-0-14-341678-4|pages=347–348|access-date=23 December 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191210192517/https://books.google.com/books?id=kVSh_TyJ0YoC|archive-date=10 December 2019|url-status=live}}</ref> The [[Cow riots of 1893]] were the most intense civil disturbance on the Indian subcontinent since the [[Indian Rebellion of 1857]].<ref name="doyle157">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QK2tDAAAQBAJ|title=Communal Violence in the British Empire: Disturbing the Pax|author=Mark Doyle|publisher=Bloomsbury Academic Publishing|year=2016|isbn=978-1-4742-6826-4|pages=157–161}}</ref>
| |
| | |
| Post-independence, the insertion of a clause about protection of cows into the [[Directive Principles]] and large-scale migration of Muslim populations into Pakistan led to a large reduction in riots.<ref name="Copland2013p237">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uWcZulI5tL0C&pg=PA238|title=A History of State and Religion in India|author1=Ian Copland|author2=Ian Mabbett|author3=Asim Roy, Kate Brittlebank and Adam Bowles|publisher=Routledge|year=2013|isbn=978-1-136-45950-4|pages=237–239}}</ref><ref name=":15" /><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Copland|first=Ian|date=2 October 2017|title=Cows, Congress and the Constitution: Jawaharlal Nehru and the Making of Article 48|journal=South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies|volume=40|issue=4|pages=723–743|doi=10.1080/00856401.2017.1352646|s2cid=149181607|issn=0085-6401}}</ref> However, with the accumulation of political power in the hands of conservative [[Savarna]] elites, the Hindu Mahasabha and other allied organisations saw even more opportunity to actively solicit a total ban on cow slaughter. The overtly secular stances of Prime Minister [[Jawaharlal Nehru]] (who threatened to resign if such a bill were passed) foiled the efforts.<ref name=":15" /> Tensions began to re-emerge in the 1960s, when a new generation of Muslims born after independence and who were less aware of the trauma of religious violence in India of the 1940s, reached adolescence and began to assert their rights, whilst Nehru began to lose his firm grip over the Indian sociopolitical scenario.<ref name="Copland2013p237" /><ref name=":15" />
| |
| | |
| === All Party Campaign ===
| |
| After Nehru's death in 1964, a lobbying group set up by business magnate [[Ramkrishna Dalmia|Seth Dalmia]], [[Mauli Chandra Sharma|Murli Chandra Sharma]] of the [[Bharatiya Jana Sangh|Bharatiya Jan Sangh]], [[M. S. Golwalkar]] of the [[Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh]] for the purpose of cow protection, began to actively engage in open political campaigns.<ref name=":15" /> The topic soon penetrated into popular sociopolitical discourse,<ref>{{Cite journal|date=5 June 2015|title=Cow-Based Politics|url=https://www.epw.in/journal/1967/2/letter-maharashtra-columns/cow-based-politics.html|journal=Economic and Political Weekly|volume=2|issue=2|access-date=23 December 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191223143152/https://www.epw.in/journal/1967/2/letter-maharashtra-columns/cow-based-politics.html|archive-date=23 December 2019|url-status=live}}</ref> and the group gradually added [[Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh]], [[Hindu Mahasabha]], [[Akhil Bharatiya Ram Rajya Parishad]], [[Vishva Hindu Parishad]], and other Hindu parties. All stakeholders were subsequently invited to a meeting at Delhi in late 1965, which saw three of the four principal [[Shaivism|Shaivite]] [[shankaracharya]]s, dozens of [[mahant]]s, and other ascetics from different religious orders promise to play integral roles in a nationwide campaign to mobilize the masses.<ref name=":15" /> [[Swami Karpatri]] was chosen as the leader, and he advocated for a program of demonstrations and picketing, leading up to a march on Parliament in November 1966, which was approved.<ref name=":15" /><ref name=":13">{{cite book|last=Jaffrelot|first=Christophe|chapter=The Rise of Hindu Nationalism and the Marginalisation of Muslims in India Today|date=2001|work=The Post-Colonial States of South Asia: Democracy, Development and Identity|pages=146|editor-last=Shastri|editor-first=Amita|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan US|language=en|doi=10.1007/978-1-137-11508-9_7|isbn=978-1-137-11508-9|editor2-last=Wilson|editor2-first=A. Jeyaratnam|title=The Post-Colonial States of South Asia}}</ref> The [[Shankaracharya]] of Puri also decided to undertake a fast until death unless cow slaughter was banned across the country; other ascetics supported his proposed agenda and some offered to court arrest, shall the need arise.<ref name=":15" /><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Noronha|first=Ernesto|year=1994|title=BJP: Cow as a Political Symbol|journal=Economic and Political Weekly|volume=29|issue=24|pages=1447–1448|issn=0012-9976|jstor=4401327}}</ref>
| |
| | |
| Picketing started outside the residence of Home Minister Gulzarilal Nanda in August 1966; as a patron of the [[Bharat Sadhu Samaj]], he was widely seen as a figure sympathetic to their cause.<ref name=":15" /> In October 1966, a procession in [[Washim]], Maharashtra, demanding a nationwide ban on cow slaughter led to a riotous situation; police fired on the rioters, killing 11 people.<ref name=":14">{{Cite journal|last=Muralidharan|first=Sukumar|date=5 June 2015|title=The Many Faces of Indira Gandhi|url=https://www.epw.in/journal/2018/3/review-article/many-faces-indira-gandhi.html|journal=Economic and Political Weekly|volume=53|issue=3|pages=34|access-date=23 December 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190512060433/https://www.epw.in/journal/2018/3/review-article/many-faces-indira-gandhi.html|archive-date=12 May 2019|url-status=live}}</ref> There was a discussion about the issue in the Union Cabinet, which refused to concede to popular sentiments; however Home Minister [[Gulzarilal Nanda]] recommended that states might choose to introduce a ban at their discretion.<ref name=":14" /> This episode served as an immediate trigger for more demonstrations.<ref name=":15" />
| |
| | |
| On 6 November, preparations were highly visible, with posters plastered across the city and high-profile business houses sponsoring the meals of the marchers.<ref name=":11">{{Cite journal|year=1966|title=Sadhus Slaughter Sadachari|journal=Economic and Political Weekly|volume=1|issue=13|pages=530–531|issn=0012-9976|jstor=4357202}}</ref> A total [[bandh]] of all shops in Delhi was planned;<ref name=":11" /> [[Bharatiya Jana Sangh|Bhartiya Jan Sangh]] had joined in the rally at the last moment, and the front was now named ''Sarvadaliya Gorasksha Maha-Abiyan Samiti'' (SGMS; 'Committee for the Great All-Party Campaign for the Protection of the Cow').<ref name=":15" />
| |
| | |
| == Mob Attack and Police firing ==
| |
| On the morning of 7 November, a few hundred thousand people, predominantly from the [[Bharatiya Jana Sangh|Bharatiya Jan Sangh]], [[Hindu Mahasabha]], and [[Arya Samaj]], had assembled from far-off places at an open space near the Parliamentary Complex.<ref name=":1">{{Cite news|url=https://www.thehindu.com/archives/article16183780.ece|title=(dated November 8, 1966)|date=8 November 2016|work=The Hindu|access-date=23 December 2019|issn=0971-751X}}</ref><ref name=":2">{{Cite web|url=https://scroll.in/article/814368/did-you-know-the-first-parliament-attack-took-place-in-1966-and-was-carried-out-by-gau-rakshaks|title=Looking back: The first Parliament attack took place in 1966 – and was carried out by gau rakshaks|last=Daniyal|first=Shoaib|website=Scroll.in|access-date=23 December 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161105203512/http://scroll.in/article/814368/did-you-know-the-first-parliament-attack-took-place-in-1966-and-was-carried-out-by-gau-rakshaks|archive-date=5 November 2016|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Holy Men">{{Cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/48431404/holy-men-stir-up-riots-in-delhi/ |title=Holy Men Stir Up Riots in Delhi |first=Inder |last=Malhotra |newspaper=[[The Guardian]] |location=New Delhi |page=1 |date=8 November 1966 |access-date=23 December 2019 |via=Newspapers.com}}</ref> A vast majority of them were ash-smeared, trident-wielding, mostly-naked Sadhus.<ref name=":15" /> [[Christophe Jaffrelot]] noted it as the most popular mass movement since independence.<ref name=":12">{{Cite journal|last=Jaffrelot|first=Christophe|date=1 August 2013|title=Refining the moderation thesis. Two religious parties and Indian democracy: the Jana Sangh and the BJP between Hindutva radicalism and coalition politics|journal=Democratization|volume=20|issue=5|pages=879|doi=10.1080/13510347.2013.801256|s2cid=144174913|issn=1351-0347}}</ref>
| |
| | |
| Proceedings started around noon, and the environment was reportedly 'relaxed, almost festive' per a report by ''[[The New York Times]]'', with the virtues of cows being extolled;<ref name=":15" /> the first speaker was [[Swami Karpatri]].<ref name=":17">{{Cite book|chapter-url=http://brossard.pretnumerique.ca/isbn/9780062973856|title=India after Gandhi the history of the world's largest democracy|last=Guha|first=Ramachandra|date=2019|isbn=978-0-06-297385-6|language=en|chapter=War and Succession|access-date=24 December 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191224150615/http://brossard.pretnumerique.ca/isbn/9780062973856|archive-date=24 December 2019|url-status=live}}</ref> Soon afterwards, [[Swami Rameshwaranand]], a Lok Sabha legislator<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://loksabhaph.nic.in/writereaddata/biodata_1_12/1612.htm|title=Members Bioprofile|website=loksabhaph.nic.in|access-date=23 December 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191223113034/http://loksabhaph.nic.in/writereaddata/biodata_1_12/1612.htm|archive-date=23 December 2019|url-status=live}}</ref> of Jan Sangh,<ref name="Calls On Army">{{Cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/48431795/india-calls-on-army-to-halt-bloody-riots/ |title=India Calls On Army To Halt Bloody Riots |date=8 November 1966 |work=[[The Record (North Jersey)|The Record]] |agency=AP, UPI |location=New Delhi |page=8 |via=Newspapers.com |access-date=23 December 2019}}</ref> from Karnal, Punjab<ref name=":16">{{Cite news|url=https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/The-very-first-attack-on-Parliament/article16440305.ece|title=The very first attack on Parliament|last=Ramesh|first=Jairam|date=9 November 2016|work=The Hindu|access-date=24 December 2019|issn=0971-751X|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191224125514/https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/The-very-first-attack-on-Parliament/article16440305.ece|archive-date=24 December 2019|url-status=live}}</ref> who had earlier been expelled from the house for 10 days for a continual failure to abide by parliamentary decorum whilst urging for a ban on cow slaughter, rose to the podium.<ref name="Holy Men" /><ref name=":15" /> He leveraged his expulsion, asking the mob "to teach a lesson" by forcing the Parliament to close down,<ref name="Holy Men" /><ref name="new march">{{Cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/48432129/holy-men-in-new-march/ |title=Holy men in new march |date=9 November 1966 |page=5 |work=[[The Age]] |agency=AAP-Reuters |location=New Delhi |via=Newspapers.com|access-date=23 December 2019}}</ref> while other hard-line leaders served as accompanying provocateurs.<ref name=":15" /> Jana Sangh leader [[Atal Bihari Vajpayee]] appealed to the Swami to withdraw his call and urged the demonstrators to maintain peace, but was not heeded.<ref name=":17" />
| |
| | |
| Thus invited, the mob went on a rampage, crying "Swami Rameshwaranand ki jai",<ref name=":17" /> and breached the barricades; the police responded with tear gas and cane clubs, but their resistance proved futile.<ref name="save-the-cow">{{Cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/48432319/save-the-cow-mob-in-delhi-rampage/ |title='Save-the-cow' mob in Delhi rampage |date=8 November 1966 |page=1 |work=[[The Sydney Morning Herald]] |via=Newspapers.com |access-date=23 December 2019 |location=Delhi}}</ref> As waves of demonstrators armed with tridents attacked the police and pelted them with stones, a policeman was stoned to death. Police were slow to respond,<ref name=":15" /> but at around 1:30 pm, they engaged in rifle fire and mounted a charge with lead-tipped clubs.<ref name="save-the-cow" /> While the charge was successful in dispersing the immediate mob, it caused fatal injuries, and having failed to succeed in breaching the Parliament gates, the mob merely scattered to attack other less-protected areas of Delhi.<ref name="Holy Men" /><ref name="save-the-cow" /><ref name=":15" /><ref name=":16" /><ref name=":17" /> Houses of prominent legislators from the ruling party ([[Indian National Congress]]), including that of [[K. Kamaraj]], were broken into.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":0">{{Cite web|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=0klj8wIChNAC&dat=19661108&printsec=frontpage&hl=en|title=The Spokesman-Review – Google News Archive Search|date=8 November 1966|access-date=5 April 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160313065024/https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=0klj8wIChNAC&dat=19661108&printsec=frontpage&hl=en|archive-date=13 March 2016|url-status=live}}</ref> Passengers were forced out of vehicles before being set on fire, high-profile government buildings were ransacked, and random arson was indulged in.<ref name="save-the-cow" /><ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/48432473/hindu-mobs-on-rampage-in-new-delhi/ |title=Hindu Mobs On Rampage In New Delhi |date=8 November 1966 |page=1 |work=[[The Times (Shreveport)|The Times]] |agency=AP |location=New Delhi |via=Newspapers.com |access-date=23 December 2019}}</ref>
| |
| | |
| The riot ended at around 4:30 pm with a death toll of eight and hundreds injured.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":2" /> The total damage was estimated at about 1 billion rupees by city officials; numerous vehicles were destroyed, along with numerous shops.<ref name="Calls On Army" /><ref name=":15" /> A curfew was imposed for 48 hours but withdrawn the next morning;<ref name=":11" /> the army was deployed for the first time,{{clarify|reason=The first time since what? The first time ever? The first time inside the country?|date=January 2020}}<ref name=":15" /> and a law concerning unlawful assembly was imposed for an indefinite time span.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":0" /><ref name="Holy Men" /> About 1,500 demonstrators, including over 500 ascetics and prominent leaders of Hindu Nationalist parties and SGMS, were arrested.<ref name="Mrs Gandhi">{{Cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/48432699/mrs-gandhi-dismisses-minister/ |title=Mrs Gandhi dismisses Minister |first=Inder |last=Malhotra |date=9 November 1966 |page=1 |work=[[The Guardian]] |location=New Delhi |via=Newspapers.com |access-date=23 December 2019}}</ref><ref name=":6">{{Cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/48433464/sacred-cows-uproar-breaks-up-parliament/ |title=Sacred Cows Uproar Breaks Up Parliament |date=12 November 1966 |page=3 |work=[[The Sydney Morning Herald]] |location=Delhi |via=Newspapers.com |access-date=23 December 2019}}</ref><ref name=seized>{{Cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/48433583/leaders-of-riots-seized/ |title=Leaders of riots seized |date=10 November 1966 |page=3 |work=[[The Sydney Morning Herald]] |location=Delhi |via=Newspapers.com |access-date=23 December 2019}}</ref><ref name=":15" />
| |
| | |
| The Lieutenant Governor described the rioting as highly organised;<ref name=":11" /> intelligence agencies had failed to predict the situation.<ref name="Holy Men" /> The extent of the violence was the most significant since the [[Partition of India|partition riots]], and [[M. N. Srinivas]] commented that the episode solidly convinced him that the Hindus of North India had not evolved into modern people.<ref name=":15" /> A few days later, [[Balraj Madhok]], Rameshwaranand, and other prominent functionaries of RSS and Jan Sangh were arrested on charges of stoking the riots.<ref name=seized /><ref name="new march" /><ref name="Extremists held">{{Cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/48433717/extremists-held-by-police-in-india/ |title=Extremists held by police in India |date=10 November 1966 |page=4 |work=[[The Age]] |agency=AAP |location=New Delhi |via=Newspapers.com |access-date=23 December 2019}}</ref>
| |
| | |
| Vajpayee condemned the riots and blamed undesirable elements for the violence, saying that it had harmed a pious cause.<ref name=":17" /> There was widespread discontent against [[Gulzarilal Nanda|Nanda]], who was believed to be sympathetic to the rioters, forcing him to resign;<ref name="Mrs Gandhi" /><ref name="new march" /><ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/48433877/india-govt-learns-grim-lesson/ |title=India Govt. learns grim lesson |first=John |last=Slee |date=12 November 1966 |page=4 |work=[[The Age]] |location=New Delhi |via=Newspapers.com |access-date=23 December 2019}}</ref> Prime Minister [[Indira Gandhi]] acquitted him of all blame before the Parliament and temporarily held the portfolio herself before choosing [[Yashwantrao Chavan]] as a replacement.<ref name=":6" /><ref name="Extremists held" /><ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/48433970/india-police-head-fired-after-riots/ |title=India Police Head Fired After Riots |date=10 November 1966 |page=18 |work=[[The Times (Shreveport)|The Times]] |agency=AP |location=New Delhi |via=Newspapers.com |access-date=23 December 2019}}</ref>
| |
| | |
| == Aftermath ==
| |
| Beginning on 17 November, [[Sadhu]]s started courting arrest, as planned. On the 20th, [[Prabhudutt Brahmachari]] and the Shankaracharya of Puri began hunger strikes; others soon followed.<ref name=":15" /> Gandhi took a hardliner stance, refusing to 'cow down to the cow savers' and detained the fasting sadhus to shift them out of public view; however, the fasting continued along with popular mobilization by cow-slaughter activists.<ref name=":15" /><ref name=":12" /> Whilst her stance was commended across [[liberal media]] and supported by the [[Communist Party of India (Marxist)|Communist Party]] and others,<ref name=":15" /><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Gupta|first=Bhabani Sen|date=March 1968|title=A Maoist Line for India|journal=The China Quarterly|volume=33|pages=10|doi=10.1017/S030574100000374X|issn=1468-2648}}</ref> failing health of the Shankaracharya and the death of two less-prominent fasters followed.<ref name=":15" />
| |
| | |
| Soon, fissures started appearing within SGMS.<ref name=":15" /> A religious faction led by [[Swami Karpatri]] split away around December 1966 to fight elections around the locus of cow protection, to the discontent of Gowalkar.<ref name=":15" /> Within a couple of weeks, the fourth Shankaracharya and other Vaishnava religious orders subsequently criticized the front for placing Shankaracharya's health in jeopardy.<ref name=":15" /> On 24 January, a seriously ailing Shankaracharya criticized the BJS for pandering to electoral politics and failing to protect either Hinduism or the cow.<ref name=":15" />
| |
| | |
| Gandhi used this time to set up a [[joint parliamentary committee]] composed of animal husbandry experts and politicians across the divides (including from the SGMS); their agenda was to examine the 'feasibility' of a 'total ban on the slaughter of the cow and its progeny' and deliver a recommendation within a time frame of six months.<ref name=":15" /> The committee was to be chaired by [[Amal Kumar Sarkar|Retd. Justice Amal Kumar Sarkar]] (along with two Congress [[chief minister]]s, two Congress [[Minister of State|Ministers of State]], four central bureaucrats, and three nominees of SGMS—the Shankaracharya of Puri, Golwalkar, and R. P. Mookerji, elder brother of [[Syama Prasad Mukherjee]]), and the offer was accepted by all parties, with minimal negotiations.<ref name=":15" /> In the meantime, Gandhi once again recommended on 5 January 1967 that states enact their own bans on cow slaughter.<ref name=":15" /> Shankaracharya broke his fast; it had lasted 73 days and was longer than any other hunger strike in recorded Indian history.<ref name=":15" />
| |
| | |
| Jan Sangh failed to leverage the cow-protection episode in any major manner from an electoral sense; their seats increased from 14 to just 35 in the [[1967 Indian general election|1967 Lok Sabha elections]] and Congress lost many seats, with the popular vote share dropping by about 4%;{{clarify|reason=Whose vote share is dropping here?|date=January 2020}} Jan Sangh had managed, however, to successfully challenge the Congress hegemony in urban Hindu areas, especially the [[cow belt]].<ref name=":12" /><ref name=":2" /><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Singh|first=V. B.|year=1971|title=Jan Sangh in Uttar Pradesh: Fluctuating Fortunes and Uncertain Future|journal=Economic and Political Weekly|volume=6|issue=3/5|pages=311|issn=0012-9976|jstor=4381552}}</ref><ref name=":15" />
| |
| | |
| The committee started its work after the elections. Shrewd planning by Gandhi had filled the committee with trusted secularists, federalists and people with an economic interest in the beef trade.<ref name=":15" /> The two factions often collided with a near-complete lack of any common ground. Outfoxed and outmaneuvered, the three members of the SGMS eventually resigned in July 1968.<ref name=":15" /> Whilst the committee continued, the issue rapidly lost momentum in national politics.<ref name=":15" /><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ipwpbhd6sQUC|title=India Since Independence|last=Chandra|first=Bipan|date=11 February 2008|publisher=Penguin UK|isbn=978-81-8475-053-9|pages=237|language=en|author-link=Bipan Chandra}}</ref> The committee was finally dissolved in 1979, having never submitted a report.<ref name=":16" />
| |
| | |
| == Legacy ==
| |
| Overall, the agitation propelled the Hindu Right into the foreground of national politics for the first time; simultaneously, Gandhi's successful negotiation helped establish her image as a resolute leader who later had the tenacity to lead a weakened Congress after the [[Indian National Congress (Organisation)|1969 split]].<ref name=":15" /> The episode also played a significant role in Gandhi's choosing to shift away from the staunch secular ideals displayed by her father, embracing the Hindu way of life and enabling communal politics.<ref name=":15" />
| |
| | |
| [[Indian National Congress (R)|Congress (R)]] went on to choose the cow-and-calf symbol during the 1971 Lok Sabha elections.<ref name=":15" /> On the other hand, after years of failure to exploit the issue of cow protection to reap electoral gains and a failure to mobilize the lower castes to their cause, the Hindu Right chose to shift their primary focus from cow protection to the [[demolition of the Babri Masjid]].<ref name=":15" /> RSS and VHP commemorate the event every year.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.indiatoday.in/mail-today/story/holy-cow-rss-vhp-1966-gau-rakhshaks-movement-349224-2016-10-30|title=Holy cow: RSS, VHP to revive 1966 gau rakshaks' movement|last=Rai|first=Siddhartha|date=31 October 2016|website=India Today|url-status=live|access-date=24 December 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191224125510/https://www.indiatoday.in/mail-today/story/holy-cow-rss-vhp-1966-gau-rakhshaks-movement-349224-2016-10-30|archive-date=24 December 2019}}</ref>
| |
| | |
| == See also ==
| |
| * [[Cattle slaughter in India]]
| |
| * [[Cow protection movement]]
| |
| * [[Bhartiya Gau Raksha Dal]]
| |
| | |
| == References ==
| |
| {{reflist}}
| |
| | |
| {{Hindu Nationalism}}
| |
| | |
| {{#seo:
| |
| |keywords=Indira Gandhi administration, Hinduism and cattle
| |
| |description=
| |
| }} | | }} |
|
| |
| [[Category:1966 in India|Anti-cow Slaughter Agitation, 1966]]
| |
| [[Category:Indira Gandhi administration]]
| |
| [[Category:Hinduism and cattle]]
| |
| [[Category:1966 controversies|Anti-cow Slaughter Agitation, 1966]]
| |
This page is a redirect. The following categories are used to track and monitor this redirect: