Ram Puniyani
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) coming to power in West Bengal, after the machinations of the Election Commission and overlooked by judiciary, has created a major scare among the Muslim minority of the state. The state government has started to erect detention centres in every district to house alleged infiltrators from Bangladesh, has asked for building a big memorial for Chatrapati Shivaji Maharaj among other things.
These are some things which has put the states’ Hindu population to great discomfort is related to the sustained campaign to lynch Muslims in the name of cow-beef. As the festival of Eid was nearing, the Hindus had come to sell their cows and bulls in the market. To their horror, there are no buyers for the cow progeny. Muslims have collectively decided not to sacrifice these animals for Eid. Starting from the chief of Jamaat-I-Islami Hind, Maulana Arshad Madani, to politicians like Asaduddin Owaisi, most leaders of the Muslim community are demanding that cow be declared a national animal, replacing the tiger.
In the markets, Muslims have been 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 Eid so that they can get a good price for the animal and can sustain their livelihood. They are feeling disappointed and dejected as their calculations and aspirations are going for a toss.
Muslim organisations have witnessed massive lynchings, more so during the past 12 years, in the name of cow-beef. Starting from the killing of Mohammad Akhlaq to Mohammad Junaid, there have been over 100 lynchings during the past few years. IndiaSpend data tells us that during 2014 to 2018, as many as 46 Muslims and Dalits were killed in cow-related violence.
One recalls that in Gujarat’s Una, four Dalits carrying dead cows for de-skinning were mercilessly flogged. After this young Dalit leader, Jignesh Mevani, campaigned for stopping cow-related trade and demanded that Dalits be allotted their land. The atmosphere created by cow vigilantes, well protected by those in power and theoretically supported by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (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 diamond. Incidentally, he is a trained doctor, a post-graduate in modern medicine. Another professor in Gujarat came out with enlightening research that “cow urine contains gold.” What a relief to hear this in times when gold prices are touching the roof!
Back to the Muslim community’s collective decision, the losers are poor Hindu farmers in the ongoing game of identity politics. Let’s see whether the Hindutva government takes the holy decision of declaring cow as the national animal.
In that case, another set of losers will prop up the many non-Muslim businessmen who run the beef exporting enterprises. India’s main exporters of beef 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. Then there is P.M.L Industries Pvt. Ltd., headquartered in Chandigarh and owned by the A.S. Bindra family, among others.
Apart from this, eating non-vegetarian food is also being looked down upon by the Hindutva forces. We know the wide prevalence of beef-eating in Goa, the 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). Fish is widely eaten in coastal areas, and chicken, mutton etc. in many more places. Many people think that Brahmins don’t eat non-vegetarian food. Among Kashmiri Pandits, 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 being spread deliberately, aimed at projecting Muslims as primarily meat eaters and being violent. In Bengal, when BJP was contesting Assembly elections this time, Trinamool Congress leader Mamata Banerjee did say that with BJP rule, ‘maachh bhaat’ (fish-rice), the favourite Bengali cuisine, will become difficult to get. In response Anurag Thakur, a Union Minister (of the ‘Goli Maro’ slogan fame) went on to circulate his video consuming ‘maachh-bhaat’ and saying that in BJP-ruled states there was no restriction in eating non-vegetarian food. Food identity as an election issue was highlighted when in a well-advertised video, our ‘non-biological’ Prime Minister ate jhaal moodi (a local rice-based snack) to show solidarity with the people of Bengal.
What 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, even 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 ‘jhaal moodi’ and ‘maachh-bhaat’, while at the same time propagating the absurd correlation between violent tendencies and food habits. One recalls that Adolf Hitler, the person who conducted the biggest genocide in human history, 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 the US, had stated, (at the Shakespeare Club, Pasadena, California, the US, February 2, 1900) on the theme of ‘Buddhistic India’, that: “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 author is a former Professor of Biomedical Engineering at IIT Bombay and writes on political and social issues. The views expressed are personal.
These are some things which has put the states’ Hindu population to great discomfort is related to the sustained campaign to lynch Muslims in the name of cow-beef. As the festival of Eid was nearing, the Hindus had come to sell their cows and bulls in the market. To their horror, there are no buyers for the cow progeny. Muslims have collectively decided not to sacrifice these animals for Eid. Starting from the chief of Jamaat-I-Islami Hind, Maulana Arshad Madani, to politicians like Asaduddin Owaisi, most leaders of the Muslim community are demanding that cow be declared a national animal, replacing the tiger.
In the markets, Muslims have been 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 Eid so that they can get a good price for the animal and can sustain their livelihood. They are feeling disappointed and dejected as their calculations and aspirations are going for a toss.
Muslim organisations have witnessed massive lynchings, more so during the past 12 years, in the name of cow-beef. Starting from the killing of Mohammad Akhlaq to Mohammad Junaid, there have been over 100 lynchings during the past few years. IndiaSpend data tells us that during 2014 to 2018, as many as 46 Muslims and Dalits were killed in cow-related violence.
One recalls that in Gujarat’s Una, four Dalits carrying dead cows for de-skinning were mercilessly flogged. After this young Dalit leader, Jignesh Mevani, campaigned for stopping cow-related trade and demanded that Dalits be allotted their land. The atmosphere created by cow vigilantes, well protected by those in power and theoretically supported by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (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 diamond. Incidentally, he is a trained doctor, a post-graduate in modern medicine. Another professor in Gujarat came out with enlightening research that “cow urine contains gold.” What a relief to hear this in times when gold prices are touching the roof!
Back to the Muslim community’s collective decision, the losers are poor Hindu farmers in the ongoing game of identity politics. Let’s see whether the Hindutva government takes the holy decision of declaring cow as the national animal.
In that case, another set of losers will prop up the many non-Muslim businessmen who run the beef exporting enterprises. India’s main exporters of beef 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. Then there is P.M.L Industries Pvt. Ltd., headquartered in Chandigarh and owned by the A.S. Bindra family, among others.
Apart from this, eating non-vegetarian food is also being looked down upon by the Hindutva forces. We know the wide prevalence of beef-eating in Goa, the 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). Fish is widely eaten in coastal areas, and chicken, mutton etc. in many more places. Many people think that Brahmins don’t eat non-vegetarian food. Among Kashmiri Pandits, 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 being spread deliberately, aimed at projecting Muslims as primarily meat eaters and being violent. In Bengal, when BJP was contesting Assembly elections this time, Trinamool Congress leader Mamata Banerjee did say that with BJP rule, ‘maachh bhaat’ (fish-rice), the favourite Bengali cuisine, will become difficult to get. In response Anurag Thakur, a Union Minister (of the ‘Goli Maro’ slogan fame) went on to circulate his video consuming ‘maachh-bhaat’ and saying that in BJP-ruled states there was no restriction in eating non-vegetarian food. Food identity as an election issue was highlighted when in a well-advertised video, our ‘non-biological’ Prime Minister ate jhaal moodi (a local rice-based snack) to show solidarity with the people of Bengal.
What 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, even 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 ‘jhaal moodi’ and ‘maachh-bhaat’, while at the same time propagating the absurd correlation between violent tendencies and food habits. One recalls that Adolf Hitler, the person who conducted the biggest genocide in human history, 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 the US, had stated, (at the Shakespeare Club, Pasadena, California, the US, February 2, 1900) on the theme of ‘Buddhistic India’, that: “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 author is a former Professor of Biomedical Engineering at IIT Bombay and writes on political and social issues. The views expressed are personal.
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