Bovine (cow) Politics: Fanatic or Strategic

Indian politics is observing a mega-hype about cows. GauRakshaks are overactive to stop cow-slaughter & illegal trafficking of cows to other countries. Before writing anything, let me make myself clear that I support the very concept of GauRaksha. Reading up to this, please don’t mark me as politically biased in favour of a particular politics. I would request you to please kindly read this article till the end to judge whether my points are baseless or rational enough.

I strongly oppose reckless killing of any animal & of course, of cows & their illegal trafficking. But hooliganism in the name of protection of cows is totally awkward. We’ll have to remain conscious about who exactly are doing such violence in the name of GauRaksha as they may also be vindictive efforts rendered by non-protectors of cows to defame the act of cow-protection itself. Moreover, giving identity cards to the cows, however stupid it may appear can strategically solve the problems like reckless killing & especially, illegal trafficking of cows. Even handling of the cows reared for beef meat production or determination of the fate of old, unproductive cows can also be regulated & formatted based on id proofs of the cows. And this proposition that disposal of bovine assets should be regulated & formatted, would, perhaps be supported by all.

Now the question may be raised why are the cows becoming so important to be protected amongst all animals. The animal is regarded as one of the seven mothers of the Hindus, as we are fed on its milk. Cows are assets otherwise too, as they have indispensable role in Indian agricultural operation & their excreta too have economic importance for generation of organic manure & bio-fuel etc. Protection of cows is recommended by Indian Constitution. However, the logic behind the cow-politics is not limited only to this much.

We have to go way back in history to understand the origin of this unrest. Hinduism regarded the cow as ‘go-mata’ and cows are valuable assets. ‘Go Brahmana Hitaya Cha’…in Sanskrit means to take care of cows & respecting the Brahmins. Hence eating beef was not allowed by medieval Hinduism though there are many references (which are debated openly & academically) which state that ancient Hinduism didn’t disallow Hindus to take any type of meat including beef. That’s debatable and I’m not going into that debate. I’ve a hypothesis about the real reason of the current bovine (cow) politics in India.

In the medieval period, especially just from before Muslim invasion in India, Hinduism, especially Brahminism, became oppressive by imposing stringent casteism upon Hindus. The upper-caste Hindus misused & misinterpreted the Vedic social categorization, (which was basically a categorization based on profession of people which gradually got politicized as a weapon to dominate in power politics) of Brahman, Kshatriya, Vaishya & Shudra and oppressed the so called lower castes, ‘shudras’. They were heckled by upper-caste Hindus.

In this scenario, Islam entered India & captured Indian politics. Islam identified the weakness & suffering of a large portion of resident Hindus & offered them a better, free mode of living if they followed Islam. Many of these oppressed lower caste Hindus, thus, converted to Islam. So majority of Indian Muslims are, actually, converted Muslims. The Muslims converted Hindus into Islam just by feeding beef to them which was prohibited in Hinduism. Once someone was forcefully fed beef, he lost his permit for Hindu religion. That was the kind of imprudent & suicidal attitude exhibited by the so called ‘guardians of Hinduism’ at that time. Islam could spread in this way. Beef-feeding was a weapon which Muslims used recklessly to convert Hindus into Islam & that was one of the processes of number-aggression by Muslims. I would say that Hindus that time were foolish & imprudent enough to allow them use that weapon.

Could the Hindu-clergy have ignored that forceful beef-feeding gesture of the Muslims, they could have protected themselves & Islam couldn’t have spread that much. That’s why the theory of ‘ghar wapsi’ as proposed by the Chief Minister of Uttarpradesh, Yogi Sri Adityanath is not a bad idea. If aHinduism can re-accommodate the converted Muslims back, Hindus can get their own people back to their culture. However, that’s also a separate issue.

Hence, cows are now being seen as a symbol of religion, which has to be protected. Way back in history, Muslims used cows as a weapon of politics by killing the cows. Moving up the timeline, the same cows are again being used as mode of politics, now by saving them. The emotion can’t be ignored. It’s also a recommendation of our Constitution. Neither can we place such elite logic that if Muslims had done something wrong, it’s not correct for us to repeat it. Well, killing & saving can’t be the same action. Of course, creating rows & trying to kill people for saving cows are completely illogical which are also being done in places these days.

But Gau Raksha, as itself, can’t be put down. Reckless killing & illegal trafficking of assets like cows should not be allowed, rather cows for meat production should be separately reared legally and government can declare an amount of taxes on beef meat for those who can’t live without beef. In this way, Government can earn an amount too. But reckless killing & trafficking should be stopped. There’s a logic that the poor peasants sell off their old, unproductive cows at a nominal price because they can’t afford the cost to continue feeding them till they die. The fate of such old & unproductive cows also should be regulated & formatted by the government.

Hence, however peculiar it may sound, identity cards for cows is a good measure to identify & ensure proper inventory-control of cows under the current scenario! Many people are cracking jokes on the issue. Aadhaar Cards for cows are appearing to be hilarious & communal & saffronization etc to many. However, thinking strategically, I don’t find a better way to prevent wastage & loss of bovine assets, not only because they are ‘go-mata’.

As far as meat production is concerned, that has to be bound & limited by stringent regulations, be it any meat. Id proof of cows would be beneficial here too.

The question comes, what would the people eat who are habituated with easily available, cheap beef meat?

The answer is that beef was cheap because cows were killed recklessly & illegally. Moreover, as food-stuff, such cheap beef meat was not really healthy & was affecting health of the consumers. It won’t remain cheap if it is reared properly. So the people who are financially not so well off may not be able to afford beef meat & hence would have to resort to some other stuff.

One can say that freedom of food is being taken away.

It is perhaps, not so. Freedom of reckless killing & trafficking of a particular animal is being taken away, to be precise. And India is, perhaps, moving towards standardization of raw food-stuff which is an extremely necessary administrative step for any country.

One may further say that there are many more grave problems in India like poverty, homelessness, starvation, unemployment etc which should have got governmental priority before protection of cows. I would say that all problems of India are inter-connected. We may work to remove all of them simultaneously, not one by one. And I’m confident that the priority of Gau Raksha should come at the top, not at the end. Let’s wait & watch for the time being. Let the cows too have id proofs!!