Why should the cows have all the fun ?

After the recent beef-ban in some states, the goats, sheep, chicken etc. are saying “Why should the cows have all the fun”. Go to any town in India, you will find herds of cattle – Gomata (mother cow) abandoned by her son  - roaming freely and often obstructing traffic. India has the distinction of having the largest cattle population in the world. But as per data available, half of these cattle are useless, unproductive and to a large extent counterproductive.

1.   Beef is eaten in many parts of our country , like the North-east, Kerala, Tamil Nadu.  People who argue that beef is not an Indian diet have a narrow mindset and  think that India is a country of upper caste Hindus only. In fact, India is a nation of nations with a variety of culture, tradition and of course, food habits.

     Cows are animals like goat, sheep, buffaloes etc. and therefore there is no logic in banning cow meat.  The only argument that goes in favour of beef ban is from the religious point of view. It goes like this - because a large majority of people are sentimentally attached to an animal, others should respect the sentiment of the majority, however illogical it might seem to be. But in this age of Science and rationalism, should we give importance to sentimentalism ?  If we do, then why beef, all meat should be banned because the Jains are against animal slaughter.

5     Many historians believe that beef was part of Indian diet right from the Vedic  era and continued to be so until the dominance of the Brahmins in the 12^th-13^th centuries. There is a mention about beef soup in the Charaka Sanhita where it is prescribed as a diet for “Kshaya Rog”. In fact,  It is a  cheap source of protein for the poor.  From economic point of view, beef is one of India's major foreign exchange earner. In fact, Indian is the number one beef exporting country in the world. As an industry, it gives employment to a large number of people  as many people depend on the ancillary activities like the leather industries.  India has the largest cattle population in the world and ironically, it also has the largest number of useless cattle that are past their prime and therefore are of no use. Such animals are a civic nuisance and a financial burden on the society. But as long as we treat cow as our mother we cannot use terms like old, useless etc for her. It is another matter that most Hindus abandon the useless cattle that continuously increase the free roaming cattle population in the towns and cities. Some even sell them to the butcher. 

9    Coming back to religious sentiments of the Hindus, Hinduism is a comparatively dynamic religion and it offers less resistance to change in comparison to other faiths like Islam. Today, the liberal Hindus find it rather embarrassing if they are asked to explain the holy-cow syndrome. But unfortunately, even in today’s world of science and rationalism, the orthodox Hindus outnumber the liberals or at least the former have been more vocal than the latter.   Even if we accept cow as a religious symbol of the Hindus, how can they impose their religious views on others – non-Hindus – for whom cow is just another animal like goat and sheep.   Religion is based on faith – it demands blind, unquestioned faith. Therefore, it would be blasphemous to question the special status given to the cow in Hinduism. However, in a lighter vein, the issue seems settled if we consider the age old obsession of the Indians with the white skin.  Someone pointed out that the buffalo is at least equally useful as the cow but it lost the battle because of its black skin. Ha..ha.

       Beginning in the last century and particularly in the last few decades, the world opinion is gradually shifting towards vegetarian food habits. However, there is no evidence to suggest that there have been a sharp fall in the number of meat eaters during the last few decades. Mutton,chicken, beef, fish, crab, lobsters etc. are very much in the daily menu of the modern man and there is little hope that the humanity would turn vegetarian in near future.

     Open killing of animals is not at all a pleasant sight, not even for the meat eaters. But as long as animals are slaughtered in proper abattoirs and meat is sold in well defined marketplaces, there should not be any problem for anybody. The problem persists only because of our parochial mindset which does not allow us to appreciate anything that is different from us and anything that does not conform to our culture.