I am not responding to the negative comments [I have been receiving] because I believe dumb people don't have enemies. For now, I prefer to be dumb," says Kolkata photographer Sujatro Ghosh, when we reach out to him to discuss his untitled photo series that's the talk of the Internet.

Featuring solo shots of women going about their average day, wearing cow masks, the pictures have gone viral. Ghosh takes the stance that in India, cows are assured better protection than women. The series is morbidly well-timed, with incidents of lynching reported almost every day.

Junaid Khan, 15, was stabbed to death in Ballabhgarh, Haryana by a group that mocked his skull cap and called him a beef eater after an argument over train seats broke out between them on a journey from Delhi to Mathura. On June 29, meat trader Alimuddin aka Asgar Ali's death following violence by a 100-strong mob in Jharkhand's Ramgarh district followed a nationwide campaign titled #NotInMyName to question the pattern of attacks on members of the minorities and the government's silence over the violence. Despite Prime Minister Narendra Modi urging cow vigilantes not to resort to violence, the incidents continue. "The point is that they don't get the point," says the 23-year-old, "it's not about the cow. It's raising a social issue about women safety in India. I never meant it to be political."