Care for a cows, don't worship!

The idea of cow slaughter has been around in this land for thousands of years and it really seems to have become quite controversial since 2014. While there are some sound reasons for those demanding a total nationwide ban on cow killing in the first place, there are a few aspects in this case which cannot be denied. In order to protect cows and prevent their slaughter, the Uttar Pradesh government headed by Yogi Adityanath this week approved a draft ordinance, providing a maximum rigorous imprisonment of 10 years and a fine up to Rs 5 lakh.

 

For the first offence, a person can be given a rigorous punishment of one to seven years with a fine ranging from Rs 1 lakh to Rs 3 lakh. For the second offence, the person can be given a 10-year rigorous imprisonment with a fine up to Rs 5 lakh, a statement said. The state cabinet cleared the draft of the Uttar Pradesh Cabinet Cow Slaughter Prevention (Amendment) Ordinance, 2020 at a meeting chaired by chief minister Yogi Adityanath here. The ordinance aims at making the existing law (Uttar Pradesh Prevention of Cow Slaughter Act, 1955) more robust and effective and to completely stop the incidents pertaining to cow slaughter, the statement said. Let's get into details one by one-

 

 

 

The BJP has always been in support to ban cow slaughter further promoting Go-pujan (worshipping a Cow). Many reasons to it, agreed! But one major and logical counter attack it faces is from its own ideal ideology, Veer Savarkar. He always said, "Care for a cow, don't worship". Savarkar would disagree with BJP on cow protection.In an agrarian country like India, it is understandable that the cow should be liked. The cow has been our companion for long. It provides so many materials and its milk has been responsible, together with grain, for the growth of our physical stature. The cow has become almost a member of the families which keep it. The compassionate mind and heart of the Hindu feel gratitude to the cow. We are dedicated to the cow because it is so useful. It is our sense of gratitude which turns it divine.

 

If you put questions about its divinity to people who worship it, they speak only of how useful it is. If the cow is worshipped because it is so useful, does it not follow that she should be cared for well to maximise her usefulness? If the cow is to be put to the best use possible, you have to stop worshipping it. When you worship the cow, you lower the standing of mankind.

 

God is the highest, then comes man, and below man is the animal kingdom. The cow is an animal which has not even as much intelligence as the most stupid human. To consider the cow divine, and thus superior to man, is an insult to man. The cow eats at one end and expels urine and dung at the other end. When it is tired it lies down in its own filth. Then it uses its tail (which we call beautiful) to spread this filth all over its body. How can a creature which does not understand cleanliness be considered divine?

 

 

An excerpt from Gandhi’s prayer discourse of July 25, 1947, from the Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi, Volume 88, as published online by the Gandhi Heritage Portal notes the leader who supported ban on cow slaughter to have no problem with it in another context. "In India no law can be made to ban cow-slaughter. I do not doubt that Hindus are forbidden the slaughter of cows. I have been long pledged to serve the cow but how can my religion also be the religion of the rest of the Indians? It will mean coercion against those Indians who are not Hindus.

 

We have been shouting from the house-tops that there will be no coercion in the matter of religion. We have been reciting verses from the Koran at the prayer. But if anyone were to force me to recite these verses I would not like it. How can I force anyone not to slaughter cows unless he is himself so disposed? It is not as if there were only Hindus in the Indian Union. There are Muslims, Parsis, Christians and other religious groups here. The assumption of the Hindus that India now has become the land of the Hindus is erroneous. India belongs to all who live here. If we stop cow slaughter by law here and the very reverse happens in Pakistan, what will be the result?

 

 

The very same Gandhi’s prayer discourse of July 25, 1947 says, "Some prosperous Hindus themselves encourage cow-slaughter. True, they do not do it with their own hands. But who sends all the cows to Australia and other countries where they are slaughtered and whence shoes manufactured from cow hide are sent back to India?". He said he an orthodox Vaishnava Hindu who used to feed his children on beef soup. On Gandhi's questioning, the Hindu said there was no sin in consuming beef as medicine. (Prarthana Pravachan –I, pp 277-280)

 

Nutritionist Michael Joseph publishes the Nutrition Advance website which provides independent, evidence-based nutrition and health information backed by peer-reviewed studies as evidence. Beef provides a large source of L-Carnitine which plays a major part in fat metabolism. Beef also is high in protein, rich in minerals and helps improve muscle mass.

 

 

Uttar Pradesh’s meat processing industry accounts for 50 per cent of India’s exports and employs 25 lakh people, directly or indirectly according to the Hindustan Times report. Further, of the 72 government-approved abattoirs across the country, 38 are in Uttar Pradesh, according to UP Pollution Control Board based on NoCs issued. Most of the 38 slaughterhouses in Uttar Pradesh cater to exports. The animals slaughtered here are in demand in Gulf countries because of two reasons- low cost and the assurance that buyers in Muslim countries are assured it is halal, slaughtered in a manner Muslims consider ritualistically appropriate. Under these circumstances, the local demands are met by illegal or standalone slaughterhouses. What about these illegal slaugheter houses where even the cows (considered 'divine') are not spared? It also seems that Yogi ji has failed to mention about the cows who die of eating the filth on road. Who is to be punished in such cases? Is BJP government who promotes Cow protection nationally, ready to take over the responsibility?

 

 

India is a land of religions. An act may be a part of religion for some people but may be a religious crime to others. Who is to control whom in this DEMOCRACY? A utilitarian approach is needed here- take good care of the cow because it is useful. It is no exaggeration that the simple minded and foolish proposition that the cow is meant for worship has harmed the country. The decision by UP Government is one such where one part of the nation feels religiously empowered but the other part looks at as dictatorism.