Cattle theft, more commonly cattle raiding or cattle lifting, is a property crime in India.[1][2][3] In the ancient and medieval era India texts, stealing cattle is described as a crime and sin, a motif that appears in Hindu mythologies.[4][5][6]
In the colonial and postcolonial eras, it has been a common crime but one marked with contradictions.[A] According to David Gilmartin, the crime of cattle theft was perceived by the colonial-era British officials as a "potential political danger" that threatened "to corrupt the whole structure of the administration, for its pervasiveness threatened to undercut the position of the state as the protector and legal guarantor of the individual as a productive owner of revenue-producing property".[8] In contemporary times, the demand for meat has led to cattle becoming a target of mass-theft.[9][10] According to The New York Times and other sources, cattle theft for beef production is a lucrative business in India.[11][12][9]
India has over 30,000 illegal slaughterhouses that operate in filthy conditions.[13][14] According to The New York Times, cattle theft is partly a source of supplies to illegal slaughterhouses.[11]
^David H. Bayley (2015). Police and Political Development in India. Princeton University Press. p. 105. ISBN 978-1-4008-7849-9. Referring to 1963, among cognizable offenses the most common form of crime was theft (33.2 percent of all cognizable crime). The next most prevalent was housebreaking (20.8 percent), followed by rioting (4.27 percent), cattle theft (3.57 percent), criminal breach of trust (2.8 percent), murder (1.63 percent), (...).
^National Crime Records Bureau, Table 8.4, Crime in India 2015, Government of India
^"Delhi police arrest 5 for cattle theft, illegal slaughter; seize illegal weapons". Deccan Chronicle. ANI. 3 July 2017.
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^Gilmartin, David (2003), "Cattle, crime and colonialism: Property as negotiation in north India", The Indian Economic & Social History Review, 40 (1): 33–56, doi:10.1177/001946460304000102, S2CID 153991076
^Gilmartin, David (2003), "Cattle, crime and colonialism: Property as negotiation in north India", The Indian Economic & Social History Review, 40 (1): 38, doi:10.1177/001946460304000102, S2CID 153991076
^ abGhosh, Palash (2 April 2014). "Cattle Smuggling: A Dangerous, Illegal And Highly Profitable Trade Between India And Bangladesh". The International Business Times. (...) the illegal mass-theft of cattle is a huge problem thousands of miles away from the Chisum Trail – on the border between India and Bangladesh. Along the largely porous boundary between Bangladesh and the Indian state of West Bengal, cattle-raids and cattle-smuggling, often conducted by criminal gangs, raise hundreds of millions of dollars annually in illicit profits. The activity is so lucrative and dangerous that it often costs the lives of the perpetrators and innocent bystanders. (...) Bimal Pramanik, an independent researcher in Kolkata, told the Monitor that Bangladesh has an insatiable demand for beef. "Bangladeshi slaughterhouses cannot source even 1 million cows from within the country. If Indian cows do not reach the Bangladeshi slaughterhouses, there will be a big crisis there," he said, adding that he estimates three-fourths of all cows slaughtered in Bangladesh originated in India. "In this thriving trade, [herds of] cows worth 50 billion rupees are sent across to Bangladesh every year. It's the sheer economics of the trade that drives the smuggling," Pramanik added."
^Gardiner Harris (26 May 2013). "For New Breed of Rustlers, Nothing Is Sacred". The New York Times. Cattle rustling, called 'lifting' here, is a growing scourge in New Delhi, as increasingly affluent Indians develop a taste for meat, even the flesh of cows, which are considered sacred in Hinduism. Criminals round up some of the roughly 40,000 cattle that wander the streets of this megacity and sell them to illegal slaughterhouses located in villages not far away. (...) 'These gangs mostly go after stray cattle, but they will also steal motocycles and scooters'. one police officer, Bhisham Singh, said in an interview. 'They kidnapped a woman recently and gang-raped her'.
^ abHarris, Gardiner (26 May 2013). "For New Breed of Rustlers, Nothing Is Sacred". The New York Times. Cattle rustling, called 'lifting' here, is a growing scourge in New Delhi, as increasingly affluent Indians develop a taste for meat, even the flesh of cows, which are considered sacred in Hinduism. Criminals round up some of the roughly 40,000 cattle that wander the streets of this megacity and sell them to illegal slaughterhouses located in villages not far away.
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