Saturday 26 December 2015

AN INSIGHT INTO THE BEEF BAN AND OUR LOVE FOR THE MOTHER OF ALL ANIMALS

In a small village in India, a little fox told its father of his desire to eat human flesh. Next day father fox managed to get some pig meat and offered to his son. But the little fox didn't have it. Then the father fox managed to get some cow meat and offered it. The little fox declined to eat that as well. The stubborn little fox was adamant that he will not settle for anything other than human meat.
That night the father fox left the pork in the front of a masjid and the beef in the front of a temple. By next day morning the entire village was filled with human dead bodies.
The little fox ate human meat for a week and was so happy his father managed to get so much human meat.
Story might be hypothetical, but the Fox is for real.
The cow has held a special place in the hearts of Hindus since time immemorial. Dairy products are extensively used in Hindu culture and are a major source of nutrition in Hindu meals. The reverence a cow is given in India in such that it’s status is equivalent to that of a mother’s and hence the term “gau mata”. Hence its not at all surprising that cows were used as a symbol of wealth in ancient times and a symbol of allegiance to the hindu faith in today’s times. Kill a man, you might walk out free some day; but if someone even has a whiff of you taking so much as a hair off a cow’s body, god save you my friend!
Intolerance in matters relating to cow safety isn’t something of a recent trend. Legend has it that the Chola king Manu Needhi killed his own son to avenge a little calf his chariot crushed. No wonder right wing Hindutva activists didn’t think twice before lynching an old man accused of keeping beef in his house. So is our love for the mother of all animals that many politicians have proposed giving it the coveted position of national animal of India! Ralph Fitch, an ancient British merchant who visited India during the sixteenth cetury wrote an account, “They have a very strange order among them - they worship a cow and esteem much of the cow's dung to paint the walls of their houses.”. throughout history we have proved our love for cows; even our revolution for freedom started with the rumor that rifle cartridges were lined with cow fat. We could easily take all atrocities against us, but no one could touch our cows. Even Mahatma Gandhi gathered momentum in his agitation against the British by promising to ban beef in India when India was free from British Raj. Politicians even now use the cow card to gather support, its obviously a tried and tested method.
All said and done, while we should indiscriminately protect all animals from slaughter, its us who need the most protection, because the fox in the beginning of the essay is very real, lurking in every corner of every neighbourhood, waiting for the opportune time to strike. That’s who we need to lynch, for while there is an ever increasing number of cow saviours, rational people who can save humanity is actually the need of the hour.

Aisha Jain

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