Cow Vigilantism Is a Driver of Violence Against India’s Muslims

Research by the nonprofit Armed Conflict Location and Event Data (ACLED) has found that more than one in five recorded attacks by Hindus targeting Muslims in India between June 2019 and March 2024 were motivated by so-called “cow vigilantism”. ACLED defines this as “Hindus lynching Muslim civilians over suspicions of slaughtering cows or possessing beef”.

In the Hindu faith, cows are considered sacred and in several states in India laws even ban their killing. In the Islamic faith, however, worshipers are allowed to eat beef. According to ACLED, vigilante action by a subset of Hindus has led to clashes between communities. 

As this chart shows, a number of conspiracy theories including so-called “love jihad”, “economic jihad” and “corona jihad” are also listed. These are imagined Islamaphobic claims that Muslims are weaponizing love, money or even the coronavirus to target Hindus. The most commonly cited of these is “love jihad”, which is a conspiracy theory about Muslim men trying to persuade Hindu women to convert to Islam under the guise of romantic relationships. ACLED reports that the government has frequently responded to such attacks on Muslims with silence and that at least 11 state governments have banned religious conversions through marriage, which could be seen as legitimizing such claims. 

These attacks are taking place against a backdrop of increased religious polarization in India. The rise of the Hindu nationalist BJP to power has, according to ACLED, emboldened more radical Hindu nationalist groups. This is despite the values of secularism and religious tolerance being written into India’s Constitution.