印度总理莫迪谴责暴力护牛

Indian prime minister Narendra Modi has broken his silence on growing violence by so-called cow defence squads, denouncing the vigilantes as “miscreants” who are tarnishing the idea of cow sewa, or serving cows.

对于所谓护牛队日益增加的暴力现象，印度总理纳伦德拉•莫迪(Narendra Modi)打破了沉默，谴责这些义警是玷污“为牛服务”(cow sewa)理念的“歹徒”。

Mr Modi’s comments follow a string of violent, sometimes lethal, vigilante and mob attacks on Muslims and low-caste Hindus for transporting cattle, disposing of carcases or eating beef.

莫迪发表这些言论之前，印度曾发生一系列由义警和暴民针对穆斯林及低种姓印度教人士的袭击事件，其中一些事件导致人员死亡，原因是后者曾运送牛群、处置死牛或食用牛肉。

“There is absolutely no need for anyone to take the law in his or her hands and disturb the spirit of harmony and togetherness,” Mr Modi tweeted in his first public comment on such attacks.

莫迪在Twitter网站发消息称：“任何人都绝对没有必要擅自执法，破坏和谐与团结的精神。”这是他对此类攻击事件的首次公开言论。

At a public forum a few hours earlier, Mr Modi described those responsible for vigilante attacks in the name of cattle protection as “antisocial elements hiding behind the mask of cow defenders”.

在几小时前的一个公共论坛上，莫迪曾把这些以护牛名义实施的义警袭击事件的责任人称为“躲在护牛者面具背后的反社会因素”。

Trade in cattle and their carcases has become a fraught issue in India, where cows are traditionally revered by high-caste Hindus as near deities and a symbol of the nation. Lower-caste Hindus, who do most of the work of disposing of cattle carcases, and minorities do not similarly venerate cows or share high-caste Hindus’ strict taboos on eating beef.

在印度，牛在传统上被高种姓的印度教人士尊崇到了近乎神圣的地步，被他们视为印度的国家象征。牛及死牛的买卖已成为一个棘手的问题。多数处置死牛的工作是由低种姓印度教人士实施的，他们和一些少数民族对牛没有那么尊崇，也不像高种姓印度教人士那样严格禁忌食用牛肉。

On the campaign trail two years ago, Mr Modi had publicly denounced India’s large meat trade, which he emotionally described as a “pink revolution” that had to be stopped. Since his election, several states ruled by his Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata party have toughened their laws on bovine slaughter and the possession or consumption of beef. Some are devoting considerable public resources to enforcement and cow welfare programmes.

两年前，莫迪在竞选期间公开谴责印度的大规模肉类交易，煽情地称之为必须阻止的“粉色革命”。自当选以来，由他的印度教民族主义政党人民党(Bharatiya Janata Party)统治的几个邦，已收紧了对牛的屠宰、牛肉加工及消费的法律规定。部分邦向相关执法及牛的福利计划投入大量公共资源。

The febrile climate has also spawned rising vigilantism, with mobs of cow protection squads attacking those suspected of facilitating the beef trade. Fatalities include a Muslim man near Delhi killed on suspicion of eating beef, a Kashmiri truck driver attacked with a petrol bomb for allegedly transporting cattle and two Muslim cattle traders who were lynched in Jharkhand.

这种狂热氛围还催生了自发执法现象不断升温，多个护牛队的暴民袭击了那些涉嫌为牛肉交易提供便利的人们。其中的致死案例包括，德里附近一名穆斯林男子因涉嫌食用牛肉而被杀，一名克什米尔卡车司机因据称运送牛肉而遭到汽油弹袭击，以及两名穆斯林牛商贩在贾坎德邦被私刑处死。