Of sacred animals: the limits of animal rights activism and political veganism in India

In India, the rise of right-wing politics in the form of what Sahana Udupa terms 'enterprise Hindutva' has triggered conflicting reactions to everyday incidents, highlighting the need for a new language to address unique problems faced by vegans and animal rights activists whose politics clash with Hindutva's anti-secular discourse. 'Sacred animals' as a conceptual framework provides an important entry point into the culturally specific socio-political tensions behind complexities that limit the possibilities of viable intersectional standpoints that engage animal rights activism and political veganism. From a postsecular perspective, the relevance and unique challenges of these movements in India are evaluated, noting that existing posthumanist theories fail to address these new issues adequately. Incidents of mob lynching and violence by the cow vigilantes are recontextualized as structural symptoms instead of sporadic occurrences. The backlash against rightist tendencies has given a critical validation to irrational disregard for political veganism and animal rights activism, based on their perceived alignment with right-wing ideology. Examining food politics around beef, mockery of vegetarianism, and everyday situations where 'veg' becomes a tag of inferior quality, this study challenges unfounded associations and assumptions that undermine the disruptive potential of animal rights activism.