<Chapter 1> Democracy and vigilantism: The spread of Gau Rakshaks in India

Abstract

This chapter explores the changing character of Indian democracy by analysing the emergence of vigilantism in recent decades in India. To elaborate the author’s claim, this chapter reviews and examines the four cases of vigilantism: (a) Maoist movements, (b) the Ranvir Sena, (c) the Salwa Judam, and (d) the Gau Rakshaks classified based on four ideal types. While the ‘state deficit’ - the inability of state to solve socio-economic problems-bred and enabled the rise of Maoist movements and the Ranvir Sena, the new tendency accounts for the emergence of vigilantism through the Salwa Judam and Gau Rakshaks, in which we can see a consistent pattern of state support. In effect, this chapter attempts to underline the strong difference between the vigilantism bred by state deficit and the new vigilantism that draws on state support and complicity. Gau Rakshaks represent a new strategy for oppressing Muslim minorities that constitutes an infringement of constitutional liberalism, symbolizing a crisis in Indian democracy itself.