Cow Slaughter 2

Hey friends!  I am back as per my promise …with the next series of my article based on issue of ban on cow slaughter.

This part focuses basically on the British era and its aftermath on cow slaughter. We here witness the beginning of first slaughter house to the restriction of excess slaughter of cow. Let’s go through the entire part of the following topic to realize the actual base of the issue on cow slaughter, which has become a burning topic these days. And like it for further such in depth study of current trending issues.

British Raj

With the rise of British rule in India, a new situation was created .The Europeans, who were habituated of eating beef found difficulty in India to fetch it. As beef was a popular food for the Britishers including their other counterparts from various regions of Europe living in India. As an aftermath of their requirements and lack of supply of beef they decided to build a cow slaughterhouse.

This way rose :-

 The first slaughterhouse in India was built in Calcutta (now Kolkata) in 1760 by Robert Clive, then Governor of Bengal. 350 slaughter houses were constructed by 1910.

The reverence for the cow too played a major role in the Indian Rebellion of 1857 against the British East India Company. Hindu and Muslim sepoys in the army of the East India Company came to believe that their paper cartridges, which held a measured amount of gunpowder, were greased with cow and pig fat.

In 1870, the Namdhari Sikhs started the Kukua Revolution, revolting against the British, and seeking to protect the cows from slaughter.

 Swami Dayananda Saraswati called for the stoppage of cow slaughter by the British.

The 1870s, cow protection movements spread rapidly in Punjab, the North-West Frontier Province, Oudh (now Awadh) and Rohilkhand.

So from these historical risings its evident that cow slaughter has never been a part of Our Indian culture, it has been started, inculcated and popularized by the invaders  or specially the Europeans who came to India.

Some prominent leaders of the independence movement such as Mahatma Gandhi, Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Lala Lajpat Rai, Madan Mohan Malviya, Rajendra Prasad and Purushottam Das Tandon, assured them repeatedly that on achieving the goal of Swaraj, the first action of the Swadeshi Government would be to ban slaughter of cow and its progeny by law.

 Mahatma Gandhi stated in a speech given in Muzaffarpur in 1917;

 "The central fact of Hinduism is cow protection." He regarded her better than the earthly mother, and called her "the mother to millions of Indian mankind

However, Mahatma Gandhi opposed the ban as such. He remarked: "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.

...if anyone were to force me (religiously) I would not like it. How can I force anyone not to slaughter cows unless he is himself so disposed? 

In 1940, one of the Special Committees of the Indian National Congress opined that slaughter of cow and its progeny must be totally prohibited. However, another Committee of the Congress opposed cow slaughter prohibition stating that the skin and leather of cow and its progeny, which is fresh by slaughter, should be sold and exported to earn foreign exchange.

In 1944, the British placed restrictions on cattle slaughter in India, on the grounds that the shortage of cattle was causing anxiety to the Government.

The shortage itself was attributed to the increased demand for cattle for cultivation, transport, milk and other purposed. It was decided that, in respect of slaughter by the army authorities, working cattle, as well as, cattle fit for bearing offspring, should not be slaughtered.

We may deduce from these assertions and incidents, that cow slaughter has always been a bone of contention in our society. And why it shouldn’t be so? Ours is a culture woven around the closest & most positively impacted by cow and its various other species. We also worship cow and almost all its products whether its cow dung cow cake cow urine etc. On the very juxtaposition cow to be slaughtered just to satiate one’s taste buds, doesn’t it sounds idiotic?

So here ends the second part of the series based on ban on cow slaughter. I’ll be back with the concluding part of this article next day. Till then have a nice time and do take special care of yourself.

                                                    ---Aparna Jha

Jai hind.