1966 anti-cow slaughter riot

Protest outside the Indian Parliament March 2020 March 2017 the cow protection movement Delhi, India 7 November 1966 Nationwide ban on cow slaughter Demonstrations, picketing, hunger strikes, bandh Joint parliamentary committee established to examine the feasibility of a ban on cow slaughter Hindu ascetics Sarvadaliya Gorasksha Maha-Abiyan Samiti Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh Hindu Mahasabha Vishva Hindu Parishad Akhil Bharatiya Ram Rajya Parishad Bhartiya Jana Sangh Indian National Congress Government of India Delhi Police Swami Karpatri Shankaracharya of Puri Indira Gandhi Marchers: 100,000 to 120,000+ Deaths: 7 Injuries: Hundreds Arrests: about 1500 On 7 November 1966, a group of Hindu protestors, led by ascetics, naga sadhus and backed by Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and Bharatiya Jana Sangh (aka Jan Sangh), approached the Indian Parliament to protest to criminalize cow slaughter.https://books.google.com/books?id=iVsfVOTUnYEC The Hindu nationalist movement and Indian politics: 1925 to the 1990s; strategies of identity-building, implantation and mobilisation (with special reference to Central India) Jaffrelot Christophe 1999 Penguin Books 0-14-024602-9 205–209 The Mixed Strategy 255173890 The incident resulted in a riot which ended with a death toll of 7 people and hundreds were injured. The total damage was estimated at 1 billion rupees by city officials; numerous vehicles were destroyed, along with numerous shops. 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. 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 for that march outside the parliament. Communist political figures including Bhupesh Gupta suspected clear-cut involvement of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).Bhupesh Gupta Lok Sabha Secretariat Eminent parliamentarians monograph series 1990 https://books.google.com/books?id=V8xHAAAAMAAJ 62 The protest was targeting the key leaders of then government. The police responded with tear gas and cane clubs, but their resistance proved futile.https://www.newspapers.com/clip/48432319/save-the-cow-mob-in-delhi-rampage/ 'Save-the-cow' mob in Delhi rampage 8 November 1966 1 The Sydney Morning Herald Newspapers.com 23 December 2019 Delhi 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, but at around 1:30 pm, they engaged in rifle fire and mounted a charge with lead-tipped clubs. 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. Houses of prominent legislators from the ruling party (Indian National Congress), including that of K. Kamaraj, were broken into.https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=0klj8wIChNAC&dat=19661108&printsec=frontpage&hl=en The Spokesman-Review – Google News Archive Search 8 November 1966 5 April 2017 https://web.archive.org/web/20160313065024/https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=0klj8wIChNAC&dat=19661108&printsec=frontpage&hl=en 13 March 2016 live Passengers were forced out of vehicles before being set on fire, high-profile government buildings were ransacked, and random arson was indulged in.https://www.newspapers.com/clip/48432473/hindu-mobs-on-rampage-in-new-delhi/ Hindu Mobs On Rampage In New Delhi 8 November 1966 1 The Times AP New Delhi Newspapers.com 23 December 2019 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 breaches 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.Marvin Harris (1990), India's sacred cow https://web.archive.org/web/20170329091317/http://academic.regis.edu/rlumpp/PDF%20files/RT%20201%20India's%20Sacred%20Cow.pdf 29 March 2017, Anthropology: contemporary perspectives, 6th edition, Editors: Phillip Whitten & David Hunter, Scott Foresman, 0-673-52074-9, pages 201–204 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 Upanishad spans and increasing influence of Brahminism.Gittinger Juli L. The Rhetoric of Violence, Religion, and Purity in India's Cow Protection Movement 2017 https://hcommons.org/deposits/download/hc:27846/CONTENT/gittinger-rhetoric-of-violence-cow-protection-1.pdf/ Journal of Religion and Violence 5 2 131–150 10.5840/jrv201751540 26671533 2159-6808 subscription There have been rebuts. The "protection of the cow" policy has commanded huge political significance in the subcontinent in precolonial spans;https://books.google.com/books?id=p29ArJ7j6zgC Religious Nationalism: Hindus and Muslims in India Peter van der Veer University of California Press 1994 978-0-520-08256-4 90–91 23 December 2019 https://web.archive.org/web/20150331184232/http://books.google.com/books?id=p29ArJ7j6zgC 31 March 2015 live the Mughal emperor Akbar had banned the killing of cows, and cow slaughter was treated as a capital offense in many Hindu and Sikh-ruled states.https://books.google.com/books?id=efp9BgAAQBAJ Indian Nationalism and the Early Congress John R. McLane 8 March 2015 Princeton University Press 978-1-4008-7023-3 276–283 23 December 2019 https://web.archive.org/web/20191204194157/https://books.google.com/books?id=efp9BgAAQBAJ 4 December 2019 live 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". Their ideas soon spread to Hindu reform movements,https://books.google.com/books?id=c7UgAwAAQBAJ A Concise History of Modern India Barbara D. Metcalf Thomas R. Metcalf Cambridge University Press 2012 978-1-139-53705-6 152–153 with Arya Samaj playing a tremendous role in converting this sentiment into a national movementFreitag Sandria October 1980 Sacred Symbols as Mobilizing Ideology: The North Indian Search for a "Hindu" Community Comparative Studies in Society and History 22 4 597–625 10.1017/s0010417500009567 67853505From Plassey to Partition, a History of modern India, Śekhara Bandyopādhyāẏa, p. 240, 81-250-2596-0. and extensively lobbying for criminalizing cow slaughter.Copland Ian April 2014 History in Flux: Indira Gandhi and the 'Great All-Party Campaign' for the Protection of the Cow, 1966–8 Journal of Contemporary History 49 2 410–439 10.1177/0022009413515535 0022-0094 43697306 154959158 The first Gaurakshini sabha (cow protection council) was established in the Punjab Province in 1882.The Making of an Indian Metropolis, Colonial governance and public culture in Bombay, 1890/1920, Prashant Kidambi, p. 176, 978-0-7546-5612-8. The movement often manifested as brazen Anti-Muslim riotshttps://books.google.com/books?id=6xtrPKa59j4C&pg=PA49 Indian Secularism: A Social and Intellectual History, 1890–1950 Shabnum Tejani Indiana University Press 2008 978-0-253-22044-8 43–49https://books.google.com/books?id=abcfAAAAIAAJ Hindu-Muslim Relations in British India Gene R. Thursby BRILL Academic 1975 90-04-04380-2 76–88 claiming thousands of lives across the country, especially on the occasions of Islamic festivals of sacrifices.https://books.google.com/books?id=QRmJCwAAQBAJ Riots and After in Mumbai: Chronicles of Truth and Reconciliation Meena Menon SAGE Publications 2012 978-81-321-1935-7 22–37, 55–58, 73–82https://books.google.com/books?id=kVSh_TyJ0YoC Land of Two Rivers: A History of Bengal from the Mahabharata to Mujib Nitish K. Sengupta Penguin 2011 978-0-14-341678-4 347–348 23 December 2019 https://web.archive.org/web/20191210192517/https://books.google.com/books?id=kVSh_TyJ0YoC 10 December 2019 live The Cow riots of 1893 were the most intense civil disturbance on the Indian subcontinent since the Indian Rebellion of 1857.https://books.google.com/books?id=QK2tDAAAQBAJ Communal Violence in the British Empire: Disturbing the Pax Mark Doyle Bloomsbury Academic Publishing 2016 978-1-4742-6826-4 157–161 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.https://books.google.com/books?id=uWcZulI5tL0C&pg=PA238 A History of State and Religion in India Ian Copland Ian Mabbett Asim Roy, Kate Brittlebank and Adam Bowles Routledge 2013 978-1-136-45950-4 237–239Copland Ian 2 October 2017 Cows, Congress and the Constitution: Jawaharlal Nehru and the Making of Article 48 South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies 40 4 723–743 10.1080/00856401.2017.1352646 149181607 0085-6401 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. 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. All Party Campaign After Nehru's death in 1964, a lobbying group set up by business magnate Seth Dalmia, Murli Chandra Sharma of the 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. The topic soon penetrated into popular sociopolitical discourse,5 June 2015 Cow-Based Politics https://www.epw.in/journal/1967/2/letter-maharashtra-columns/cow-based-politics.html Economic and Political Weekly 2 2 23 December 2019 https://web.archive.org/web/20191223143152/https://www.epw.in/journal/1967/2/letter-maharashtra-columns/cow-based-politics.html 23 December 2019 live 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 Shaivite shankaracharyas, dozens of mahants, and other ascetics from different religious orders promise to play integral roles in a nationwide campaign to mobilize the masses. 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.Jaffrelot Christophe The Rise of Hindu Nationalism and the Marginalisation of Muslims in India Today 2001 146 Shastri Amita Palgrave Macmillan US en 10.1007/978-1-137-11508-9_7 978-1-137-11508-9 Wilson A. Jeyaratnam The Post-Colonial States of South Asia: Democracy, Development and Identity 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.Noronha Ernesto 1994 BJP: Cow as a Political Symbol Economic and Political Weekly 29 24 1447–1448 0012-9976 4401327 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. 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.Muralidharan Sukumar 5 June 2015 The Many Faces of Indira Gandhi https://www.epw.in/journal/2018/3/review-article/many-faces-indira-gandhi.html Economic and Political Weekly 53 3 34 23 December 2019 https://web.archive.org/web/20190512060433/https://www.epw.in/journal/2018/3/review-article/many-faces-indira-gandhi.html 12 May 2019 live 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. This episode served as an immediate trigger for more demonstrations. On 6 November, preparations were highly visible, with posters plastered across the city and high-profile business houses sponsoring the meals of the marchers.1966 Sadhus Slaughter Sadachari Economic and Political Weekly 1 13 530–531 0012-9976 4357202 A total bandh of all shops in Delhi was planned; 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'). Police firing on Peaceful Protesters On the morning of 7 November, a few hundred thousand people, predominantly from the Bharatiya Jan Sangh, Hindu Mahasabha, and Arya Samaj, had assembled from far-off places at an open space near the Parliamentary Complex.https://www.thehindu.com/archives/article16183780.ece (dated November 8, 1966) 8 November 2016 The Hindu 23 December 2019 0971-751Xhttps://scroll.in/article/814368/did-you-know-the-first-parliament-attack-took-place-in-1966-and-was-carried-out-by-gau-rakshaks Looking back: The first Parliament attack took place in 1966 – and was carried out by gau rakshaks Daniyal Shoaib Scroll.in 28 August 2016 23 December 2019 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 5 November 2016 livehttps://www.newspapers.com/clip/48431404/holy-men-stir-up-riots-in-delhi/ Holy Men Stir Up Riots in Delhi Inder Malhotra The Guardian New Delhi 1 8 November 1966 23 December 2019 Newspapers.com A vast majority of them were ash-smeared Aghori Sadhus. Christophe Jaffrelot noted it as the most popular mass movement since independence.Jaffrelot Christophe 1 August 2013 Refining the moderation thesis. Two religious parties and Indian democracy: the Jana Sangh and the BJP between Hindutva radicalism and coalition politics Democratization 20 5 879 10.1080/13510347.2013.801256 144174913 1351-0347 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; the first speaker was Swami Karpatri.http://brossard.pretnumerique.ca/isbn/9780062973856 India after Gandhi the history of the world's largest democracy Guha Ramachandra 2019 978-0-06-297385-6 en War and Succession HarperCollins 24 December 2019 https://web.archive.org/web/20191224150615/http://brossard.pretnumerique.ca/isbn/9780062973856 24 December 2019 live Soon afterwards, Swami Rameshwaranand, a Lok Sabha legislatorhttp://loksabhaph.nic.in/writereaddata/biodata_1_12/1612.htm Members Bioprofile loksabhaph.nic.in 23 December 2019 https://web.archive.org/web/20191223113034/http://loksabhaph.nic.in/writereaddata/biodata_1_12/1612.htm 23 December 2019 live of Jan Sangh,https://www.newspapers.com/clip/48431795/india-calls-on-army-to-halt-bloody-riots/ India Calls On Army To Halt Bloody Riots 8 November 1966 The Record AP, UPI New Delhi 8 Newspapers.com 23 December 2019 from Karnal, Punjabhttps://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/The-very-first-attack-on-Parliament/article16440305.ece The very first attack on Parliament Ramesh Jairam 9 November 2016 The Hindu 24 December 2019 0971-751X https://web.archive.org/web/20191224125514/https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/The-very-first-attack-on-Parliament/article16440305.ece 24 December 2019 live who had earlier been expelled from the house for 10 days, by a majority INC vote, for a continual failure to abide by parliamentary decorum whilst urging for a ban on cow slaughter, rose to the podium. He leveraged his expulsion, asking the protesters "to teach a lesson" by forcing the Parliament to close down,https://www.newspapers.com/clip/48432129/holy-men-in-new-march/ Holy men in new march 9 November 1966 5 The Age AAP-Reuters New Delhi Newspapers.com 23 December 2019 while other hard-line leaders served as accompanying him. Jana Sangh leader Atal Bihari Vajpayee appealed to the Swami to withdraw his call and urged the demonstrators to maintain peace. Thus the protestors hailed Swami Rameshwaranand ji by slogans of "Swami Rameshwaranand ki jai", and breached the barricades; the police responded at around 1:30 pm, as they engaged in rifle fire and mounted a charge with lead-tipped clubs. While the charge was successful in dispersing the immediate protesters, it caused fatal injuries. The total number of injuries reported by the Delhi police and the ruling government at the time is highly debated. As a retaliation to the cruel rifle firing on peaceful protesters, houses of prominent legislators from the ruling party (Indian National Congress), including that of K. Kamaraj, were broken into. Passengers were forced out of vehicles before being set on fire, high-profile government buildings were ransacked, and random arson was indulged in. The riot, that started with the excessive police force killing widely recognized gurus and sadhus along with cows, ended at around 4:30 pm with a death toll of eight (significantly lower than independent outlet reports) and hundreds injured. The total damage was estimated at 1 billion rupees by city officials; numerous vehicles were destroyed, along with numerous shops. A curfew was imposed for 48 hours but withdrawn the next morning; the army was deployed for the first time,The first time since what? The first time ever? The first time inside the country? January 2020 and a law concerning unlawful assembly was imposed for an indefinite time span. About 1,500 demonstrators, including over 500 ascetics and prominent leaders of Hindu Nationalist parties and SGMS, were arrested.https://www.newspapers.com/clip/48432699/mrs-gandhi-dismisses-minister/ Mrs Gandhi dismisses Minister Inder Malhotra 9 November 1966 1 The Guardian New Delhi Newspapers.com 23 December 2019https://www.newspapers.com/clip/48433464/sacred-cows-uproar-breaks-up-parliament/ Sacred Cows Uproar Breaks Up Parliament 12 November 1966 3 The Sydney Morning Herald Delhi Newspapers.com 23 December 2019https://www.newspapers.com/clip/48433583/leaders-of-riots-seized/ Leaders of riots seized 10 November 1966 3 The Sydney Morning Herald Delhi Newspapers.com 23 December 2019 The Lieutenant Governor described the rioting as highly organised; intelligence agencies had failed to predict the situation. The extent of the violence was the most significant since the 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. A few days later, Balraj Madhok, Rameshwaranand, and other prominent functionaries of RSS and Jan Sangh were arrested on charges of stoking the riots.https://www.newspapers.com/clip/48433717/extremists-held-by-police-in-india/ Extremists held by police in India 10 November 1966 4 The Age AAP New Delhi Newspapers.com 23 December 2019 Political figures including Bhupesh Gupta suspected clear-cut involvement of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in the agitation. Vajpayee condemned the riots and blamed undesirable elements for the violence, saying that it had harmed a pious cause. There was widespread discontent against Nanda, who was believed to be sympathetic to the rioters, forcing him to resign;https://www.newspapers.com/clip/48433877/india-govt-learns-grim-lesson/ India Govt. learns grim lesson John Slee 12 November 1966 4 The Age New Delhi Newspapers.com 23 December 2019 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.https://www.newspapers.com/clip/48433970/india-police-head-fired-after-riots/ India Police Head Fired After Riots 10 November 1966 18 The Times AP New Delhi Newspapers.com 23 December 2019 Aftermath Beginning on 17 November, Sadhus started courting arrest, as planned. On the 20th, Prabhudutt Brahmachari and the Shankaracharya of Puri began hunger strikes; others soon followed. 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. Whilst her stance was commended across liberal media and supported by the Communist Party and others,Gupta Bhabani Sen March 1968 A Maoist Line for India The China Quarterly 33 10 10.1017/S030574100000374X 154879089 1468-2648 failing health of the Shankaracharya and the death of two less-prominent fasters followed. Soon, fissures started appearing within SGMS. 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. Within a couple of weeks, the fourth Shankaracharya and other Vaishnava religious orders subsequently criticized the front for placing Shankaracharya's health in jeopardy. On 24 January, a seriously ailing Shankaracharya criticized the BJS for pandering to electoral politics and failing to protect either Hinduism or the cow. 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. The committee was to be chaired by Retd. Justice Amal Kumar Sarkar (along with two Congress chief ministers, two Congress 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. In the meantime, Gandhi once again recommended on 5 January 1967 that states enact their own bans on cow slaughter. Shankaracharya broke his fast; it had lasted 73 days and was longer than any other hunger strike in recorded Indian history. 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 Lok Sabha elections and Congress lost many seats, with its popular vote share dropping by about 4%; Jan Sangh had managed, however, to successfully challenge the Congress hegemony in urban Hindu areas, especially the cow belt.Singh V. B. 1971 Jan Sangh in Uttar Pradesh: Fluctuating Fortunes and Uncertain Future Economic and Political Weekly 6 3/5 311 0012-9976 4381552 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. 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. Whilst the committee continued, the issue rapidly lost momentum in national politics.https://books.google.com/books?id=Ipwpbhd6sQUC India Since Independence Chandra Bipan 11 February 2008 Penguin UK 978-81-8475-053-9 237 en Bipan Chandra The committee was finally dissolved in 1979, having never submitted a report. 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 1969 split. 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. Congress (R) went on to choose the cow-and-calf symbol during the 1971 Lok Sabha elections. On the other hand, after years of failure over issue of cow protection 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 Ram Janmbhoomi movement. RSS and VHP commemorate the event every year.https://www.indiatoday.in/mail-today/story/holy-cow-rss-vhp-1966-gau-rakhshaks-movement-349224-2016-10-30 Holy cow: RSS, VHP to revive 1966 gau rakshaks' movement Rai Siddhartha 31 October 2016 India Today live 24 December 2019 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 24 December 2019 See also Cattle slaughter in India Cow protection movement Bhartiya Gau Raksha Dal List of massacres in India References Delhi Category:1966 murders in India Category:Indira Gandhi administration Category:Hinduism and cattle Category:1966 controversies Category:Anti-Muslim riots in India Category:1966 riots Category:November 1966 in Asia Category:Hinduism-motivated violence in India Category:1960s in Delhi Category:Murder in Delhi Category:1966 mass murders Category:20th-century mass murders in India Category:Riots and civil disorder in Delhi Category:Attacks on legislatures in India Category:Attacks on residential buildings in India Category:Arson attacks on vehicles in India Category:Arson in the 1960s Category:1966 fires Category:1960s fires in Asia Category:Attacks on buildings and structures in 1966 Category:History of the Indian National Congress Category:Political riots in India Category:20th-century political riots Category:Religiously motivated violence in the 1960s