Cow-Beef Politics Comes to Full Circle
Poor peasants, majority of them Hindus, rear these animals for sale on the occasion of Bakra Eid so that they can get a good price for the animal to sustain their livelihood but they found no buyers in the BJP ruled West Bengal.
BJP’s coming to power in West Bengal, after the machinations of the Election Commission and overlooked by judiciary, has created a major scare amongst the Muslim minority of the state. The Government has started to establish detention centres in every district to house the alleged infiltrators from Bangladesh. One thing, which has put the state's Hindu population to great discomfort, is related to the sustained campaign to lynch Muslims in the name of Cow-Beef. As the Eid was nearing, the Hindus had come to sell their cows, bulls in the market. To their horror, there were no buyers for the Cow progeny. Muslims have collectively decided not to sacrifice these animals for the Bakra Eid. Starting from the Chief of Jamaat-I-Islami Hind, Maulana Arshad Madani, to politicians like Asaduddin Owaisi, most leaders of Muslim community are demanding that Cow be declared as the national animal, replacing the tiger.
In the markets the Muslims are telling Hindus, who have brought the cow progeny for sale, that it is your mother, keep them at home. Many poor peasants rear these animals for sale on the occasion of Bakra Eid so that they can get a good price for the animal to sustain their livelihood. They are feeling disappointed and dejected as their calculations and aspirations are going for a toss. The Muslim organizations have witnessed the massive lynching of Muslims, more so during the last 12 years, in the name of cow-beef. Starting from Mohammad Akhlaq to Mohammad Junaid, there have been over 100 lynching during the last few years. IndiaSpend data tells us that during 2014 to 2018, 46 Muslims and Dalits were killed in cow related violence.
One recalls that in Gujarat’s Una, four Dalits carrying dead cows for deskinning were mercilessly flogged. After this, young Dalit leader, Jignesh Mevani, campaigned for stopping cow related trade and demanded that Dalits be allotted their lands. The atmosphere created by cow vigilantes, well protected by those in power and theoretically supported by RSS combine, has been frightening. Some of the Acharyas went to the extent of saying that the value of one cow’s life is more than the lives of many human beings.
Cow related products were promoted by Baba Ramdev, who is making hay by selling cow urine. Sambit Patra, the major spokesperson of BJP went on to state that Cow dung is more valuable than even diamond. Incidentally he is a trained post graduate in Modern medicine. Another Professor in Gujarat came with very enlightening research that cow urine contains gold. What a relief to hear this in the times when gold prices are touching the roof!
Major Beef Exporters of India
Back to Muslim community’s collective decision, the losers are the poor Hindu farmers in the game of identity politics. Let’s see whether the Hindutva Government takes the Holy decision of declaring her as the national animal. In that case, another set of losers will prop up, including many non-Muslim businessmen who run the beef exporting enterprises.
Main exporters of beef in India belong to the elite Hindu and Jain Community. Sabharwal Brothers (Al Kabeer) Al-Kabeer Exports Pvt. Ltd is one of the largest meat and \(carabeef\) processors in India, operating a massive slaughterhouse in Telangana. It is widely reported as being owned by the Sabharwal family. Arabian Exports Pvt. Ltd is a major Mumbai-based meat exporter, historically owned and managed by the Sunil Kapoor family. M.K.R. Frozen Food Exports Pvt. Ltd. headquartered in New Delhi with slaughterhouses in Punjab, is managed by Madan Abbott, P.M.L Industries Pvt. Ltd. headquartered in Chandigarh is owned by the A.S. Bindra family among others.
Apart from this, eating non-vegetarian food is also being looked down upon. We know the wide prevalence of beef eating in Goa, North East and Kerala. India’s 77% (roughly) population eats non vegetarian food (Overall Prevalence: About 77% of Indians - 83.4% of men and 70.6% of women, consume meat, fish, or chicken regularly in coastal areas and other places of the country.
Many people assert that Brahmins don’t eat non vegetarian food. Kashmiri Pundits' mutton dishes are a delight to behold (The crown jewel of Kashmiri cuisine, Rogan Josh is an intensely aromatic mutton curry). While Brahmins in Bihar also consume mutton in particular, among others. Anyway, facts are so diverse from the popular perceptions, which are spread deliberately. This is meant to project that Muslims are primarily meat eaters and are hence violent.
In Bengal, when BJP was contesting Mamata Banerjee did say that with the BJP rule Mach Bhaat (Fish-Rice), the favourite Bengali cuisine, will become difficult to get. In response, Anurag Thakur, the central Minister (Goli Maro fame) went on to circulate his video consuming Maach -Bhaat and saying that in the BJP ruled states, there is no restriction on eating the non-vegetarian food. Food identity as an election issue was highlighted when in a well-advertised video, our non-biological Prime Minister ate Jhal Moodi (A local rice based snack) to show solidarity with the people of Bengal.
Where have we come to in our political campaigns, in trying to spread hate against vulnerable minorities? The West Bengal experience shows the depths to which sectarian politics can fall to win elections? Not only the Election Commission but the popular common sense has been corrupted to the core. As the minorities are writhing in pain and deprivation the leaders of communal politics are making merry with Jhal Moodi and Machh-Bhat, at the same time, propagating the absurd correlation between the violent tendencies and food habits. One recalls the person who imposed biggest genocide in human history, Adolf Hitler, had turned vegetarian in the latter part of his life.
In the din of massive manipulated victories these Hindutva politicians also forget that Swami Vivekanand in his lecture in US had stated, (At the Shakespeare Club, Pasadena, California, USA ,February 2, 1900) on the theme of ‘Buddhistic India’: “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, The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda, vol. 3 (Calcutta: Advaita Ashram, 1997), p. 536.]
To cap it all, the progenitor Hindu Nationalism, Vinayak Damodar Savarkar had declared that Cow is not a holy animal, it is a useful animal!
[The writer, Ram Puniyani, is former Professor of IIT Bombay.]
Follow ummid.com WhatsApp Channel for all the latest updates.
Select Language to Translate in Urdu, Hindi, Marathi or Arabic
