In line with the State Government’s resolve to develop Katarpur village as Gau Teerth’, given the place’s historical association with anti-cow slaughter movement, the State Cooperative Minister Dhan Singh Rawat visited on Friday the plaque raised on Laksar Road in memory of the Gau Rakshaks (cow protectors) who were killed in September 1918 and paid obeisance to those who sacrificed their lives for the cause of cow protection.
He announced that Ministers and other dignitaries would attend the memorial day programme to be organised here on February 8 next.
The villagers asked the Minister to take initiatives to set up a cow conservation centre on 50 bighas of land to be given by the villagers themselves.
Notably, the number of cattle owned by the villagers, both Muslims and Hindus, is now seeing a dwindling trend. The Muslims say that they do not slaughter their cows even during the Eid festival. Interestingly, one villager Ahmed has maximum number of cows in the village.
He says that he would take all pains to raise the number of the bovines if the state government comes forward with a project to ensure their wellbeing.
Explaining why Katarpur has carved a place in the history of cow protection movements, the president of Gauraksha Samiti Shyam Singh said that in line with the colonial policy of divide and rule, the British rulers had planned to sow seeds of discord between the two communities while using the sentiment of the Hindus with the bovines. “On the day of Bakra Eid on September 17 1918, the rulers had cows placed in the village for the Muslims to sacrifice.
Many of the villagers were killed while saving the cows from being butchered. What is more, most of those killed were Muslims. Following it, four persons, including Chaudhary Mukkha Singh Chauhan after whom a village road has been named were hanged to death at the behest of the British rulers. Over a hundred people from Katarpur and 29 neighbouring villages were sentenced to 10 years’ imprisonment.
They were sent to Andaman and Nicobar Islands where they languished for years. Some were even given life term.
Since that gory day, the village inhabited by both the communities has not seen a single communal clash.
The Muslims here follow the ban on animal sacrifice ordered in the aftermath of the communal clash,” he said. Since the time a memorial was erected to remember the ‘gau rakshaks’, a festival is being held in the village on February 8 every year to commemorate the day.
It is learnt that the senior RSS functionaries put the proposal of developing Katarpur as “Gau Teerth” to the state Government a few months ago. The state Government has further decided to include the village in the state’s tourism circuit.