*Holy Cow: Indian Political Chessboard* *Ram Puniyani*
Lynching alone has not been the only fallout of making Holy cow as central to the agenda of Hindu nationalist BJP and its co travelers towards Hindu Rashtra. In the dreaded phenomenon of lynching the major victims have been the religious minorities and dalits as highlighted by in the letter of 49 eminent film and other personalities. This is just the beginning of the story around Cow. Much more is in store around Cow. Now Shrikant Sharma, the Minister in Yogi Cabinet in UP has announced the scheme whereby those tending to the stray cattle will be paid Rs 30 per day and Government has kept a budget of 110 crores for the same. This has been necessitated as the stray cattle; particularly Cows have increased tremendously in number due to the vicious atmosphere created by Cow vigilantes. These cattle are attacking the fields of the farmers, causing a huge loss to the already sagging agrarian economy. Many an accidents are taking place due to the large number of stray cattle. Another point which most of us missed was the one mentioned in the Election Manifesto of BJP (2019). The manifesto announced the formation of ‘National Cow Commission’ (Rashtriya Kamdehenu Aayog) with a budget of Rs 500 cores. This commission will plan the Kamdhenu Chairs in Universities for study and increasing awareness about the virtues of cow. This commission has the project of starting Housing colonies around the cowsheds, medical shops of cow products among others. While one needs to welcome the development of rural economy where the cattle find more organized and scientific utilization, singling out Cow for this honor is a pure political ploy. One more fallout of cow vigilantism has been the coming up of many groups involved in extortion business from the cattle trade and transport of these. Niranjan Takle, investigative journalist, found out that the going rates for transporting trucks with cows is Rs 15000 per truck and for buffaloes Rs 6500 per truck. This is for half the part of the travel. He could find <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1TdcrvqTjGk> this by posing as a cattle trader, disguised as Rafiq Kureshi. This extortion is related to leather trade as he points out that after the slaughter the leather is to be given to the middle men. These vigilante groups also resort to intermittent violence to keep up the pressure which helps the regular extortion racket going. The other interesting point is that while on one hand India is emerging towards the top of the table in lynching incidents, it is also emerging as the top exporter of beef. Contrary to the popular notion the major people profiting from this trade are not Muslims but Hindus/Jains. Look at some of these companies who lead in beef export, Al Kabeer, Arabian Exports, MKR Frozen Food, Al Noor, the impression they give are as if they are owned by Muslims. The fact is most of them are owned <https://sabrangindia.in/article/who-making-millions-india-out-beef-export-muslims-think-again> by Hindus or Jains. This Cow/beef issue has been brought up mainly for their agenda of polarization. There are claims that there have been no major riots during BJP rule, the fact is while no spectacular riots have been orchestrated the low intensity violence and lynching around cow-beef have been marshaled to achieve the purpose of this polarization to greater effect. We know that cows were sacrificed during Vedic periods and beef was consumed. Apart from the scholarly works of Dr. Ambedkar (‘Who were the Shudras’) and Prof D. N Jha (‘Myth of Holy Cow’) Swami Vivekananda draws our attention to the same fact. He points out that cow meat was consumed during the Vedic period. It was also the object of sacrifice in the Vedic rituals. While speaking to a large gathering in USA said: “You will be astonished if I tell you that, according to old ceremonials, he is not a good Hindu who does not eat beef. On certain occasions he must sacrifice a bull and eat it.” (Vivekananda, cited in Swami Vivekananda, The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda, Vol 3 (Calcutta: Advaita Ashram, 1997), p. 536.) While the currently prevalent Hindu nationalism draws mainly from RSS stock, the other main Hindu Nationalist stream has been that of Hindu Mahasabha to which Savarkar belonged. He is a great inspirational figure for RSS combine, but had a different opinion on cow. He said Cow is mother of bulls not of humans. Also that it is a useful animal and should be treated as such. In Vigyan Nishta Nibandh (Pro Science Essays) he writes <http://savarkar.org/> that cows should be protected because they are useful to human not because they are divine. Among the two streams of Hindu Nationalism, RSS and Hindu Mahasabha, RSS is the one ruling the roost and is using cow as an identity issue to divide the society. Interestingly the same BJP, which is creating such mayhem in the name of cow, in major parts of North India, is quiet on this issue in Kerala, Goa and North East. On the eve of Independence Dr. Rajendra Prasad approached Mahatma with an appeal to get cow slaughter banned. Gandhi’s reply is an ideal which should guide our plural society, "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 long pledged to serve the cow, but how can my religion also be <https://www.dailyo.in/politics/gau-rakshak-gandhi-modi-hind-swaraj-south-africa-rajendra-prasad-jawaharlal-muslims-parsis-christians/story/1/12239.html> the religion of the rest of the Indians? It will mean coercion against those Indians who are not Hindus…. 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 has now become the land of the Hindus is erroneous. India belongs to all who live here." So while the country waits for welfare measures to raise the indices of our social life, the BJP rulers are more focused on allocating budget on Cow tending or promotion or pseudo research, which in no way serves the purpose of much needed social welfare. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "humanrights movement" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/humanrights-movement/CAKa3rYEKCi1jsZdRYNgbPfraFAPRSBv1rT0domk6i0hwugOdHg%40mail.gmail.com.
