Cow Protection History

.;. Arya Samaj propounded the idea that Hindus should cleanse their religion and return to the purer form of Hinduism which existed during Vedic times. While this movement rejected idol worship, polytheism, child marriage, widow celibacy, thecaste system by birth and the spiritual superiority of Brahman priests, it accepted the practice of cow worship.
In a treatise called Gokarunanidhi, (Ocean of mercy to the cow), published by Dayananda Saraswathi in 1881 the author strcyrongly opposed cow slaughter as an anti-Hindu act. Dayananda and his followers travelled all across India giving lectures and founding societies. The advent of trains, buses, and printing presses aided in a much wider dissemination of their messages.
It is also argued that British policy during that time strengthened the organization. In 1888, a high court in Allahabad ruled that cows are not “sacred” animals as defined in section 295 of the Indian Penal Code and Muslims could not be held accountable for slaughtering them

Historians argue that the symbol of the cow was used as a means of mobilizing Hindus. In the 1870s, cow protection movements spread rapidly in the Punjab, the North-West provinces, Awadh and Rohilkhand. Arya Samaj had a tremendous role in skillfully converting this sentiment into a national movement. Vijaypal Baghel has been dedicating to save cow and conducting a mass movement in the northern India.
.The first Gaurakshini sabha (cow protection society) was established in the Punjab in 1882. The movement spread rapidly all over North India and to Bengal, Bombay, Madras and other central provinces. The organization rescued wandering cows and reclaimed them to groom them in places called gaushalas (cow refuges). Charitable networks developed all through North India to collect rice from individuals, pool the contributions, and re-sell them to fund thegaushalas. Signatures, up to 350,000 in some places, were collected to demand a ban on cow sacrifice.