There are plenty of hints that Karnataka is hurtling towards the hustings once again: a high-decibel Congress padayatra on the illegal mining issue followed by a high-profile Rahul Gandhi visit; an execrable series of “sadhana samaveshas” by a BJP government which spews “development” like a mantra; loud whispers of a JDS tieup with BJP once again, with the unthinkable actually becoming a reality in Chamarajanagar; the launch of new Kannada news channels belonging to the BJP and JDS and so on and so forth.
All those straws in the wind can get blown away, of course, but if there is one substantive issue that is setting the political theatre on edge, it is the proposed ban on cow slaughter by the B.S. Yediyurappa government. The “historic” Karnataka prevention of slaughter and preservation of cattle bill, 2010, was passed without debate in mid-July when the opposition was on a dharna. After that, it has been a circus of deft electoral posturing.
First the governor H.R. Bhardwaj held back the bill on the ground that some provisions had inter-State implications. (This prompted the BJP to demand his resignation.) The JDS chief H.D. Deve Gowda met the President Pratibha Patil in early August, urging her not to give her consent to an emotive issue which was part of the sangh parivar’s agenda. The BJP too met the President, and yesterday, the Congress followed suit.
The BJP, which otherwise has little use for Mahatma Gandhi‘s idea of India, conveniently falls back on the father of the nation (and its other pet hate B.R. Ambedkar) to explain its rationale. It says the ban is already in force in seven-eight (mostly BJP ruled) states like Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Chhatisgarh, and in such cradles of democracy as Iran and Cuba. It says the Supreme Court has upheld the ban. And, it says allowing the slaughter of a sacred animal goes against the beliefs of Hindus.
For their part, the Congress and JDS trot out a variety of dietary and economic reasons opposing the ban, chiefly the fact that it is a cheap meat for poor people, especially among Dalits, Muslims and Christians. The leader of the opposition Siddaramaiah has said the State has no business proscribing certain meats. Karnataka Congress chief R.V. Deshpande has talked of the damage to the leather industry. Former chief minister H.D. Kumaraswamy has spoken of a potential law and order situation if the ban were to enforced, and said the bill could be misused to harass minorities.
The BJP’s stand is posited on its farcical concern for “compassion”—cruelty to the cow—when most animals are malreated. Do all Hindus worship the cow (when India’s biggest beef exporter, Al Kabeer, is owned by a Hindu)? Do all Hindus support the ban? Do all Hindus spurn beef? Do all Hindus want to be stuck with animals, howsoever sacred, beyond their utility?
Professor D.N. Jha of Delhi University wrote in “The Myth of the Holy Cow, that in no major scripture…:
“…is killing a cow described as a major or grave sin, unlike drinking liquor or killing a Brahmin… It is only in the 19th century that the demand for banning cow-slaughter emerged as a tool of mass political mobilisation by right-wing Hindu communalists”.
Also, a ban tests the Constitution on two fronts: the freedom to live and act (and eat) as one wishes (provided that doesn’t infringe on other people’s rights), and the right to “carry on any occupation, trade or business”. Could a ban on cow slaughter spark competitive demands for a ban on slaughter of other animals which are part of the diet, like say pigs?
Questions: To overturn a political stereotype, does the BJP’s plan to ban cow slaughter, in the name of “beliefs and aspirations of Hindus”, amount to “majority appeasement” that plays with individual dietary taste and constitutional freedoms? Is the political temperature being artificially pumped up by all sides to encash their political votebanks when the time is ripe? Are elections nigh?
Tags: B.R. Ambedkar, B.S.Yeddyurappa, B.S.Yediyurappa, BJP, Churumuri, Congress, Constitution of India, Cow Slaughter, D.N. Jha, H D Deve Gowda, H D Kumaraswamy, Health, JDS, Mahatma Gandhi, R.V. Deshpande, Rahul Gandhi, Sans Serif, Siddaramaiah, Supreme Court
17 August 2010 at 2:30 pm
Its only a ban on cow slaughter not on beef right ? And its not as if its going to be enforced …
BTW why not replace cow with stray dogs, in the diet.. 2 problems solved at once :)
***
“that plays with individual dietary taste and constitutional freedoms?”
What about the rights of the cow?
17 August 2010 at 3:36 pm
cheddis should make a list of animals to be protected on “compassion” basis, and a list of animals/birds without hindu compassion.
Provisional Compassion list of animals on the basis of belief/sentiment:
COW,
Monkey,
rat,
pig,
snake,
cock?
17 August 2010 at 5:14 pm
Whats your call on Uniform Civil Code? Why the law, specially marriage, divorce, women equality doesnt apply to some community?
Why dont you start a similar discussion/voting on the same?
Why the people shout when it comes to following Hindu religion/culture?
If you dont have an issue with the above then I dont think you have any moral grounds to oppose the cow slaughter Bill.
17 August 2010 at 5:30 pm
Damn! These idiots will deprive me, a meat loving Brahmin, of my favorite non-veg dish – Sheekh Kabab at Fanoos…
17 August 2010 at 5:54 pm
What about the rights of the cow?
Ban milk dairies, if you care for bovine rights!
Poor animals, they mooed in the direction of SC, nothing happened.
17 August 2010 at 6:17 pm
“What about the rights of the cow?”
What about the rights of the millions of insects that are killed so that the rice reaches your table?
17 August 2010 at 6:32 pm
Khan,
You talk of the HINDUS .
May i know why the Muslims insist on HALAL and impose CONDITIONS on the common muslim to eat only HALAL meat.
And if Beef is banned what is your propblem ?? is it that the majority of the butchers are from your community. Surely many Hindus EAT PORK. The butchers can start rearing Pigs and also consume PORK. Why cant they eat ?? why is the Religion placing restrictions on the Muslims .
17 August 2010 at 6:56 pm
@NAWN,
milk is a harmless cow product, it doesnt kill the cow.
@Vinay,
The operative word here is “pest”
17 August 2010 at 7:09 pm
Article 48 of the Constitution of India
“48. The State shall endeavour to organise agriculture
and animal husbandry on modern and scientific lines
and shall, in particular, take steps for preserving and
improving the breeds, and prohibiting the slaughter, of
cows and calves and other milch and draught cattle”
Not enforceable in Courts, true, but not constitutionally taboo either.
17 August 2010 at 7:12 pm
As an Indian living outside the country, I was once asked if we (Indians) drank milk. The reasoning behind the question is this all pervasive knowledge that Indians “worship” the cow, although we only mostly revere it – worship maybe on a given day.
I replied that we not only drink milk, but also use it to produce other products which are consumed wholeheartedly (ghee etc are considered “gifts” from the cow). The questioner was surprised at this supposed hypocrisy as they assumed that once something was being worshiped, consuming some of its resources and banning others was illogical. He also asked if people used buffalo hide for leather goods. Well you know what the answer is.
So there you go. That is what we look like with all this ruckus. A bunch of hypocrites who decide what’s ok and what’s not and act all self righteous about it.
17 August 2010 at 7:52 pm
Churumuri’s question is silly, and the argument leading to the question is not only fragmented, it is rife with fallacies. More later, when I have more time.
The compassion argument is not farcical, but I think this post is.
*Khan Saab*
Your list is not provisional, it is simply incomplete. It should include buffalos, which are brutally hacked to death by ignorant villagers in the in arcane rural “festivals” in north Karnataka and in various parts of Uttarakhand, many times a year. But here’s what interests me: Hindus say they won’t eat beef because they love the cow; Muslims refuse to eat pork because they hate the pig! — what does the motivation suggest about the respective religious culture?
17 August 2010 at 8:23 pm
Swaroop, were you breast fed when you were little? Did you then decide it is hypocratical not to turn into a cannibal?
17 August 2010 at 8:57 pm
BJP is full of fascist mindset. They have no respect for the diverse culture of our country. Karnataka is facing so many problem electricity is one example but Cheddi Yeddi govt is after cow slaughter banning. Dalits and Muslims on their own interest and wish have slowly stopping eating beef. But BJP govt is so keen to ban it. I don’t know why. This is a onslaught on the freedom of the people and culture. India has many identities but for BJP its always unipolar. I hate BJP and their leaders. They don’t understand the constitutional rights of the people.
17 August 2010 at 9:29 pm
It is an unnecessary law to say the least; it is a nauseating step taken by a non-performing govt to say the most.
17 August 2010 at 9:30 pm
Karihaida (and also those talking about Hindus here):
Leave aside the Muslims for a moment, lots of lower castes eat beef, have been doing so for thousands of years now. It is a source of protein for many of them. So, who protects their rights? Are they not Hindus? Are they Indians or not?
Lots of hypocrites, especially in the BIMARU cow belt, talk about the virtues of ‘Go-Maata’, ‘Go-Mutra’ and so on, but eat chicken, mutton and a variety of other meat. They however, abstain from non-veg on certain days, to avoid ‘paap’. What hypocrisy! No humanitarian or benevolent considerations there, eh?
This imposition of dietary restrictions is bigotry at its worst. Karihaida: tomorrow, some of the elitist middle class of our country might claim that the cow is a pest since it blocks roads and causes traffic bottlenecks. Will you cull the ‘pest’ then?
17 August 2010 at 10:00 pm
“Could a ban on cow slaughter spark competitive demands for a ban on slaughter of other animals which are part of the diet, like say pigs?”
yaaru aa mahunubhava baredidauru? muslims will catch and give you pigs to slaughter for free. of course provided you give them rubber golves for free.
17 August 2010 at 10:20 pm
@Karihaida
Looks like the operative word is ‘exploitation’. Can the operative word be ‘life’ – pest or a cow or a lamb or a hen?
17 August 2010 at 10:26 pm
The mischief really is not in banning slaughter of cattle but in making the possession of beef an offence !! While those who want to venerate the cow are free to do so, why should I be prevented from buying beef from Hosur or Chittoor and bringing it home to Sarjapur ? That provision in the new Law is what actually gives away the government’s intention , which is not just protection of the cow but you know what…. To the best of my knowledge Gujarat has not made possession of beef an offence. I do not know about the other states.
17 August 2010 at 11:07 pm
No matter what claptrap is spewed by some about ‘compassion’, ‘humanity’ and so on, the fact is that there is one section of Hindus who venerate the cow and do not eat beef. That section, unfortunately, dominates the current regime, and they are trying their best to impose their beliefs on the rest of the populace.
Like it or not, there is a sizeable population that relishes beef – both Muslims and the Lower castes. Yeddi’s regime will henceforth be seen as anti-Muslim AND anti-Dalit, and there will be good reason this time.
18 August 2010 at 12:01 am
Though I occasionally enjoy eating red meat, I know it isn’t good for health. In fact, in general veggie diet is more heart friendly.
But, if this was the reason for this ban, then it should be applied uniformly to all meat.
Alok pointed to the a guiding principle where our founding fathers intended to ban cow slaughter. Guiding principles aren’t adhered in India, if we did – then we will have common civil code, and won’t have reservations even after 60years.
In any case, I find the demand by BJP for cow slaughter ban amusing. They easily disown the casteist tradition of India, but then enforce the upper caste beliefs on divinity of cows on the SC/STs, who do eat beef.
18 August 2010 at 12:08 am
the issue ideally should be if slaughter can be painless. yes, it can be painless. this govt should have focused on that instead of banning beef.
i dont care about muslims and their likes and dislikes because they frankly don’t care about hindu likes and dislikes. it is true that there are many hindus who eat beef and should be free to do so.
there are some real issues however, that has not been touched upon in all the heat and dust raised to evil-eye the BJP govt. those are issues of commercialisation of meat processing that has lead to human beings doing terrible things so that animals grow more meat and exports grow. we all saw what happened with the so called mad-cow disease. its actually the humans who went mad with greed.
the opposers of this bill shud have been intelligent enought to draw attention to such issues, but they got drawn into how hurt the minority feels.
18 August 2010 at 12:11 am
If a person venerates the cow, then all the more reason for him/her to eat its meat, because, by imbibing the flesh, he/she will incorporate all the attributes that make it holy.
P.S. All the people who support this bill should be asked to drink one glass of holy water, also referred to as “Goh Mutra”, per day.
18 August 2010 at 2:31 am
MP,
>>Your list is not provisional, it is simply incompletE
Yes, I meant, please do complete…
>>>Muslims refuse to eat pork because they hate the pig
You are way off the mark, why should muslims hate pig??, it is just that pig is considered and is unclean.
prasad,
>>May i know why the Muslims insist on HALAL and impose CONDITIONS on the common Muslim to eat only HALAL meat.
Muslims impose condition on common Muslims!!! is it a joke?? Do you even know what is halal???
You seems to be one raised on the diet of cheddi sayings. use google come out of ignorance.
18 August 2010 at 6:36 am
@ Prasad
Get facts clear. Muslims do not want to force fellow muslims (or people of other religion in muslim majority countries) to eat halal meat which is cut following the right procedure known as Dhabihah (yes, you should call it Dhabihah – if you call it halal just as the millions of muslims do in India, Khan will laugh and think he scored a point using this technicality). Its only that they have been ordered by Allah through Mohammed about certain set of rules which are good for WHOLE mankind and the friendly neighborhood muslim just ensures that you get the benefit.
The slaughter (Dhabihah) must be done by a muslim and the animal MUST be sacrificed in the name of Allah. Well….sometimes god does make some rules which have financial implications.
18 August 2010 at 7:02 am
Dr. Jha’s statement- that no scriptures bans the slaughter of cow- is not acceptable. I do not know if any “scripture” bans cow slaughter or not. But then, we have strong cultural and historical reasons for not killing a cow.
Just as an example, the great king Dileepa, an ancestor of Rama, was willing to sacrifice his own life to save Kamadhenu, the divine cow. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dileepa
This clearly shows the kind of reverence people of this land have historically had for the cow. There is another such example in Kumarasambhava and I am sure many more.
The example may be dismissed as a piece of literature and not of any historical significance. To which I would say, Kalidasa drew his ethos, inspiration and ideas from the society around him. The fact that Raghuvamsha has been enjoyed by by people over so many centuries amply demonstrates the fact that those ethos have been passed on through generations to this day.
Experts in Indian history may date back references to the Cow slaughter to an earlier date.
18 August 2010 at 7:19 am
Churmuri,
Can you please create a poll on “Does a oppose on cow slaughter ban amount to “minority appeasement?”
I guess we will get the answer on your previous poll.
Thanks,
18 August 2010 at 8:51 am
I am against any kind of ban (unless for health reasons).
Some want to ban cow, some pigs, some onion, garlic. It doesn’t end.
I feel Govt has better things make decisions than decide what its people must not eat.
______________________________________________________________
BTW, why this discrimination for cow? Why not goat or sheep? They are mammals and give milk too.
18 August 2010 at 9:24 am
>Is ban on cow slaughter, ‘majority appeasement’?
I find this amusing too! Assuming we define majority as 50%:
- Hindus are only 80% of India. Rest 20% are various minorities.
- SC/STs (dalits) constitute 16% and 7% Respectively – That’s another 23%. Being outcastes or ‘chandalas’ they have traditionally eaten any meat.
- Certain OBCs (lowcaste or shudras), follow a practice of bovine sacrifice (Bali). As they say in Kannada “Maari kannu Hori mele”
So, If you add other folks within Hinduism who don’t mind eating Beef, the people who don’t care about Cow sloughter can easily tip over 50%
So, how is this majority appeasement? In fact, I’d say this is Minority appeasement.. ;-)
***
Simran:
>the issue ideally should be if slaughter can be painless.
At last, I can agree with you on something. All slaughter should be painless. I find the Halal process indeed very cruel to animals
18 August 2010 at 3:59 pm
Shashidhar, reverence for the cow need not mean abstinence from beef. in fact, it can, more meaningfully mean consumption of beef.
i think the whole point is about commercialisation of meat processing that leads to human beings going haywire for profits.
we all know that farmers, even though none eat beef, feel forced to sell off their cows to anybody, usually a butcher, who buys them. this is because it becomes difficult to maintain the animal after it has lost its use. can you imagine the torture in the minds of these farmers? all alomg they have revered the cow as their own family and then they must sell her because she’s a burden. who can blame the farmer or the cow? but why this torture?
can the same farmer not think of reverence as dependence and interdependence and reverence arising out of that relationship?
to ensure farmers dont sell, the govt wants to levy to pay for upkeep of cattle. perhaps go-shalas. that will only add to the burden because no one knows what the return of gobar gas etc is. what the balance sheet will look like. these are all emotional decisions not supported by the intellect.
18 August 2010 at 6:03 pm
Shashidhar:
>Experts in Indian history may date back references to the Cow slaughter to an earlier date.Experts in Indian history may date back references to the Cow slaughter to an earlier date.
I can tell with great degree of certainty that cow slaughter (and meat in general) was prohibited by the Vedas by calling them “Aghnyaa” (non-killable). There are shlokas in Yajurveda that exhorts protection to all animals.
Anago hatya vai bheema kritye
Maa no gaamashvam purusham vadheeh
- Atharvaveda 10.1.29
“To kill innocents is a great sin. Do not kill our cows, horses and people.”
So, anyone who followed Vedic Faith, or Vediks (Brahmins), normally desisted from eating meat.
But at the same time, it is also a historical fact that Horses and cows were killed for human consumption in vedic times. This is what Hinduism is about – No definitive treatise that is followed by everyone. People followed different thoughts, faiths and lifestyle depending on their needs.
18 August 2010 at 7:42 pm
@harkol,
the hindu beef eaters you talk about are not beef-only meat eaters and I’m sure wont be mightily pissed off if beef is not available (unless prodded to do so otherwise)
The Yeddi gov’t should take a step forward and encourage the consumption of dog meat in place of beef.
18 August 2010 at 7:45 pm
@ignoramus,
whats the fun if there is no draconian stuff in any Indian law ? Yeddi might start a beef police unit :)
18 August 2010 at 9:07 pm
shashidhar,
ur references are pretty juvenile to say the least. the situation on the ground is very different.why banning cow slaughter all of a sudden is the question. BJP sucks bigtime. grow up beyond a brainless Inchworm if u can!
19 August 2010 at 2:16 am
Simran are you sure that cow dung can be used for gas. I saw one Dung plant and it was said that they never got enough dung to operate plant so finally they started using nearby weeds, bushes and eventually trees. What a foolish way to use trees for a gas.
IMHO, please use all cows for meet, my country children do not need milk at all. They must be put on power milk immediately and power milk must be prepared using urea. Indians do not need milk products. How foolish Indians are to use cow for milk instead of meat. People of Amul must be under utter ignorance for sure…
Khan please go to UP Bihar and slaughter all cows “once and for all”. Please do this immediately. We need to get rid of COW BELT status from indian states. Instead we need a new brand title “PORK BELT” for India.
Welcome to PIG CULTURE —> INDIA
19 August 2010 at 3:24 am
@ Simran
Intellects rarely vote!! so it does not matter what they think :)
19 August 2010 at 3:40 am
>Is ban on cow slaughter, ‘majority appeasement’?
What is the problem if it is ‘majority appeasement’ OR in our country is only ‘minority appeasement’ accepted!!
when there are so many other meat choices left why cant people leave the ‘holy’ cow alone!
19 August 2010 at 3:29 pm
BB:
>Intellects rarely vote!!
Does this mean you did??! ;-)
***
Karihaida:
>not beef-only meat eaters
You are right. But, I don’t know of any animal, including humans, that is ‘beef only’
20 August 2010 at 12:19 pm
instead of banning it we should be improving the quality of beef in karnataka,
20 August 2010 at 12:20 pm
Rules written in ancient books of all religions are the root of all the problems.
True visionaries would have seen ahead of their times – and realized that such rules would only create discord in the society.
20 August 2010 at 6:55 pm
Dear All,
The ban on cow slaughter is majority rules. There may be a significant minority in India who would got to pieces because of this ban. Sorry folks but this is India where we still do not have a common CPC.
21 August 2010 at 1:40 am
KH,
The kanthri BJP and its mining overlords might take your harebrained suggestion seriously and actually enforce it.
26 August 2010 at 2:47 am
Cow slaughter was an accepted practice during vedic times. Details of how a cow has to be slaughtered and offered as a sacrifice are mentioned in Grihya Sutras. A guest was called a Goghna because a cow was killed and offered to him as a matter of honour. It was only much later, may be due to the influence of Jainism and its tenet of Ahimsa that cow slaughter was abandoned. A majority of Hindus are non-vegetarians. I am not sure how many eat beef among them.
26 August 2010 at 9:58 am
Y care jus for the cow.. include the rat, the peacock, the tiger.. after all even they are vehicles of the almighty !!! Holy Cow!!
26 August 2010 at 9:00 pm
*V.R. Anil Kumar*
Without pursuing a doctorate at any department of Sanskrit, I can still say that you are NOT offering a complete picture. Your comment may reflect only one, and a tiny, part of the larger narrative on cow protection in Hindu primary texts.
Recently, I engaged a well-known Vedic scholar in an email discussion about the cultural origin of cow protection. He wrote (and I quote verbatim) that many “Hindu scriptures say that the cow was especially created by God to supply milk to humans. So it has a special place in creation. They further say that God invited the celestial devatas reside in it, eg: Ganga resides in the gomutra, and Lakshmi resides in the gobar.
“Again, since we take the milk of the cow, we respect it like the mother. To think of killing it once it stops giving milk, is an appalling thought to the Hindus. Would we think of cutting up our mother once she is no longer useful to us?”
As a scholar, you’d surely appreciate that D.N. Jha’s thesis in “Myth of the holy cow” is awfully flawed, in both method and conclusion. The book probably would not have made it in its current form in any respectable academic press in, for example, the United States.
Cow protection, distinct from a general compassion for all animals, is extolled especially the Yajurveda, but also in other primary texts. I am pasting below a list of citations that I found by randomly searching on Google. (I have not read any of them, but I’d be surprised if you were not familiar with at least some of them.)
# Do not kill cows and bulls who always deserve to be protected. (Yajurveda 13.49)
# In Rigveda cow slaughter has been declared a heinous crime equivalent to human murder and it has been said that those who commits this crime should be punished. (Rigveda 7.56.17)
# The Aghnya cows – which are not to be killed under any circumstances– may keep themselves healthy by use of pure water and green grass, so that we may be endowed with virtues, knowledge and wealth. (Rigveda 1.164.40 or Atharv 7.73.11 or Atharv 9.10.20)
# The Vedic Lexicon, Nighantu, gives amongst other synonyms of Gau [or cow] the words Aghnya. Ahi, and Aditi. Yaska the commentator on Nighantu, defines these as-
Aghnya the one that ought not to be killed
Ahi the one that must not be slaughtered.
Aditi the one that ought not to be cut into pieces.
These three names of cow signify that the animal ought not to be put to tortures. These words appear frequently throughout the Vedas in context of the cow.
# Cow – The aghnya – brings us health and prosperity. (Rigveda 1.164.27)
# There should be excellent facility for pure water for Aghnya Cow. (Rigveda 5.83.8)
# Those who feed on human, horse or animal flesh and those who destroy milk-giving Aghnya cows should be severely punished. (Rigveda 10.87.16)
# The Aghnya cows and bulls bring you prosperity. (Yajurveda 12.73)
# Do not kill the cow. Cow is innocent and aditi – that ought not to be cut into pieces. (Rigveda 8.101.15)
# Destroy those who kill cows. (Yajurveda 30.18)
# If someone destroys our cows, horses or people, kill him with a bullet of lead.(Atharvaveda 1.16.4)
# The entire 28th Sukta or Hymn of 6th Mandal of Rigveda sings the glory of cow.
20 October 2010 at 2:26 am
I don’t know much about India, so perhaps someone could enlighten me:
When Indian Muslims slaughter cows, is it done publicly in a way that inflames Hindu religious sensibilities? Was it ever done in such a way?
Or is it done out-of-sight as a common courtesy towards the Hindu majority?
20 October 2010 at 8:05 pm
Whatever your stand or opinion, there is a need to get your facts right – MP and Gujarat banned cow-slaughter when Congress party was in power. Same applies to ban on conversions in Arunachal and MP
21 October 2010 at 10:44 am
Canadian,
We can not generalize. In southern states this is often done away from public gaze. But in northern states it is done out on a street as shown in the video here.
However northern Muslims may be doing it out of ignorance of civility(Most Indians do not show courtesy to each other, forget other religion) rather than to show their hubris.
video below is not safe for work and is only for mature audience. The language spoken in the video is Hindi with an UP accent ( UP is Uttar Pradesh, a northern state that probably has largest percentage of Muslim population in India. ( To give you an Idea.. probably that state alone has perhaps more population than entire Canada)
21 October 2010 at 10:17 pm
Canadian – the way meat is eaten in India is quite different. They kill, slit throats and put for public display. It dos not come in frozen packs like you do. Some people may feel its vulgar display of barbarity. I certainly think so. Does it really make a difference if you slit an animal, hang it and eat vs eating it from sophisticated bloodless frozen packs? Theoretically no, practically yes.
Coming to Hindu sensibilities, there is no one Hindu sensibilities as Brahmins feel offended even with chicken slaughter and Aiyers with its unborn kids slaughter.
Probably its time we give a little thought about the sensibilities of the animals being slaughtered rather than feeling all self important and think only from our perspective.
22 October 2010 at 10:41 am
Anuradha,
You are right. I also doubt that “cow slaughter is banned in Iran” assertion made by some of those in the above article. I did not find anything on Internet that implied that cow slaughter is banned in Iran.
I am neither for nor against cow slaughter. But looking at that vulgar video above I felt those seeking ban on slaughter are justified.
26 October 2010 at 12:51 am
Narayana & Abhi,
Thanks for both of your replies.
As a beef-eater myself, I guess I’m less concerned about the animal itself, than I am about whether its open slaughter could precipitate violence & even murder of human beings in the name of religion.
18 December 2010 at 12:22 am
I live in Kolkata, and I find it despicable when during Eid the Muslims parade and massacre cows in public. Why cant they be understanding of the religious feelings of Hindu’s. Why the need for this open show of force, that is what it turns to during Eid. I understand that cow slaughter might be important for industry and diets but that can be done abbatoirs or butcheries. But for sure there should be a ban on the open massacre of cows during Eid as it hurts the sentiments of a lot of Hindu’s…
7 September 2011 at 2:49 am
@ Sunil
That is because present day Bengali Hindus are a bunch of impotent pacifists unlike Subhash Chandra Boses of yesteryears. An element of force is needed to prevent outrages like these – these people should learn something from their North Indian cousins.
Besides, anyone especially Hindus eating beef in India are bound to get sick. I don’t have a problem if you eat beef outside India but the climate here is simply unsuitable for this meat. Most beef animals here are not the farm-raised healthy cattle you find in developed countries like Argentina and Australia but sick, old bony cattle.
I’m not defending beef-eating. Being a Hindu, I find it gross and repulsive but even if I did, I wouldn’t be doing so in India for health and hygiene reasons alone. Have you seen the condition of most of these abattoirs? Tonnes of garbage, animal and human faeces, urine and dirty chemicals surround the place where your “meat” is being manufactured. What civilized person would want to touch food from such places when fresh, clean vegetables, cereals and fruits are available everywhere: procured from hygienic farms.
If you’re a non-vegetarian in India, better stick to chicken (preferably non-Halal) and fish only. Any other meat will bring immeasurable amount of sickness to your stomach. For the sake of your mind purity and spiritual growth, avoid these sick meats in India.
12 October 2012 at 3:05 pm
personally I believe no animal should be killed for the sake of human taste buds. But Cow slaughter should be banned because of all animals it is the most useful animal and sacred to Hindus. Where is the question of appeasement. Due to appeasement of different religions only we have completely screwed up our country.